Almost four months ago, on Sunday, August 10, more than two dozen people enjoyed a mostly vegan potluck lunch hosted by the Communications Team. The group generated a very long list of thoughts, questions, hopes, and dreams about communications at UUSM. The Comm Team met at the end of August to discuss the topics raised at the potluck. On September 2, the staff Communications Manager left UUSM and the volunteer team has been helping the Office Administrator Alfie Wilkerson complete the Communications Manager tasks since then. The Comm Team met again briefly at the end of October. We will plan a second Congregational Communications Potluck in January to offer pathways for members and friends to help address some of these issues and to find out if there are any new concerns.
I apologize for this ironically delayed and extremely long report on the August Communications meeting, but here goes: First came the food, then an introduction to the purpose of the meeting by Pam Teplitz, Comm Team Chair. She said, “We’re here today to hear from you about what’s working for you and what needs improvement. We understand that we need to see ourselves as part of a forest, not just as individual trees. Everything we communicate — from the website content, the events calendar and news, Sunday Services live and live-streaming, the weekly announcements, religious education information and updates, the annual program report, social media posts — affects other parts of the forest because we are a communications ecosystem (thanks to Jessica for that term), building connections between each of us and the wider world.”
Nineteen colorful panels were taped on easels and rolling boards, labeled with the various communications formats at UUSM. Attendees were asked to use sticky notes to write comments and questions about them for the Communications Team to address in the moment or to discuss later and come back with answers. People continued to eat and write and then got up and put their notes on the boards. A fast-paced energetic 2-hour-long discussion followed, led by Pam and Aubrey Sassoon. People generously and thoughtfully brought in dozens of ideas.
As you read this, please consider how you might be able to personally support communications at UUSM. We need website and social media help, content creators, writers, and editors. Contact commteam@uusm.org. Thank you.
—Your Communications Team
Pam Teplitz, Chair; Rebecca Avery, Anne Bridgins, Elizabeth Fuller, Joyce Holmen, Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae, Chela Metzger, Vilma Ortiz, Beth Rendeiro, Aubrey Sassoon, Jessica TenHave-Place, and Alfie Wilkerson.
Here is the text from the sticky notes with italicized comments on our progress.
Annual Program Report:
- Need to be reminded earlier when to submit, not sure what to include. (The Annual Report Team has heard your concern.)
Bulletin Boards:
- Great to make info as visible as possible (Yes!)
- Don’t know where they are (Maybe an article with a map?)
- Keep them updated, some info is old (Alfie is currently the only office staff. Please be patient. Also, TV in Forbes could be used to display information.)
Children & Youth RE:
- Need child photo releases for website and email announcements (Working on it with the Policy Refresh Committee. Jessica includes one with the CYRE registration form.)
- Cost of living on the Westside – convince young families that it’s worth the drive (Would someone like to write an article?)
Email issues:
- Have a Green Google Group (For Green Committee)
Event Space Reservations and Event Calendars:
- Need access for both members and guests (Everyone has access to the UUSM Events Calendar and the Google UUSM Reservations Calendar, which can only be edited by the administrator and office staff.)
- Active committees/ministries need a transparent process for getting meetings/events on the calendar, and promoting events, and posting relevant news. (Here are the Instructions for Scheduling and Promoting Your Event, which are always in the Announcements. We’re planning a webpage with step-by-step instructions.)
- Need info on upcoming events so I can schedule events and coordinate with committee chairs (Check the Reservations Calendar. This will be ever more useful as people become more used to filling out the Space Reservations Form and/or contacting the office to reserve space. See the insructions for Scheduling and Promoting Your Event.)
- New form is great and very helpful (Thank you!)
Google Drive Access:
- Can there be some training? (We hear you and will plan on scheduling a workshop.)
Google Groups:
- I’m maintaining Green Google group, need to manage posting privilege (If it’s your Google Group, you control privileges. Search for “Google Group Management.”)
- I believe there are two of these and they take different approaches and have different needs, don’t know if policies should be explored (The Policies Refresh Committee is looking at this. Groups may have different goals and managers could discuss.)
Member Directory:
- Would love to have this as searchable database in addition to the PDF (We hear you and will continue to look for upgrades to our current system. This note is on the Member Directory webpage where you can download the searchable PDF: “Our directory is a work in progress; all information is not yet correct due to staff and database transitions, but we are working on it. All new members have been added. Contact admin@uusm.org to request revisions. We will update this important document regularly.” New cover and inside cover pages will be redesigned with more explanatory information.)
