The Communications Committee has been meeting for over a year. During that time, we have taken on several big projects:
- A website that has become the coordinating point for all of our communications. Anything that goes into the e-nouncements, Newsletter, press releases, goes first through the website, both in its editing stage and its final published version. – mcjconline.org
- With thanks to Rabbi Tom, we have introduced several video series into our website: Torah study, Shabbat Shalom at Rabbi Tom’s Table, and Holidays. We hope to add video streaming soon. As we look at ways to promote these video series and expand on them, they will become important tools for inreach — and outreach.
- We have a great team of editors with very sharp eyes who reduce errors and conflicting information and ensure a uniformly professional style in all our publications. – Ellen Levy and Elaine Steinberg
- We have a Facebook account and Twitter account that coordinate to the website, helping us reach a wider audience.
- We have gotten onto a new email server, and now have a 99+% delivery rate.
- David Drizner, who has managed MCJC’s Newsletter mailing list for years, as well as Newsletter printing and mailing, is part of the Communications Committee. David has expertise in “process,” and helps us look at ways to create sustainable processes that will serve the congregation well, as our membership and work force change over time.
- We examined the purpose of each publication and set up the Newsletter as a benefit of membership and tool to encourage new memberships. We set a policy for sending out the Newsletter which will save approximately $500/year in costs, even as we move to first class postage.
- We sent a 1st class mailing to 186 non-member households last week, asking if they would like to continue receiving the Newsletter, and asking for them to confirm a “yes” with a $10 annual subscription.
- We gathered information from the four corners of the MCJC world and beyond to set up a database, still a work in progress, although we are able to produce some first results. The power of this tool will become more evident as we add more types of data.
- Every current member should soon receive a letter showing information we have in the database for you and members of your family. We hope you will take a moment to update or add to your information. This is a one-time, first class mailing.
Next year we want to continue developing and improving mechanisms to help us all communicate better with each other and with our wider public — and to keep MCJC growing.
One specific project we look forward to taking on is a one-year congregational calendar, coordinated, edited, and launched on the website to serve us all as a tool for planning.
We also hope to work more closely with our other MCJC Committees to see how the processes we are putting in place can help their work. We encourage the Board and Committee Chairs to reach out to any member of the Committee to see how Communications can enhance what you are doing, whether it’s a post on the website or an article for the newsletter or e-nouncements, a press release, a registration process, a mailing list, or a report from the database. We urge you to join Membership Committee Chair, Linda Blatchford, as she has seen how this partnership can strengthen MCJC’s mission and vision.
Please check the MCJC website at mcjconline.org for information about how you can easily stay up-to-date with your MCJC family.
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In addition to checking out your beautiful bi-monthly MCJC Newsletter, here are other ways to stay up-to-date with your MCJC family:
- Newsletters are available on our website in .pdf format for you to print at home – https://mcjconline.org/newsletter-pdfs/
- You can “follow” or subscribe to our website, and each post will land in your mailbox as it’s posted.
- You can sign onto our email list and receive our weekly e-nouncements via the sign-up form in the right column of every page of our website.
- You can visit us on Facebook (McHenry County Jewish Congregation) or on Twitter (McHenry Judaism).
- You can visit our website at mcjconline.org and browse through our posts, pictures, Torah and music videos, and news.
- You can learn to use forms on the website. Submitting a question or contact through the “Contact Us” form gets your note directly to the person who can best respond to it.
- Registering for a class or event ensures you will get a call if there is a change. Payments are quick and easy with our payment buttons.
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Finally, and best of all, we have good meetings. We have fun — even while we are a hard-working committee putting in place lots of things we hope will serve MCJC well now and in the future. If you’d like to join us, please watch for meeting dates in the e-nouncements and plan to come on in.
