Communications Guidelines
Newsletter Submissions:
Most submissions should be approved by The Board of Trustees, the Reverend or Staff.
When Items are submitted by someone other than the BoT or Reverend it must be accompanied by the team, committee or member who is the contact member for the event. This must include an email for questions about the event or information to be directed to, and a phone number for the communications coordinator to contact you in case of any questions.
The newsletter is mainly informational for items coming from the church to the congregants and friends. It has limited space and will mainly offer a message of the upcoming service and then clickable headlines for other events and information. It is not meant to tell stories, share articles or detailed information. The reason for this is that there is very limited space and at a certain point the information just cuts off. No one wants to be below the cut off point.
It may feel like the details are important. However, if someone is interested in your event, say Meditative Origami, they will read the what, when and where and click on the link to register. This drives people to our webpage and gives room for a breadth of information without sacrificing valuable space in the newsletter.
Most events will be advertised for two weeks leading to an event as per the judgment of the communications coordinator. You should have your event in by the deadline which is Monday. Ongoing events will be posted in our “ongoing events” section toward the bottom of the Love Letter.
- Submitting early means there is more opportunity to clarify and discuss any issues with your document, so you don’t have to wait until Monday to submit.
If you would like something to also be posted on social media please write “open to the public” in your request for submission.
- Submissions longer than the requested format will have the vital information extracted and contain a link to the website. To be sure your words are included, please stick to the format.
How to format newsletter submissions:
Please submit this to the newsletter for the week of (insert date). Open to the public.
Example:
Meditative Origami
Founders Hall – Sunday May 7th, 2023 at 4 PM
We will be led by Julie Pan in a process art exercise of origami that focuses on mindfulness and creativity.
Open to the public
If it is a series it should read:
Meditative Origami Series
Founders Hall – Sundays May 7th through the 28th, 2023 at 4 PM
We will be led by Julie Pan in a process art exercise of origami that focuses on mindfulness and creativity. Registration Required.
Open to the public
There will be a link that will go to a webpage on our website that gives more detailed information. In your website description it will have all the lovely details about your event.
Example:
Meditative Origami Series
Sponsored by Artful Living
Sundays May 7th through 28th.
Julie Pan is a mindfulness instructor who has been using various process art techniques to encourage and teach the beauty of the process of art for it’s own sake. She has written a book “Busy Hands, Empty Mind” and has been an active UU for 30 years. Please join us for this meditative creative journey that will teach you the importance and enrichment that being in the moment brings as we go through this series together. You needn’t attend all meetings, but registration is required for various materials and time considerations. We will only be accepting 8 people per session so register early.
With Peace and Love.
Social Media Distribution
After your submission is received the communications person will select photos for your event, and make a campaign for it and give you the details of that campaign. The communications person is a part time position so please have all of your details in place along with contingencies and rain dates etc. prior to submitting. Once you receive your campaign outline you may suggest changes, but it is ultimately up to the communications person when and how to run the campaign.
If you would like your event to be published on social media, which means it is open to the public at large, not just those who receive our newsletter. Then be sure to include “Open to the Public” in your request for the newsletter. This includes FB and Instagram. It may include Twitter, Eventbrite & YouTube. Each package is different.
If your submission is just for church members and friends then you can write “internal” and it will not go on broader social media. Unmarked items are at the discretion of the Communications Coordinator. This is slack, the newsletter and our FB members and friends page.
Information
If you have an informational entry into the newsletter you should send the entire entry to communications@uuclonline.org. The information will be put on the website and there will be a link to that information in the newsletter.
For example:
We are happy to announce that the church mural will be going up on October 17th, 2026. Click here for more information.
- There will be a button or link that will lead to that information. These sort of information entries will run for 1-3 weeks at the discretion of the communications coordinator.
Photos & Images
All photos and images must come from a free use website. It must be copywrite free. The link must be included to the place where the image was obtained from. The communications person can also help to select images that would be appropriate for your event if you would like. Please just leave a note in your description of your event in the form below. Understand all images, fliers and other items are ultimately at the discretion of the communications person.
Please forward any questions you have to Communications@uuclonline.org
