Identity & Communication Event held on 3-20-2004 "Tell 'em Who You Are!" | |
UC News
Bob Chase
explains how your church gets free subscriptions
Dalton Smith, of the New Jersey Association’s Communication Assessment and Strategy Committee, asked some direct questions of Bob Chase, the minister and team leader for the UCC’s Proclamation, Identity and Communication ministry. Bob is also publisher of the monthly newspaper, United Church News. Here’s the interview:
Dalton
Smith: We hear that congregations can order
subscriptions to United Church News for
their members free of charge. How is
that possible?
Bob Chase: It is perhaps
inaccurate to say UCNews is free because it does cost money to gather the
information, do editorial, layout and design work, maintain the mailing lists,
print, collate, publish and distribute it. What is accurate, is that UCNews
is free to the reader--any
reader in the UCC family (members and friends) who wants to receive it.
Dalton: Can we at least contribute to the cost?
Bob: Solicitations to support this
commun-ications ministry appear in the paper a couple times a year (pretty low
key, actu-ally), and those who choose to help support this work will receive an
additional annual solicitation. That's it. If you choose not to support this
ministry, you still receive the paper.
Dalton: Who can request these “free” subscriptions?
Bob: You can request copies for any
and all members in the church. Some requests come from individuals, some come
from churches, some come from conferences. Our list maintenance software
eliminates dupli-cations. If you want to sign up, you can call 1-800-363-0575
to find out the specific procedure.
Dalton: Don’t you get
a lot of “dead wood” if people don’t have to renew their subscriptions?
Bob:
Lists
are kept up-to-date through a function of the software that is used by our list
maintenance managing company. They are tied into the USPS so that if someone
changes address and registers that change with the Post Office, it is
automatically changed on our list. Otherwise, it is up to the conference to
keep the lists clean.
Dalton: Why the Conference?
Bob: The lists are separated by conference and
each conference "owns" its own list. The national settings of the
church are permitted by contract to use the lists for only two purposes:
delivery of and support for United Church News. These lists are
not used for any other purpose in the national settings. Conferences may determine other
uses
for their lists.
Dalton: So how do we
subscribe?
Bob: The best way
to subscribe, especially if you are looking to add multiple names, is by
calling 1-800-363-0575 or e-mailing ucn@pubinfocenter.com.