Communications and Media Services Key points in this report: 

CoMS continues to play vital communications role

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Enhanced online and social media presence a positive achievement of last 18 months

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Crosslight named 2015 ARPA Publication of the Year

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INTRODUCTION

The Communications and Media Services (CoMS) unit has been actively involved in supporting and assisting the Church and its agencies during a busy period over the last 18 months. CoMS has increased the Church’s profile on social media, with the strong support of congregations and Church members who enjoy engaging on Facebook and Twitter. The Synod’s monthly newspaper, Crosslight, was named Publication of the Year at the Australasian Religious Press Association Awards in August 2015. This report provides a snapshot of some of the activities and services the CoMS team provides to the Church.

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PROJECTS

Some of the major projects in which CoMS has played an important communications support role have been the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, The Wesley Upper Lonsdale development, the 130 Little Collins Street redevelopment, the Major Strategic Review and the UnitingCare Network Project. It has also provided advice and helped plan a program of communications for the Archives Centre Change Project. Our support continued though the life of the project, producing and delivering communications so that key groups were informed and engaged during the change process. The Synod’s archive service was successfully relocated to their new facilities and continues to enjoy the support of a dedicated group of volunteers. Megan James, a communications specialist contracted to CoMS to work on special projects, was actively involved in the Archives change project. However her main role has been providing communications support to the Major Strategic Review project director and team. Megan has attended many of the consultations across the life of the Church, managed the Listening Post website, helped craft papers, articles and reports and been a gentle and perceptive support for the project.

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ONLINE ENGAGEMENT

Over the last 18 months, under the guidance of Online Co-ordinator Emmet O’Cuana, CoMS has: 

promoted cost effective web hosting solutions to congregations throughout the synod and provided support on how to manage websites;

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visited congregations to give advice to church members on the use of Wordpress;

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created events and project-based sites for synod units on request;

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redesigned the Crosslight website;

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revamped the Synod e-Newsletter and introduced notices offering opportunities in synods across Australia;

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held staff seminars on communications tools, from web design to writing for online audiences and;

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archived defunct news websites previously managed by synod staff so that a record is kept.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Last year the unit made a concerted effort to expand its online presence, driven by the appointment of Tim Lam. In the social media space, we have created a new social media strategy, updated our social media policy and held a lunchtime seminar on the effective use of Twitter. We have live-tweeted from a number of social justice events and rallies, including: the Palm Sunday refugee march, protests against the closure of remote Indigenous communities, #LighttheDark, NaranaFest, People’s Climate March and #LetThemStay protests. We publish new content on Facebook and Twitter every day, which has seen an increase in our social media engagement. Last year, there were a total of 7,008 likes, comments and shares on Facebook and 6,484 retweets and likes on Twitter. Our tweets have also been retweeted by a number of prominent social media influencers and organisations, including the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, GetUp!, Sarah Hanson-Young, the Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Human Rights Commission and Mariam Veiszadeh. Daily stories have been produced for Crosslight Online, which are shared on Facebook and Twitter. Last year, we had 57,029 page views on Crosslight Online, compared to 37,833 in 2014.

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CROSSLIGHT

Crosslight remains the communication tool, or avenue, which reaches most members of the church across the two states. We have been proud of our flagship publication - and with good reason, because in 2015 Crosslight was recognised as the Publication of the Year by the Australasian Religious Press Association. In the commentary relating to the award the judge referred to the publication’s ethos as well as its content and design. “If there is one word which can describe the ethos of this publication it is ‘commitment’. There is a commitment on behalf of the editorial team to excellence in journalism, but an excellence which also reflects the commitment of the organisation which owns the publication.” The judge also commended the redesign of Crosslight, which was completed two years ago. “The result is a light and airy print aesthetic, which reflects the design approach we see in publications such as The New Yorker tablet version.”

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While this is high praise for the publication, those responsible for Crosslight will not allow it to rest on its laurels. More than 100 readers responded to a survey over the Christmas break, with some of the suggestions already implemented in Crosslight. If you have not checked out Crosslight Online (http://www.crosslight.org.au), please do so. New stories are posted daily, and there are a number of specialist sections such as the Arts, Reviews, Good News stories and Commission for Mission. Thank you to Deb Bennett (managing editor) and the CoMS team who continually strive to publish a professional, accurate, informative and engaging publication for 11 months of the year. Thank you too, to the letter and guest writers, photographers, advertisers and readers, for without you Crosslight would have little meaning!

