Monday, November 14, 2011

Communications Survey Feedback

One of the goals in Lake Michigan Presbytery’s Ministry Plan is “Enhanced two-way processes between the Presbytery, its churches, and other denominations.” That means better communication! The Leadership Team formed a Communications Task Force, which conducted a communications survey earlier this year. 243 persons completed the online survey. Here's the link to the online survey results - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxhT4291Fvc3ODRjOWM4ZDItM2U4NC00ZDJmLWI0NzItOGE2NzZkOWVmN2U2

The survey confirms a couple of things. We are doing a lot better at communicating. A few years ago our main contact was with pastors and clerks of session and a quarterly bulletin insert. Today we have 766 subscribers receiving a bi-weekly e-bulletin, which goes directly to subscriber’s email address. 41% of our last issue was opened. The good news is this direct communication with so many church members and elders. Wouldn’t it be great if every elder was subscribed to our e-bulletin to support their responsibility in G-3.0202 of paying attention to larger church? The e-bulletin is a cost effective way of supporting elders in this. To sign up for the e-bulletin, visit the website (see below) and click on Subscribe on the main menu.

Another lesson confirms our demographic, 85.6% of responders were over 51. The good news is that we had 35 responders under the age of 50 and one under 22! We Presbyterians, given our age demographic are not on the cutting edge of technology use. Yet we do adapt, even many of our most senior members. While our e-bulletin is the most used form of communications sent to people, 56.2% had received a bi-weekly issue, our presbytery website http://www.lakemichiganpresbytery.org/ has become the hub for our presbytery life. This is where one may register for presbytery sponsored events, apply for scholarships and grants, and access forms and processes of many kinds. 77.7% of responders had visited our web site.

For some years, we have been producing Congregational Connections, a quarterly bulletin insert. 45.1% of responders never paid attention to them. 55% do at least sometimes. This is now sent electronically to church offices quarterly. How are they distributed in your congregation? In the bulletin, placed in a kiosk, shared in the newsletter? Last year we enhanced the Congregational Connection by publishing a poster to accompany the bulletin insert. We provide two for each congregation. They are distributed at Presbytery meetings. 40% of responders report noticing them. Where are these posters being displayed at your congregation? For more, you are able to download the poster from the website at http://www.lakemichiganpresbytery.org/index.php/cbmembers/filing-cabinet/cat_view/45-archives/31-congreational-connection/66-shepherding . It can be printed at Staples for less than $3 per poster.

The least used form of communication available to us, are online discussions. This is a new opportunity, which only a few of us have tried. Our communications consultant, Jane McCookey set up an infrastructure at our website for us to use. She lead a book discussion on it. But it was confusing to use. Few availed themselves of it, and it exposed us to others beyond the community. So we abandoned that approach. Future online discussions will be done via responses to my blogs or the moderator's blogs, and facebook discussions. This is a cost effective way of connecting with others in the Presbytery around common interests: a book study, a common interest such as health ministries, or concern such as a theological discussion on a topic. You may respond to this report by commenting below on this blog.

Some individual comments included:

“How depressing to find I am now in the ‘next to oldest’ category. Thanks, Survey Monkey!”

“Excellent job and dramatic improvement...keep up the good work.”

“I guess I was not aware that it was meant for me, a lowly church member.”

“I would like to have an easier way to simply ‘ask a question’ and know where to direct this question.”

“The information most valuable is that which connects me to other ministers and service opportunities in the church.”

“Visuals need to be livelier (photos, improved graphics).”

“I didn’t know the Presbytery was on Facebook! I shall check it out. The more that can be done through integrated electronic communications, the better my connection and my Church’s connection will be.”

We are always looking for ways to improve our communications. Please share comments on this blog to give further feed back. Thank you!

Yours in Christ,

John

6 comments:

Amazon4God said...

Another point that we discussed in this communication task force was the opportunity to offer continuing classes at presbytery meetings around technology. What is your interest in doing that?

msmcgoo said...

I think more education is great, especially since we are in/entering an era where cyber space is the venue for learning. If folks don't get comfortable with technology they will be left behind. Unlike the Industrial Revolution which took years for ideas to become common place; the Electronic Revolution moves at exponential speed and the church must equip itself to reach the current generation not to mention future generations.

It is disappointing that folks are not taking advantage of this blog to interact on a topic I think is very important to the Presbytery - communications...

Leslie said...

Maybe people are comfortable getting info online and in email, but not as comfortable writing? I'd have to look at the survey results again, but if I remember correctly, people seemed to respond to things that came to them more than things they had to go look for? Maybe not, but evidently not many are passionate enough about presbytery communication to take time to write about it. That in itself might be a finding?

LKeusch said...

The presbytery office is constantly trying to communicate with Clerks of Session, Treasurers, and Support Staff. We have had several churches state that they prefer online communication. I do wonder how we can make it better.

LeClerc said...

Maybe we a flag in the e-news each time as a reminder to visit the blog. Then we all need to encourage blogging.

Amazon4God said...

I agree with Leslie. I think that the culture of most of our folks is that they receive something (a letter in the us mail for instance)that either requires a response or not. The idea of having a conversation or discussion in writing online is not something that they are in the habit of doing.