First Church Communications Team
Tuesday,
Dec 5, 2006
Members Present: Bill
Bartscher, Bennett Griffin (Chair), Harold Jones, Margaret Jones, Jerry
Niebaum, Michelle Parmley, Candice Ranney.
2007 Communications
Team: We began the meeting by
discussing who will be on the committee next year. So far, Michelle Parmley and
Candice Ranney are the only confirmed members of the team. We are looking for a
leader, and Bennett has suggested that Curtis Marsh would be a good choice. Any
suggestions for team members should be submitted to Bennett or Tom Brady.
Advent Advertising: We had a
½ page ad run in the Holiday Gift Guide, which came out in the Journal World
the weekend after Thanksgiving. Although the Journal World did not run the ad
we would have liked and did not provide enough time for proofing, they have
tried to make amends by giving us an additional day of advertising in the next
round of ads that start Dec 6 and run through Sunday the 10th.
Another set of ads begins Dec 21 and runs through Sunday the 24th.
All 9 ads are 8 col inches and cost $988 total.
Systems and Processes: To aid
in the transition to the next team, we began discussing some systems and
processes that would help in several areas: 1) “How to Guide” on running ads in
the newspaper—we need to organize the info we have on running an ad in the
newspaper; 2) A “How to” on marketing an event—this guide would include what
can the church staff do and what is really not their job; 3) A system for
electronic recording of meetings of all the various committees in the
church—our current team has a website, which worked quite well, and we would
like to see this implemented for all committees. One big question that we
should work toward to get answered next year is “What does the church rely on
as the main communication mechanism?”
BLOGS: It was recommended by
Jerry that we make use of blogs for committee minutes. Google provides free
space for blogs and the address http://fumclawrence.blogspot.com was
registered last spring for just such an activity. It was decided that the 2007
Communications Team would test out the use of a managed blog for recording
meeting minutes and communicating the activities of the team. Jerry has offered
to educate the members of next year’s team on how blogs work and how to get one
started.
Next Meeting: The final meeting of the year and for this version
of the communications team will be Tuesday, Dec 12th, 7:30pm.