We're set to go

[Note to JOUR 5260 students: Please check your UNT email accounts.]

Hi. I've visited with the communications committee at FUMC-Arlington, and we've been given an OK. When I discussed our two classes completing a communication audit for them, I asked them about their own goals for the project. One of the key questions: Is this about "quality of life" at your church, as it exists now, or is it about something else?

Of course, that something else is usually about retaining members and gaining new members, important to any organization based on membership, but especially important to a large worship community in an urban area. Many of the committee members said it was about quality of life, but they also talked about how a better quality of life within the church made the church more likely to retain and to gain new members.

One of the challenges of this church is its large size, both in numbers and in building size and configuration. One example: when an older member of the congregation encounters new neighbors and has the chance to invite that family to church, that older member may have no idea what is "going on downstairs, because some people have never been down there." What's going on downstairs? Well, there are several teenage Christian rock bands that meet and play for services designed for teens. Perhaps this new neighbor has a teenage guitarist who would be interested in this, but if the older member doesn't know about it, then that may be a lost opportunity.

The church has already made plans for an evangelism consultant to work with members later this year. So, this makes our project even more important. If we can give them the contours of their internal communications, and suggest some best practices for them to adopt, then they will be in better shape for their evangelism effort.

While this isn't an exhaustive list of all that will take place during the communication audit, here's a short list of key deadlines for the project so far:

Weeks 3 & 4 (Jan. 28 and Feb. 4, and Sunday in between)
Qualitative team begins with church building audit, media audit, and initial visits/interviews to prepare for Feb. 12 presentation to Quantitative team. Both teams conduct reviews of secondary research about organization communication, communication practices for religious groups, and best practices for internal communication. This bank of research will be shared between both classes to give us the foundation we need for the work ahead.

Qual team visits Quant class on Tuesday, Feb. 5 (new earlier date), so that the quant team can begin gathering information before designing the survey.

Week 8 (March 3/4)
Survey is ready for distribution to FUMC-Arlington members. Members answer survey during first three weeks of March.

Week 11 (March 31/April 1)
Quant team visit Qual class on Monday, March 31, to share survey results.

Weeks 10, 11 and 12 (March 24, March 31 and April 7)
Qual team prepares for focus group, recruiting members and establishing a topic guide.

Weeks 13 and/or 14 (April 14 and 21)
Focus group is held at church by Qual team.

First week of May
Final report due; client presentation (All class members do not need to attend; however, it would great to have a few students from both classes).

Our liaison at the church is Rev. Meredith Bell, associate pastor. We'll have a student liaison from each class to stay in contact with Meredith Bell and to ensure consistent communication between the classes. That way, our own internal communication will be strong and we won't inundate the associate pastor with too many requests coming from too many different directions. I told her she would be working primarily with one student from each class.