The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTEROur mission
Glen Waverley Uniting Church is a faithful, Christ-centred community that meets God and shares that unconditional love.
Our Vision
Connectedness: Fostering relationships, Small Groups, Pastoral care, Gatherings and events, Intergenerational connections
Faith: Providing specified study groups, Diverse worship services & styles & times, Conferences, seminars & guest speakers, A culture of asking questions, exploring & sharing faith
Kingsway: Intentional listening to & learning from other multicultural or ethnic specific church communities, Building relationships by pastoral care and prayer support to Kingsway businesses, Participating in Kingsway events
Profile: Partnering with schools, councils and clubs, talking to community and global organisations to identify needs, Empowering the disempowered, Advocacy of community and global topics.
Living the Vision
Being Mindful - The CommunicationsCommittee prefaces its agendas and minutes with the four summary vision statements as a reminder that the deliberations of the Committee should be done in the context of this vision.
Looking Forward - The CommunicationsCommittee uses the four vision areas as a guide for discussion and decisions.
Reflecting - The CommunicationsCommittee uses the four vision areas to check whether or not anything has been missed in its consideration of its various agenda items.
Communications Report
4 March 2019, 7:30pm – 9:00pm, Room 2
1. Sharing Time
John Snare - John shared a photo and thoughts about 'The Man who bears the Cross', John Fabre (2015) seen in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium in April 2018. This sculpture invites pilgrims and cathedral visitors to pause for reflection. The bronze sculpture encourages them to try to maintain a spiritual equilibrium, to keep the cross in balance and to experience first hand how this affects them. See https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jan-fabre-the-man-who-bears-the-cross.
2. Attendance and Apologies
Attendance: DavidFraser, KenCoutts, JohnSnare
Apologies: JanClear, JohnHurst
3. Confirmation of the agenda
The agenda was confirmed.
4. Matters arising from the report of the last meeting
A report of the previous meeting is at CommunicationsReport20181203
4.1. Information about groups in the Church Database
There was no feedback on the proposal prepared at the last meeting. It is therefore proposed to populate the 'brochure' field in the Church Database from material submitted by groups in their annual reports in the 'Purpose, Aim or Mission statement'. We recommend that in future the following guidance be given to people preparing annual reports.
'Group Purpose
The purpose statement should be concise (from a few to perhaps twenty lines) but contain enough information to be suitable for use in other contexts, for example to give new-comers an idea of what the group is about.
More Detail
Groups may choose to add additional more detailed information if they consider it useful for readers of the annual report.
Example
For example the Purpose, Aim or Mission Statement for the Communications Committee is:
The Communications Committee is a sub-committee of the Church Council. The Communications Committee works to ensure that information about the life of the congregation is readily available to interested people and that members of the congregation know what is going on. Specifically, the Communication Committee's role is to:
- oversee and coordinate all communications across the congregation ensuring that they are done in a timely and inclusive manner;
- introduce new methods of communication as appropriate;
facilitate the production of a church magazine (currently called NewView) in a variety of formats (to bring the congregation together through the use of information and entertainment);
- ensure that all church communications are clear, appropriate and that no bias or offensive content is present;
- continue to develop our online and web presence as an outreach activity;
- maintain all brochures and promotional material used by GWUC;
- seek to make best use of community material to publicise events and activities at GWUC;
- liaise with Property Committee and make use of, and manage, any external signage;
- take advantage of free promotional media wherever possible (i.e. Real Estate boards);
- publicise and communicate Presbytery and Synod activities and events; and
- encourage, support and assist all forms of communications in GWUC.
John Snare to pass this on the Church Council secretary.
4.2. Recognition of Australia's First Peoples
JohnSnare commented that material on recognition of Australia's first peoples is dispersed and could get lost.
Action: JohnSnare to collect materials available so for on a wiki page. Done. See DiscussionRecognitionOfAustraliasFirstPeoples linked to the Congregation DiscussionPages.
5. Update from Ken
- Updated Notice board and door signs completed.
- Brochures were update in January and a procedure to do this every January is in the Office Manual.
- Position Description for Office Manager includes dealing with Social Media and Brochures.
6. External Signage
On the way into the meeting, all members to check the front street sign and door signs to ensure that they are current. This is a standing item for the agendas of all meetings of the Communications Committee.
7. The GWUC Web Site
Status update. Some Google Analytics from the WordPress dashboard WebsiteStatsMarch2019.jpg
8. Social Media Update
Our dream for 2019 is effective use of Social Media. While there are exciting possibilities (see CommunicationsStrategicPlanSocialMedia), it is proposed to start simple and use Facebook as another channel to get information about activities into the community. Regular activity is vital and it is hoped that regular posts can be prepared and posted by the office manager. DavidFraser described how he and two others do this for the International Cartographic Association.
Action: DavidFraser to write down how the Facebook site he is involved with works and is managed. It is possible that we can use this as a guide for developing procedures to do something similar.
9. Strategic Plan update
Is it time to check the the currency of the CommunicationsChannels ?
Action: DavidFraser to look at the CommunicationsChannels with fresh eyes to see how it might be updated/reviewed.
10. Next meeting
Monday May 6th, 7:30pm to 9:30pm, Room 2. (Booking requested.)
11. Other Business
DavidFraser drew our attention to a note in the annual report of the endowment fund for assistance with promotion and a brocure for the brochure rack. We found information on the endowment fund hidden on the wiki behind the Finance Committee/Giving page. JohnSnare subsequently found an version of a foldable brochure developed with PeterStewart in March 2018. This has been linked to the GivingToGlenWaverleyUniting wiki page in pdf and editable forms.
Action: DavidFraser to report back to Church Council
Action: Ken Coutts to see if this brocxhure can be added to those maintained by the office and made available in the brochure rack.
JohnSnare suggested that information about the Choir of Hope be added to the web site. The meeting agreed.
Action: JohnSnare to add information about the Choir of Hope to the web site.
12. Closure
Meeting closed at about 9:00pm.