4 members (attenders welcome). Term: 3 years. Delivers an annual report to the Meeting in April and hosts Friendly First Shared Meal in October. Meets as needed.
The Communications Committee provides a central collection point for all meeting communications and coordinates both internal and external distribution through a weekly newsletter email, announcements read after meeting for worship, website content, social media posts, and press releases in local news publications.
The committee’s responsibilities include:
Announcements After Meeting for Worship – Information is collected from meeting committees and other sources. A document is created weekly which lists the announcements to be made. The document is reviewed by the Clerk of Communications, then sent to the announcers, the Meeting Clerk and the Assistant Clerk.
Scheduling Announcers – The committee appoints three announcers with staggered 3-year terms. They rotate months for reading announcements after meeting for worship. The announcers do not need to be members of the committee.
Weekly Email Newsletter – The committee produces a weekly newsletter, “This Week at Newtown Meeting”, which is emailed at the end of each week. The newsletter includes information about the schedule for the immediately upcoming and following Sundays. It describes the upcoming Adult First Day program including links to the speaker’s organizations and to relevant articles featuring them. It includes short announcements of meeting-related and other Quaker activities, the queries of the month, and other related information.
Website Content – The committee has general responsibility for content on the Meeting website and specific responsibility for maintaining the home page and other pages with general information about the Meeting. The content is maintained and updated on a regular basis to keep information current. Each meeting committee has its own website coordinator who maintains content on their committee page. The committee website coordinators are trained by members of the Digital Technology Committee.
Bulletin Board Content – The committee posts items on the bulletin board on the wall by the stairs concerning Quaker organizations (FCNL, AFSC) and other related organizations (The Peace Center, Mercer Street Friends, Friends Village, etc).
Press relations – The Press relations coordinator writes and distributes weekly press releases to local media on upcoming adult classes, lectures and other events of interest to the wider community.
The Meeting Recorder serves as an Ex Officio member of the committee. The Recorder ensures that appropriate members of the Meeting are included in various communications channels.