Newsletters
Newsletters truly are a relic of the paper era. I don’t discount that they can be relevant in our digital world, but they need to be managed carefully.
First, leaders need to carefully determine what they want the newsletter to accomplish. Instead, too many times they just dictate that there be one without determining what it should contain and what they want it to contain.
Certainly, that leaves the newsletter creator flexibility to respond to sudden or specific information items that crop up but it should certainly contain what leadership directs that it should contain.
From my experience, newsletters typically evolve into something pretty worthless where they are big on graphics/design and thin on actual information.
They shouldn’t just continue what's been done in the past unless it can be determined that what was done in the past is actually useful.
Charting a new course given the goals/direction that local leadership gives on what they want the newsletter to be and what they want it to contain is the best course of action.
Much of what newsletters have contained is generally better conveyed on a weekly basis rather than on a bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.
These are things like events, class topics/schedules, building cleaning, etc. This sort of information easily complements the Sacrament bulletin and can be included with it.
If this information is sent out weekly with the bulletin, we shouldn’t need a newsletter.
Flyers and Bulletin Boards
Why are we even discussing this???
Flyers and bulletin boards truly are relics of a prior age, a paper age that is truly gone.
Bulletin boards still exist in meetinghouses. However, their usefulness is questionable.
I remember relying on bulletin boards for information when I was very young. I can’t imagine anyone relying on them at all now.
When I get a flyer attached to an email, it seems like the person just wanted to have fun creating it. The flyer isn’t useful to me and I’m not going to put it on a bulletin board in my home.
Sure, bulletin boards need something on them at church but I think we’re deluding ourselves if we think putting things on them is a significant contribution to information dispersal.
Conclusion
We have to keep rethinking what we do to fit the environment we currently inhabit. Continuing practices from the past don’t work if the reasons they were instituted no longer exist.
In fact, past practices can actually be destructive if they aren’t adapted to present needs.
Why Are We Still Doing This? Bulletins, Newsletters, Flyers and More:
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