Tapestry is moving into the Social Media age! We have migrated our website and have most of our accounts all transferred from individuals to the Tapestry name. We have established our presence on Twitter, Facebook and our own website. We are using Constant Contact for our newsletter and announcements which will minimize printing costs and volunteer time. We have re-established our e-mail lists and have a content management system (WordPress) that allows committee chairs and others to maintain their own content on the website.
Let’s start with the basics. This post is to outline how we might communicate with each other and who we contact for various aspects of the new communications network at Tapestry.
Communications Committee
The Communications Committee is responsible for the technical and production aspects of the “communications network.” As before, if you have announcements or other content for the newsletter or questions about using the WordPress site, you can send an e-mail to communications@tapestryuu.org or to publicity@tapestryuu.org. Those addresses are forwarded to the Communications committee which at the time of this writing comprises the Tapestry Administrator, VP-Operations, Melanie McCullough, Todd Park, Jim Semelroth, David Salahi and Dave Kinnear. In general, the duties are assigned as follows: Melanie manages the social media presence (Twitter, Facebook), Jim Semelroth publishes the CommUUnique newsletter, Jim Semelroth and Julianne (Admin) manage the Announcements and the “two Daves” are wrestling the website and e-mail lists to the ground.
How do we use all these new communication tools? Well, as many people as there are, there are that many opinions on how to utilize these tools – and maybe more opinions than there are people! Here are some ideas:
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+)
The Social Media tools are used as Branding for Tapestry. The Twitter Feed and Facebook Pages get out the messages for events, values, principles, etc. to the folks who follow us. When you send your e-mail to the Communications Committee, the cognizant person will pick up your message and handle it as needed. For example, Melanie will post the appropriate message on the Social Media platforms or Jim might add your “piece” to the newsletter. The Social Media channel is for public consumption and only short messages are used on Twitter while other announcements are posted on the Facebook fan page.
Next is the website. As mentioned, the website is built on the WordPress platform and we are hosting it and our e-mail with a company called DreamHost. WordPress is a “content management” style of software that allows us to use “Themes” to build an easy to maintain website. We can all take part in using the website and adding content without needing to be a programmer to do so. In general, Committee Chairpersons can maintain the information for their own committees without having to wait for a Webmaster to put their information into a proper format and then post it on the website. Instead, s/he can log on and either edit or create new documents for their message. We can read about events, download podcasts to listen to sermons we missed or want to hear again and leave comments on posts such as this one.
While the website is for public consumption, it is also for our own consumption. Here is where we can publish our events, update our committee information, advertise any staff position openings and comment on posts made by others. It is our hope that we will begin using the website more and minimizing the use of e-mail lists. E-mails are “push information,” a website is “pull information.” What I mean by that is that when you send an e-mail, it is pushed into my e-mail in-box. I didn’t necessarily “solicit” the information you’re sending, it just showed up when you decided to send it. Many advertisers do this and we consider that “SPAM,” meaning unwanted advertisement. Remember how you “hated” those pesky business people who sent unsolicited faxes to your fax machine using your toner and paper for their advertisement? Recently, we’ve had some complaints about too much mail on the “all” list and so people have dropped of the list to better manage their in-box. They are no longer getting “your” messages. So it is in our best interest to NOT use the mailing lists so much and to put our information on the website where members and friends can “pull it” onto their screens when they want to. So that brings us to the newsletter.
The CommUUnique is now being published electronically, through a program called Constant Contact, which is also being used to “publish” the Announcements each week. The nice thing about Constant Contact is that it is a “double opt in” system and so meets all the The CAN-SPAM Act requirements so that Tapestry doesn’t end up on a public “black list” which means our e-mails won’t get through to our membership (another reason to be very careful how we use the “all” e-mail list). You can sign-up for the newsletter and announcements on the form in the right-hand side bar of this page.
Tapestry is coming late to the electronic publishing game. Other organizations have been using these tools for years. But we’re here now and you can help us save our interconnected web of existence by signing up for digital books, newsletters, podcasts and videos instead of paper and film. It’s a UU thing to do!
Finally, the e-mail lists. An apology first. There was no easy way to make sure that those who were on the “old” list would be on the new list. Everything had to be done manually rather than programmatically. So we had to guess. Therefore, there are some folks who are on the new list who likely didn’t want to be, there are some not on the list who wanted to be. Here are some hints:
- If you’re getting e-mail addressed to all@tapestryuu.org (called a discussion list), then you’re on the list.
- If you aren’t getting e-mails and you know some were sent, or if you send an e-mail to the list and you get a bounce notice, then you aren’t on the list.
If you’re on the list and you don’t want to be, simply send an e-mail from the account you want to unsubscribe to all-unsubscribe@tapestryuu.org and you will receive confirmation that you have been removed.
If you aren’t on the list and want to be, you can simply send an e-mail from the account you want to register to all-subscribe@tapestryuu.org. You will receive an e-mail asking if you “really” want to be on the list and by simply replying to that e-mail will confirm that you want to be on the list (double opt in).
Some of us have multiple addresses (I have at least 5 times more e-mail addresses than I have kids). We don’t want to receive multiple copies of the e-mails to the list so we usually only “register” or subscribe to one of the addresses. Then we forget which account we registered (it’s painful to “get old!”) and send from a different account. That message will bounce as a “non-member sending to a member only list.” When a message bounces, a notice is sent to the mail administrator and s/he has to go to the control panel for our site, make sure it’s a legitimate message, approve it and it will then be sent to everyone (as a “bounce” at Tapestry). That may take some time as many of us still have “a day job.” You can avoid this delay by making sure you’re on the list.
So there we go; Social Media, Website, Constant Contact and e-mail lists. How else do we communicate at Tapestry? Well, some of us still might use that oldfangled thing known as a phone to make a connection called a voice call. How rude is that? The phone has no idea what someone on the other end is doing. It just interrupts whenever it wants to. Some may be using a newfangled thing called a video call on their computer, tablet or smart phone. This is not quite so rude since the person at the computer on the other end can “status themselves” as busy so calls don’t come through.
But the absolute best way to communicate at Tapestry is to meet in person at a service, event or committee meeting. See you there!