A new e-newsletter is bridging a gap in The Best Times, and you are invited to sign up!

The Best Times Bonus e-newsletter provides extra content, tips, updates and events for Johnson County residents 60+ during the months when The Best Times magazine does not land in your mailboxes or email inboxes. Those months are January, March, May, July, September and November.

Signing up for the Bonus e-newsletter is easy at jocogov.org/newsletters-and-alerts. It only requires completing a form asking your name and email. The bimonthly Bonus will be delivered straight to inboxes of signees.

If you choose to receive the bimonthly magazine in digital form, and then you add the bimonthly e-newsletter, you will receive electronic information from The Best Times every month. To switch to the digital version of The Best Times and opt out of the mailing list for receiving the printed magazine, visit jocogov.org/TheBestTimes.

Bob Dylan said it best: “The Times They Are A-Changin’” in the ways information is distributed, posted, shared and received nowadays.

Other Johnson County departments also produce regular electronic newsletters that highlight programs, services, upcoming events and other info for our residents to stay connected and get involved. E-newsletters include:

• JoCo Community Health with news and information about the different ways county departments, agencies and offices help keep our community healthy.
• JoCo Monthly to residents who are interested in our major projects, strategic priorities, news and events.
• JoCo Mental Health with news, events, services and legislative updates about Johnson County Mental Health Center.

Residents also can sign up to receive weekly updates from the Board of County Commissioners and the county’s monthly e-newsletter from the chairman and individual or all commissioners.

The link can provide access to NotifyJoCo, a free mass-notification system designed to keep Johnson County residents and businesses informed of emergencies and certain non-emergency events. It can also connect interested residents to county tax foreclosure auctions and new county audit reports.

Visit jocogov.org/newsletters-and-alerts to access sign-up forms to receive any or all of the county informational newsletters.

The increasing popularity of the digital Best Times and the debut of an e-newsletter do not signal the printed magazine is on its way to becoming obsolete. It’s not disappearing, even with the ongoing challenges of rising printing and postal costs with an increasing readership. However, signing up for digital Best Times does help in reducing costs.

It has always been a challenge to try and fit all the available content into a magazine with a limited number of pages per issue.

The Best Times Bonus e-newsletter helps to fill that void.

New methods in public communications and community outreach allow transformative steps in contemporary ways to inform our 60-plus readers by both traditional print and a menu of options in the ever-changing digital and electronic age.

Whatever the format – print, digital, online, email, website – the purpose of The Best Times remains unchanged: to inform, educate and support aging adults in Johnson County. That has been the mission of The Best Times for 43 years.

Please, consider signing up to receive The Best Times Bonus e-newsletter, the digital Best Times magazine, or both. If not, please continue to enjoy the magazine.

Bob Dylan was right: “The (Best) Times They Are A-Changin’.”