Who does mass electronic communication?

• a few send out the newsletter electronically
• Peg Mowery (Grace, Fairmont) sends out occasional email alerts as the pastor, youth director, or other leader has something to send out
• as (hopefully!) most know, the synod does a weekly e-news

Many attendees put the newsletter on the website for anyone to read, but some don't put certain personal information online (stay tuned to the next meeting for more on this subject!).

One major issue to consider is to make sure that everyone can get the information sent out electronically. Not everyone gets email, so you may still have to print news/alerts and make them available on Sunday morning. People don't like to be out of the loop!

Some things on newsletter design were also discussed including:

• filler (comics, "one-liners," email forward-type stories, etc) can be useful and fun, but don't go overboard
• what fonts are appropriate? There are studies to support the idea that serif fonts (like Times New Roman, the ones with the little "feet" on them) are easier to read and better for the "meat" of the newsletter while sans serif fonts (like Arial, the more block-type letters) are good for short items like headlines and captions. Serif fonts can be difficult to copy and some individuals don't like reading them.
• what most do agree on, though, is limiting the number of fonts used 2-3 is a pretty ideal number, don't go overboard.

One thing that Katie reiterated a few times (because it's driving me crazy!) is to not get too fancy with technology. AOL addresses (at least older ones) can be particularly problematic. Just remember that HTML is wonderful, but not all email programs accept it and not all programs make things look the way you see them. Note also that large emails (and attachments, including attaching the whole newsletter) can take a long time to download as many of our congregation members have slower internet connections. People don't wait online, so don't waste their time.

The number one suggestion was just to follow the KISS rule - Keep it Sweet and Simple (or however else you want to fill in the "S"s). Keep the technology simple, keep the content simple (people don't read online, they skim, they won't read a novel in an email), keep the design simple, keep EVERYTHING simple. This also applies to websites and newsletters.

Katie shared a study that was done about how people read online. The study claims that people read in an F-shaped pattern, meaning top left is most important and they skim to the right, as they move down, they skim less and less to the right until they're just skimming the left side vertically. There is also another page of other tips on web readability.

Links...Links are a good thing. Links are one form of HTML (internet language) that work in almost every email program. If it doesn't work, it will probably just show up as plain text and then a user can copy and paste. As it does sometimes do that, put the ENTIRE URL (web address) in the email (rather than a "click here" and insert a hyperlink). This way people can copy and paste if need-be. I sometimes shorten the links to make it less complicated (put the homepage and then give instructions on how to get to the right place). I almost always do this in print publications where people can't just click or copy and paste. In electronic communications it's ok to put the whole address in there. Links add to the interactivity of a message and increase usefulness for readers.

To combine the idea of how people read (skimming, rather than reading) online and the idea of links, one popular solution is to put the first few sentences of a story, etc. in an email and then give a link for them to read the whole story. This goes with the journalistic practice of writing in the inverted pyramid style. For those of you who don't know, this is shaping your writing like an upside-down triangle. Put the most important info first (that way people get the news right away) with decreasing importance as you go on. That way people can read as much as they want, and then stop reading when they've gotten the details they want. They will NOT continue to read on just because you think it's important, so don't try to make them read the whole thing by hiding the important stuff at the end.

Reminder that CutePDF offers a free way to convert files to PDF.

We also talked about some details regarding bulletins, counting communion cards/attendance, and good ways to do calendars in the newsletters.