Open Forum on Communications
The Open
Forum on Communications held on February 10th
offered lively conversation and a little nosh
for the twenty participants. We covered a wide
range of issues and ideas in a conversational
setting and will make decisions and take action
in smaller groups based on interest expressed at
the forum. Although I cannot report all the
detail of the hour and a half session, we
discussed topics regarding communication both
internal to Kehilat Shalom and external to the
Congregation.
Electronic Communication
We began
by discussing Kehilat Shalom’s communication
within the organization agreeing that there is a
need for both paper and electronic communication
and introducing the concept of list serves which
offer two-way electronic communication. Kehilat
Shalom’s web site serves to communicate both
internally and externally. Several people have
agreed to work on issues of electronic
communication including that involved in
redesigning and maintaining the web site as well
as organizing and formatting the synagogue’s
e-mail communications. We plan to develop a
communications technology group to address those
needs. Please call Jill Alexander if you would
like to help with this effort.
Paper Communication
We also
discussed “paper” communications. We were lucky
enough to have Mindy Silverstein take a few
minutes out of her Religious School morning to
join the forum. She explained some of the
logistics of distributing information and why
the process works the way it does at the
Religious School.
Congregational – Board Communication
A
suggestion was made to bring back congregational
meetings that are more than a formality. Ideas
were offered for ways to make this relatively
new means of interpersonal communication,
particularly between the Board of Directors and
congregants, successful.
External Communication
We also
spent some time discussing external
communication including the possibility of event
signage outside the synagogue, the need for
media contacts, and the variety of vehicles
available for external communications. There
was agreement that we should be taking more
advantage of publication event calendars,
particularly that of Jewish Week. Please call
Jill Alexander if you would like to help with
public relations or advertising.
Survey Says….
Seventeen attendees completed a brief survey at
the meeting, applicable parts of which can be
found below
for you to provide your feedback.
The results of the survey of forum participants
indicated that e-mail and Shofar accounted for
almost half of the means of learning about the
forum. Those were also the two most preferred
forms of communication, in general accounting
for almost two-thirds of responses. Ten of the
17 respondents read all of the Shofar. Finally,
11 of the 17 or 65% of the respondents expressed
interest in helping in at least one area of
communications at Kehilat Shalom. Please
consider joining their ranks by calling Jill
Alexander. Jill can be reached at 301-349-5154
or JAlexan301@aol.com.