- Need easy access to the directory of all members, current committee chairs, and emails via print and PDF (Print copies are available in the office and logged-in members can download the PDF here.)
- Tried to use the directory in the first months of website, it did not work, have not tried again (Sorry. Please try again.)
News and Monthly News Digest:
- News needs an archive to move off older posts and organize by date (While there are now 73 pages of news going back to 2018, every post is categorized and the website search includes all articles. The search box is at the bottom of every webpage. On the main UUSM.org/News page and on any news article page, at the top of the righthand sidebar is a search box followed by a box that says “Browse Categories of News” with a dropdown list of all the categories the News Team has ever used. On a mobile device, these two sections are below the posts, followed by all the announcements that normally appear in the sidebar.)
- Explain digest vs. newsletter (The “newsletter” used to be a monthly printed and mailed document. An archive of PDFs going all the way back to 2000 can be found in the Members section of the website in the Web Archive. In 2018, we moved online to save money and reduce the volunteer work time needed to produce the printed newsletter. In order to mimic the old printed monthly newsletter, we began emailing a “Digest” on the Saturday before the first Sunday of the month. It contains links to the Sunday Service schedule for the upcoming month, current columns by church leadership, and several of the articles posted in the last month. One of the goals of the Digest is to lead people to the News webpage. At the top of every news post is a red link to ALL THE LATEST UUSM NEWS. The term “newsletter” now is commonly applied to the weekly Thursday Announcements.)
- Monthly News Digest has replaced the newsletter, yes?
- For interested folks and members, a link on the home page would be helpful, as a separate link or as a drop down under news at top (The digest is just a curated list of links to news posts on the UUSM.org/News page.)
- The order and priority of articles doesn’t always seem fair or make sense (While the posts are automatically ordered chronologically by date published, we reorder them to put the Sunday Services and leadership columns first. Please contact news@uusm.org to discuss your concerns.)
Pulpit Announcements:
- The different deadline dates for newsletter, news, and pulpit announcements are confusing (Pulpit announcements need to be emailed to the worship associate for the week at worshipassociates@uusm.org. You can find the worship associate for the week in the Sunday Service news post or in the Thursday Announcements before the Sunday. The Thursday Announcements deadline is Wednesday at 10 am. Events can be added to the calendar anytime but will take a couple of days. News can be submitted anytime but can take up to a week to be edited and posted. Any column or articles to potentially be included in the Digest must be received by Friday morning before the Saturday before the first Sunday of the month.)
- Need more coordination from worship associates with the Thursday Announcements email, and more relevant to the day of worship (The Worship Associates have many events to choose from to promote and a limited amount of time. The event slide accompanying the pulpit announcements lists the events on that Sunday with a note at the bottom to check UUSM.org/Events for more.)
- The pulpit announcements are straightforward, maybe include suggestion to visit the website (See above. The slide includes the website link. And I think they usually do tell people to visit the website.)
Social Media:
- More outreach to youth-facing social media like TikTok, Instagram, etc. (We are looking for a volunteer to develop an ongoing program.)
- More varied social media presence
- Was not aware that there was a FB Group; is there an Instagram Group? (We can try making the links more prominent, especially in the the members area. facebook.com/groups/UUSantaMonica and instagram.com/uusantamonica)
- How many members know about (and use) the FB Group? (The private Facebook group has 368 approved members.)
- Could it be easier to find a link to our FB Group from the website’s homepage in the social media icons? (There is a “Visit Group” button on the main Facebook page, but that’s a good idea. Thanks!)
- We need someone doing more outreach online to try to get new and younger blood; Instagram and TikTok; it should be someone who knows this stuff, even if it’s only 5 hours a week or something (We are looking for a new staff Communications Manager who will hopefully have some expertise in that area, but they will not have a lot of paid time to work on it. We need a volunteer social media team to grow this area of outreach. The office can run reports on members with interest in committees.)
- There may be confusion about the differences between FB Page and FB Group (Anyone in the world can go to the Facebook page. Only a few people can post. Content is moderated. The Group is private with access given to those that request and are approved. Any member of the group can post. Birthdays are celebrated here.)
