E-mail, Websites New Tools For UU Congregations

When the Shoreline UU Church, Shoreline, WA (150 members), embarked a year ago on planning for a capital fund drive for a new building, it decided the time was also right to update the way members communicated with each other.

Fearing that the monthly newsletter would not be adequate as the project got underway, President Jo Moore gathered up members' e-mail addresses and began sending out a weekly electronic update called "Jo's Jottings."

It caught on, and now it goes to about 70 households, reaching 100 members. And its topics have expanded, to include not only construction progress, but "joys and concerns" in the lives of members.

On another technology front, The Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ (412), has developed a website to not only help the community find the church, but to help members find each other.

The website has a public sector and a members-only area that requires a password. In the members' sector, there's the church newsletter and also a membership directory, where members can create or change their own entries and look up other members. Members also have two private bulletin boards, one for gardening and one for other topics.

An estimated half of all UU congregations have websites and 10 to 20 percent have congregational e-mail. These new tools have made some aspects of keeping in touch easier, but they also require work to keep them user-friendly. Websites and e-mail lists must be kept updated and tidied up. Kathryn Frech, of the UU Congregation of Binghamton, NY (168), and the coeditor of the weekly UU e-mail newsletter "UU NEWS," reminds congregational webmasters to watch out for pages that look cluttered and for special effects that get in the way of solid information.

At the Unitarian Church, Los Alamos, NM (151), more than half of members receive a weekly e-mail list of announcements sent by administrator Kok Heong McNaughton. She finds the list especially valuable in times of crisis. When a member died on a Tuesday, she was able to send a group e-mail the next day to most members about the Friday memorial service.

Carol Agate, at the UU Community Church of Santa Monica (394), began a congregational e-mail list a year ago, when some members asked for an electronic version of the weekly updates to the monthly newsletter. The updates had been available only as Sunday order of service inserts. Later, she added copies of sermons. About 40 households are subscribed.

If you have more than a few names on an e-mail list, it's best to hire a list service to manage it, because most e-mail programs limit the number of names you can process manually, says Jim Mason, member of the UUA Electronic Communications Committee. One service charges $15/mo. for 100 subscribers. To find such services, search on-line using keywords "mailing list hosting." A service may also permit you to archive e-mail.

It's become hard to imagine doing without websites and e-mail, observes Sharon Price, webmaster at the Olympia UU Congregation, Olympia, WA (201). "I think we're moving rapidly toward the time when not having a website and e-mail will be like not having a telephone."

But we're not there yet. Debbie Weiner, the UUA's Director of Electronic Communications, cautions that while it's tempting to fully embrace new technology, 40 to 60 percent of UUs still aren't on-line. To keep non-subscribed members in touch, post paper copies of all e-mail traffic in an accessible and well-publicized place and consider putting a short digest of on-line correspondence in the newsletter.