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MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

CoMS is responsible for media management. This includes the placement of stories in both the Tasmanian and Victorian media and responding to journalists’ requests for information across a broad range of subjects. On a national and local level, the Church has remained an outspoken critic of Australia’s asylum seeker policies, as espoused by both major political parties, and this has attracted significant media interest as has the work of the Justice and International Mission unit on such subjects as tax justice, poker machine reform, and human slavery and trafficking. The CoMS team remains in regular contact with communicators assigned to other arms of the Synod such as the Commission for Mission, Uniting AgeWell and Funds Management. Synod CoMS maintains regular contact with communicators in UnitingCare agencies and shares their stories through social media, Crosslight and Crosslight Online. Media releases continue to be created for key messages on behalf of the Synod. Communications staff employed by UCA Funds Management, Commission for Mission and UnitingCare call on the CoMS team to create or edit their releases before dissemination. Other communications services included messaging, brochure creation and the public launch of the Keeping Children Safe Policy. That involved organising event launches in Hobart and Melbourne, banners, USB sticks, media releases, website content, guest invitations and securing a guest speaker. CoMS worked with the Disability Inclusion team to create media releases and promotional material for their 2016 Exclusion and Embrace conference, as well as the Disability Action Plan. It also provides strategic messaging for changes in church policy such as the ACCESS decision by Standing Committee. It was important that internal and external stakeholders were informed, and in this example a planned hour-by-hour strategy was developed so that all relevant parties received information as soon as possible. CoMS also provides editorial oversight to other units for their external communication. This includes UCVT Network News, Share Snapshots and annual reports.

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STAFF

The CoMS team has undergone some staff changes over the last 18 months, which have led to new innovations as outlined above. Graphic designer Mirna Leonita was on 12 months maternity leave from March 2015 and has now returned part-time. Garth Jones replaced Mirna during her period of maternity leave and has remained on staff, in a part-time Design and Print Services capacity, recognising the valuable skills he brings to the team, with particular regard to video production. With Garth's support Basecamp (a software project management tool) has been implemented to help streamline the Crosslight production process and manage inter-unit projects more efficiently. He has also helped refine the Crosslight production process, including the addition of editorial imagery and editing content on the page, writing content for the reviews section and bringing other contacts into the mix for online stories. Garth adds dedicated audio-visual filming and editing capabilities to the CoMS unit, including utilisation of experience in motion graphics, animation, design for the screen and news editing capabilities. Some of this work will be on show at the 2016 Synod meeting. In January this year, after nearly six years, Ben Grundy resigned from the unit to undertake overseas travel. His enthusiasm and work ethic will be greatly missed. Experienced communications professional Ros Marsden joined the team as Senior Media Officer at the beginning of last year and has brought great energy, ideas and creativity to the team. Ros has undertaken major project work, including the Wesley Upper Lonsdale project and the synod’s Keeping Children Safe Policy. She has also played an important role in media training of our own people, including our ModeratorElect, and provides strategic media advice both within the synod and to agencies and congregations. Andrew Juma’s position as Senior Advertising and Print Services Officer was made redundant last year and we thank Andrew for his six years of service. Rounding out the changes has been the appointment of Lynda Nel as part-time executive assistant to the Director, replacing Heather Thomson, who moved to Sydney. Lynda’s role has been extended to encompass responsibility for advertising in Crosslight. Tasmanian-based Communications Manager, Nigel Tapp, continues to ensure the Tasmanian voice is well represented, both in mainstream media and within Crosslight. Nigel has been seconded to provide communications support to the UnitingCare Network Project Control Group, which has been working to create a framework to bring 25 agencies and Wesley Mission Victoria together under a single governance board.

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INTER-SYNOD RELATIONSHIP

The CoMS team continues to work closely with colleagues at the other synods and Assembly. One regular event has been that synods and Assembly communicators join to create a single newsroom for the coverage of Assembly meetings.

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Meetings continue to be held about twice a year to discuss church communications, marketing, reputation and branding. The editors of the various publications regularly share resources and discuss content, advertising and style.

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CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that many new opportunities and challenges will lay ahead for both the Church and, by extension, the CoMS team. My team is excited by those challenges and is excited by the privilege we have to serve the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. As the Synod considers the recommendations of the Major Strategic Review, the members of the st CoMS team hope that we too can be responsive to what it means to be Church in 21 century multifaith, cross-cultural Australia.

PENNY MULVEY Director

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