- FB Group should be used more efficiently; it needs posting guidelines to limit scope of content; a lot of people don’t know it exists; good that it is private of course (In-person comment: too many UUA posts. Interesting. Tell us more about suggested posting guidelines at commteam@uusm.org.)
Sunday Livestreams:
- This is still working really well and it’s important to our identity (Thank you!)
Sunday Services:
- Need contact for Sunday Service themes, i.e., housing with CLUE in Sep/Oct 2025 (For minister, worship associates)
- Put up physical signs directing people to UCLA parking garage, parking is always an issue (Tom Ahern said there’s already a sign he would set up. Please confirm this has been done.)
- At end of service, could the worship associate or minister welcome everyone into Forbes Hall (and point to the door) so visitors know where to go next instead of leaving? (For minister, worship associates)
- Add projected slide for “Get all the latest UUSM News at uusm.org/news” (When would this be displayed? Maybe on the Event slide after the Events URL and at the end of the Order of Service? Hmmm…)
- Larger text for slides (Will try.)
Sunday Order of Service:
- Very specific RE suggestion: the RE people listed should change every week to show who is actively working onsite. otherwise, it looks like a huge team is working every week and people might think volunteers are not needed (It’s a lot of work for Jessica to provide that updated information every week.)
- It is a huge advantage to have the events in the printed order of service every Sunday (Thank you!)
Thursday Announcements:
- Think we need photo release policy for website and announcements (Working on it with the Policy Refresh Committee. The current policy from 2005 posted on the archived website says “Photographs of adult members or friends of the church may be used to support church activities and purposes unless prohibited in writing by the individual or individuals involved. Photographs of children identified by name will not be displayed or included in church documents or publications without written permission of the child’s parent or guardian.” Onsite vs. offsite and newly recognized privacy issues by younger folks. Add info to membership application?)
- Weekly announcements are most effective when they include all of the events chronologically (We have tried to do just that, and include only one or at most two important events beyond the Thursday to Thursday week.)
Website:
- We’re good at accuracy in announcements all over the website (Thank you!)
- Website is beautiful, rich, and easy to navigate—it makes me proud to be a uuccsm member (Thank you!)
- Many people including newer members do not know about news on the website (Interesting. Thoughts on making it more prominent?)
- Move website search bar to header area (Stay tuned…)
- There should be a page for everyone to know all of the deadlines for each weekly/monthly newsletter, announcements, events, etc. then put all the links to info as needed, make it in a place we can find it easily. (GREAT idea! Thanks! Stay tuned…)
Website (Members Area):
- Annual meeting is a prominent link but for most of the year it’s not that relevant, could there be a more relevant topic periodically? or should it stay as a place keeper? (Maybe contact lists. Hmm. Annual Reports has been there since the beginning, but that can change. Thanks.)
- I wish it felt more relevant to me…maybe it is and I just don’t know how?
Everything Else:
- Need a single point person, a communications coordinator, to keep the protocols on track and consistent, and to facilitate the needs/goals of community volunteers
- The siloed communications system is not working; it is too labor intensive for committees/ministries to maintain an effective comms plan
- Some of this needs to be a paid job
- Our Right Relations consultant used to say “communicating to a congregation is like talking to a moving train”
- (COMMENT ON ABOVE: Much of this requires a expert volunteer and communications coordinator. UUSM does not have the funds to hire someone. We need to find resources within our community to fill this need. Thoughts? For future discussion.)
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- simple, simple, simple (YES!)
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- Would like to hear music from after the 1960s at Soulful Sundown
- Outreach to young people, huge cohort of young atheists/agnostics are all closet UUs
- Need a film club, lots of Hollywood people
- Connect and lobby with more religious left orgs, push back against the political administration on moral grounds, not just whine about it
- (COMMENT ON ABOVE: These are great thoughts on how to attract and engage different groups of people. More discussion is needed, plus thinking outside the box.)
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- Who will respond to links that go to a Google Group, like a board member? (The moderator of the Google Group. Not a board member. The Google Groups are not UUSM Groups.)
- Have a team to call members to touch base (The Pastoral Care Committee does that.)
- Had a very difficult time registering for Dining for Dollars–ended up not taking part (Email dining4dollars@uusm.org)
- We waste so much paper for everything – Sunday order of service and meetings like today’s (Yes, but some people still want paper copies. Evolution takes time.)
