Morristown Jewish Center

WEB: Case Study in Poor Communications

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The website and our supporting communications channels are our public, on-line face and the calendar & events are crucial components. In this time of decreasing membership and increased competition, these have to be great! I believe that the issues documented below must be addressed so that we can get it right. I share these thoughts out of a deep concern for the congregation's wellbeing and future success. Please let me explain.

Case Study

October 27, 2024

Background

  • I attended the Shabbat morning service yesterday morning, on a whim — something that I rarely do. At the conclusion, David Ganz & Peppi Glass made a brief announcement about the Adult Ed program on 10/30, that I found very compelling.
  • David mentioned that the presentation will be on Zoom and that registration is necessary in order to receive the link. There is also an offer to buy the book at a discount and receive a signed bookplate.
  • As I listened to David's description of the program, I thought that this is exactly the sort of messaging that we should be highlighting on our homepage in a section called "Featured Events."
  • I asked him if there was a steady stream of significant events like this one and he described the upcoming Adult Ed program in November.
  • Inspired, I created a new Featured Event section under the slide carousel.
  • Creating this simple update was frustrating because it took me on a journey that demonstrated many of the deficiencies in how we communicate.

Broken Communications Channels

  • Google calendar: This was my first stop to find a description and link to register. There is nothing there except "Adult Ed Presents - Elliot Abrams." The "More details" link only affers to copy and paste the event to your personal calendar (the same effect as "Copy to my calendar.") I expected, at a minimum, to find a link to register and that this is a Zoom event, not at MJCBY. Here is the screenshot:
  • Monthly Newsletter: This was my second stop. The Table of Contents lists 19 entries, none of which are linked to the pages with their content. I scrolled through to p. 28 to find the description and link to register. What I found was a flyer with too much text that was difficult to read and the instructions to REGISTER ON SHULCLOUD, but not a link anywhere! Here is the screenshot:
  • ShulCloud: This was my third stop. Given the instructions in the Newsletter, I hoped that there might be an obvious link in ShulCloud, but there was not.
  • Eblast of 10/23 (the Thursday issue, on Wednesday, due to the Holy Day): This was my fourth stop. The Elliot Abrams program is not mentioned; however, there is an announcement about a Diversity Coalition program in Morristown on 11/17.
  • Eblast of 10/22 (the Tuesday issue): This was my fifth stop. Voila! There it is, the 9th item. Again, no links from the Table of Contents to the target pages. I scrolled down and clicked on the "Register Here" button and registered.
  • My registration email: ShulCloud sent this email immmediately but has two problems: it does not include the Zoom link, so I am still not done and it says that the event is at MJCBY.

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Problem Statement

Problem Statement: Our public communications have errors, are uncoordinated, and their designs do not facilitate engagement from our community.

  • We have 3 main channels for publicizing events: Google calendar, Monthly Newsletter, and bi-weekly eblasts.
  • There is no doubt that all involved have all the best of intentions, so this is not an individual criticism of anyone. This problem is due to a lack of a system or defined, repeatable process for promoting MJCBY events.
  • These channels have all evolved based on the good intentions of the folks who produce them (staff and volunteers), but they are not being created with the customers' needs top of mind.
  • The success criterion seems to be that the issues get published on time, not they facilitate engagement.
  • There is no coordination and no oversight.
  • Google calendar: In a meeting on 10/23 with Alexis, Gadi, Neda, and Bob, we made a decision to only use the Google calendar to promote events and so the upgrading of the events is just getting started. Amy Brunswick and I are meeting on 10/29 to make specific recommendations to the office on how events should be named and described.
  • Bi-Weekly Eblasts: These need to be redesigned with member (or guest) engagement as the first priority.
    • Each issue needs a table of contents with links to the pages. I have discussed this with ShulCloud support and claims that this is not possible are not correct.
    • The layout should be organized by timeframe: This Week; Next Two Weeks; Beyond.
    • There should be more text (easier to read than in a flyer) with the event's specifics, including relevant links — in a standard format to make it easy to read.
    • Including a graphic is fine, but not to the exclusion of each event's standard data in a standard format.
    • The "More Details" link in each event should show the details, not offer to copy-and-pasted the entry to your personal calendar.
  • Monthly Newsletter: This needs to be redesigned with the same criteria as the eblasts, to facilitate engagement.
    • Each issue needs a table of contents with links to the pages.
    • The layout should be organized by timeframe: This Month; This Quarter; Beyond.
    • There should be more text (easier to read than in a flyer) with the event's specifics, including relevant links — in a standard format to make it easy to read.
    • Including a graphic is fine, but not to the exclusion of each event's standard data in a standard format.

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Recommendation

We should establish a sustainable, holistic process — with defined roles and responsibilities for who has oversight and how events will be described in the 3 channels. The process should be based on these (proposed) design principles:

  • Events are listed in the Google calendar before they appear in either an eblast or the Newsletter.
  • The source information is collected in a standard way. This form is a first-draft example of what this could be.
  • Events listed in each channel should be template-based, to ensure uniformity. (It might be that the same template could serve the needs of the eblasts and Newsletter — TBD.) The essential event information should be in a consistent text format, not in flyers. Using templates and a standard form for collecting source data will serve to avoid errors.
  • The tables of content in the eblasts and Newsletter must be linked to the internal pages.
  • The events listed should be grouped according to time frame.
  • Files should be consistently named according to a naming convention. For example, here are the file names of some recent newsletters:
    MJCBY Newsletter Oct 2024
    MJCBYNewsletterSep2024
    MJCBYMay2024Newsletter
    MJCBY March 2024 Newsletter Final
    The naming convention should be consistent and support sorting by date, such as: 2024-05-MJCBY-Newsletter
  • Files should be stored in a organized manner in ShulCloud. (This has started in ShulCloud as of this past summer's issue but the naming convention does not sort chronologically.)

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