Guidelines for Publicizing Information

At Saltwater Church

(Approved by the Board of Directors on December 17, 2006)

At Saltwater Church, we publicize information in many different ways, both about events within our community and events in the wider community that may be of interest to our members.

Here are the ways that we publicize information at Saltwater Church:

·         Announcements at the church:

o        Spoken announcements are made during the Sunday service.

o        On-screen announcements appear during the Sunday service.

o        Printed announcements appear in the Sunday order of service.

o        Two bulletin boards and a pamphlet rack in the Welcoming Room are available for printed announcements.

·         Printed material mailed to church members, friends, and visitors:

o        The Saltwater Scroll is mailed to members, friends, and visitors monthly.

o        Special mailings are occasionally sent to members, friends, and visitors by the church office.

o        The church sends news releases about events to the local community.

·         E-mail and web site announcements:

o        The church sends out “Weekly Announcements” e-mail, usually on Friday afternoons. This e-mail message goes to church members, friends, and visitors.

o        The front page of the church’s web site has a space on the home page for announcements, a weekly calendar, and a “members section” for more detailed announcements.

o        Anyone who is a member of the church email list can use it to make an announcement at any time, although the message will only reach people that are subscribed to the list, which is only a subset of the church membership.

·         The church has an automated telephone tree that can be used in case of emergencies or very urgent matters (church closing.)

Here are some guidelines for using each of these different ways of publicizing information:

1. The quickest way to publicize information to a relatively-wide audience is with the Sunday service printed announcements, the Sunday service on-screen announcements, or the “Weekly Announcements” e-mail.

a.       To publicize information in any of these ways, put a written announcement in the Church Administrator’s church mailbox, e-mail her, or call her by 10 a.m. on Thursday (10 a.m. on Wednesday, Memorial Day through Labor Day)

b.      Indicate whether you want the announcement to be part of the printed announcements, on-screen announcements, or “Weekly Announcements” e-mail, - - or all three.

c.       Indicate what dates you want the announcement to start and end.

d.      If you want information included in the “Weekly Announcements,” e-mail, it’s often useful to include an e-mail address for contact information.

e.       If you want information to be included in the on-screen announcements, it’s often useful to provide a digital image to accompany the announcement.

f.       Information about outside community events will be publicized only as space and time are available.

g.       We sometimes have process glitches.  If your announcement is very important, call the church office to make sure it was received.

2. Spoken announcements at church services are only for special church events or unexpected, last minute changes to already scheduled events.

a.       If you’d like to make an announcement about a special church event on a Sunday morning, please contact the Minister or the Worship Coordinator for that week during the week before the Sunday service. Special announcements should never be longer than two minutes (and most should be much shorter.)

b.      If there is an unexpected, last minute change to an already scheduled event, please speak to the worship assistant before the service begins.

c.       Forgetting to submit an announcement by the Thursday deadline is not a valid reason for making a spoken announcement!

3. The only way to reach all of our friends and members is by mail. To submit information for the monthly newsletter, please put it in the newsletter editor’s church mailbox or e-mail it to newsletter editor. The newsletter deadline is before noon on the Sunday following the 3rd Saturday. Submissions may be edited for clarity or length. Contact the newsletter editor for more information.

4. For very special events, the church can send a letter or postcard to members, friends, and visitors. To find out more about this, contact the Church Administrator.

5. There are two bulletin boards in the Welcoming Room that can be used to publicize information.

a.       The bulletin board on the left side of the kitchen is for sign up sheets only. If you have a sign-up sheet for a church event, please post it on this bulletin board.

b.      The bulletin board on the right side on the kitchen is to advertise large, church-wide events. If you would like to use this bulletin board to publicize a large, church-wide event, contact the Church Administrator.

c.       Unfortunately, the church does not have enough bulletin board space to publicize information about outside community events on its bulletin boards.

6. The pamphlet racks in the Welcoming Room are for literature about the church. There is space for a very limited amount of literature about community resources. If you have something that you’d like in the pamphlet rack, contact our Membership/Volunteer Coordinator. Please do not put it in the pamphlet rack yourself or it will be thrown away.

7. If there is a church event that you think would be of interest to the wider community, please contact our Outreach Committee Chair your information will be distributed to local newspapers.

8. To update information already on the website, contact the Church Administrator. To create a new page on the website, contact our webmaster.

9. The church e-mail discussion list is a wonderful way to publicize information that may be of interest to a few people, but not everybody. Think of it as a community bulletin board. You must be subscribed to the church e-mail list to post to it. There are instructions for subscribing and sending messages to it in the Members’ Section of the church website.

Church leaders, beware! Do not assume that e-mailing the church e-mail list is an effective way to reach the whole community. Only a limited number of individuals subscribe to the list. At last count, the church e-mail list only reaches 110 e-mail addresses.  The “Weekly Announcements” e-mail reaches more than 250.

10. The church’s automatic telephone tree can only be activated by the Minister or the Board President. It is to be used rarely. For example, it might be used to cancel church activities because of inclement weather.

Things Not To Do to Publicize Information at Saltwater Church

1. Please DO NOT use “Candles of Joy and Sorrow” to publicize information.

2. Please DO NOT ask to make a spoken announcement on Sunday morning if the only reason for doing so is having forgotten the Thursday deadline.

3. Please DO NOT put up fliers or posters around the church about outside community events.

4. Please DO NOT leave fliers or other publicity material around the church for people to take. If you bring some, take any extras home with you.

5. Church leaders, please DO NOT rely solely on the discussion email list to publicize events. It reaches only a small portion of our community.

6. Please DO NOT rely solely on any Sunday service announcements or internet-based media for messages that the whole community needs to know, such as congregational meeting notices or the service auction.