Reports & Articles
What is the Communications Committee?
Communication at USNF has changed over the last couple of decades as radically as communication in
general has. Not long ago, the Pioneer was created with a typewriter, scissors and glue, copied at the
copy shop, and mailed at the Post Office. Announcements on Sunday morning were the main organs of
communication within the Society. Now the Pioneer is completely digital, is e-mailed to the majority of
us, and printed for a shrinking group of us. We have a website and a Facebook page. Some of our
committees, including the Youth Group, have their own Facebook groups. The USNF office staff uses
e-mail to send us an electronic version of the Sunday Times and to notify us of other events, as needed.
The challenge is to use these avenues of communication fully, well, and responsibly. The Communications Committee was formed by the Board of Trustees about three years ago to oversee that effort. The
Committee is small, consisting of four people. Current members are Julie Kurose, Patricia Wright,
Laurie Loisel and Janet Bush (ex-officio.) The Committee’s purpose is to act as an oversight group for
the various groups and entities that use our communication methods. Currently, these methods include
the Society website, the Pioneer, the Sunday Times, e-mail communications, brochures and publicity related to Society programs, social media, and any other method of Society-wide communication. The
goal of the Committee is to ensure that all communications are effective and reflect the best of who we
are as a Society.
Policies concerning the different communication methods that we regularly use have been formulated
by the Communications Committee, and approved by the Board. They are available on the USNF
website in our Members-only section, along with other Society policies.
As an on-going oversight body, the Communications Committee also regularly reviews the website and
addresses any questions of communication policy that arise. We meet on an as-needed basis when
questions or issues arise. We are always available for questions or ideas concerning this most important
area of our congregational life.
Julie Kurose
The Pioneer 8