Kendal Hampton is the administrative assistant at Fort Wayne Citilink, the public transportation operator for the Fort Wayne and Allen County metro area in Indiana. One of the many tasks that falls on Hampton’s shoulders is posting public notices in Fort Wayne’s local newspaper — the Journal Gazette — for all of Citilink’s board and committee meetings.

“It’s required by our bi-laws to post notices about these meetings so that the public can attend if they want to,” Hampton explained. “If anyone has a concern, they can show up at our meetings and talk to us. This is something we have to do to stay compliant with the law and keep everyone informed.”

About a year ago, Hampton received an email from the Journal Gazette informing her that they’d decided to start using Column for managing the public notice process. This meant that Hampton had to set up her own Column account.

“At first I was like, okay, is this actually going to be easier for me to do?” Hampton recalled. “I was probably thinking, great, another thing I have to learn, but as soon as I went into Column and checked it out, it was a heck of a lot easier.”

Curious about the change, Hampton spent about half an hour learning all the ins and outs of the newspaper’s new software, “just going through and exploring everything it had to offer.” But the actual process of posting a notice took her only five minutes to learn. “The system walked me through every step,” she said. “It was so easy a baby could learn how to do it.”

Hampton was adamant about that. “It’s one of the fastest, easiest ways to communicate. Column gives you everything you need — a copy of the notice, a preview, the estimated cost. You just copy and paste from your word processor straight into the software. You can also upload the notice, or type it in. It’s that easy.” Hampton said she now spends “roughly five minutes posting a notice.” Five to ten minutes after that, the newspaper sends her the invoice through Column.

Hampton also likes that the newspaper is now letting her take care of things in advance. “I can send notices for weeks or months ahead of time, and just pay for them when the times comes that month.” The email and in-app notifications also tell her exactly when the notices will go out and reassure her that they go out on time. “I get to upload what I need to upload to the newspaper,” she reiterated. “I get to set specific dates so I know exactly when the notice will get out. And I know it’s getting posted because the newspaper notifies me directly through Column and says, hey it’s been posted!”

Hampton’s busy. Her day-to-day at Citilink is never not hectic, as she juggles scheduling meetings, answering phones, and helping out the full management team. It’s a lot of information to keep inside her head. “I do all the board minutes. I get everything together for all of the meetings, all the events, any trips that the managers need to go on. I’m basically like the Citilink secretary.”

By using Column, the newspaper has helped Hampton clear something out of her head and off her to-do list. “Once I’ve posted my notices on Column, I’m able to just let it go,” she said. “Once it’s in the system, I can forget it. I don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s just done.”