Public Relations Committee

Report For 2001-02 Church Year

Committee Members: Mike Ballentine, Ruth Cannava, Craig Cleaveland, Ann Leach, Dan Murphy, Jamie McNamee, Bud Swanson, Dick Widhu, and Zrinka Orr.

The Public Relations Committee is responsible for publicizing information about Unitarian Universalism and the programs of our church to the greater Nashua area, and by means of our church website, to the general public.

One of our tasks is to make sure that information about the church appears each Saturday on the Religion page of The Telegraph. We place an ad for the church each week and send a press release with information about the church, the sermon topic for the week, and any special activities that are planned.

The committee prepares the monthly newsletter, both the paper version that is mailed to church members and the electronic version that is posted to our website at the beginning of each month. The paper version is sent to Barbara Koumjian, who runs off copies for general distribution and supervises the work of volunteers who put everything together for the mailing. During 2001-02 we added a pdf version of the newsletter to the website. Using Adobe Acrobat, readers can download the web version and print a paper copy for reference during the month.

Because the newsletter is posted to our website each month, many members choose not to receive a paper copy, saving the cost of printing and mailing it. At present about 80 of our members go to the website for their newsletter and do not receive the paper version. Those who choose to do this are notified by e-mail when the new newsletter is available If you wish to receive your copy in this manner, e-mail Mike Ballentine at mikeb@mikeballentine.com and he will add you to the “web version only” list.

The address of our website is www.UUNashua.org. The site serves as a resource for reaching out to people around the country who are seeking a more liberal religion. We post the Sunday sermons to the website. During 2001-02 we added a pdf version of 100 Questions to the site.

Maintaining and improving our website continues to be an important priority of the Public Relations Committee. During 2001-02, Mike Ballantine redesigned the site, updating the typography and incorporating many new graphics.

The Committee welcomes suggestions for ways we can be more effective in reaching both the members of our congregation and people outside our church who wish to find out more about us. I want to personally thank all of our committee members for the work they do to help us achieve our goals.

Bud Swanson, Public Relations Committee Chair, June 1, 2002.