First Church Communications Team

Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Members Present: Bill Bartscher, Bennett Griffin (Chair), Jerry Jalenak, Harold Jones, Margaret Jones, Patti Winn. We were joined by Tom Brady

Initial Discussion: Hereford House is closed. West Campus probably won’t be ready for use until August 6. Try to get story of Tom Brady (6^th generation preacher) and some mention of the opening of West Campus in the newspaper either 8/12 or 8/19, just prior to Celebration Sunday. Try to get story of West Campus Consecration and week of events in paper 9/2 or 9/9 (preferably 9/9). Also would be a good idea to sponsor a paid add on 9/6. Patti asked about the possibility of having an evening worship service in place for the opening. However, this doesn’t appear to be feasible yet. Discussions are ongoing about making this a reality in the future.

Strategic Plan: Tom has reviewed the final form and discussed with Bennett. He would like to get this plan in front of as many people in the church as possible. It needs to be a living document if the work of our committee is not to be in vain. Tom suggested that we implement the survey verbally by directly interviewing a significant cross section of the congregation. We discussed the following plan. Each member try to get at least 10 church members interviewed by August 8. Bennet will get the interview questions printed up for us. The goal is to get at least 100 responses that fairly represent the active congregation. Tom suggested that we take time at our next meeting to practice with each other. We will also try to include a few non-attendees in the survey.

Candice Ranney: Her role is pivotal as we begin to discuss tactical marketing plans. Bennett will ask her to join our group meetings beginning with next week.

Branding: In a perfect world we would take an extended time to discuss “who we are” as the basis for our marketing efforts. Bennett would like to devote our next meeting to this topic. One suggestion is that we go with the national Methodist byline of “Open minds, open hearts, open doors”. Another was to enhance our “One Church, two campuses” to “One Church, two campuses, one family” We will plan to devote next Tuesday to further discussion of this issue. It was also suggested that someone contact Goshen, Indiana and ask how they went about advertising their “opening”. In closing Tom voiced his conviction that this committee needs to be ongoing. There are several big events planned this year (including a big Christmas celebration at West Campus) and we need to give careful consideration to what an advertising budget for next year should look like.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 7:30 PM.