Communication Musings

I would like to devote this blog space to a discussion of communication. It was George Bernard Shaw, who said "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." Communication within our council is critical and is certainly a challenge. I guess I’ll devote this first post to a description of how we are attempting to meet the communication challenges that we have within the council.

We have a Communications Group comprised of volunteers and paid staff who oversee the various communication channels that we utilize These channels include our website, our Facebook account, our direct emailing, our Roundtables and our monthly newsletter. Each of these communication channels has its own strengths and challenges. Each is managed by a volunteer with management oversight from paid staff. Since my intent in writing this blog is to stimulate a conversation about communication, let me briefly point out some of the pros and cons of each of these communication channels.

Let’s begin with the website. The website is public facing and is the first contact people have with us when they search for scouting related topics in New Mexico andTexas. The website is also repository for documentation and other council information that is useful to our families and volunteers. We currently have over 1000 “hits” on our website during a typical week. Keeping the website current and up to date is probably its single biggest challenge.

Next is our Facebook/Instagram sites. These channels sre useful for timely notifications that are pushed out to subscribers. I can’t really think of any downsides to these channels except that they are out there competing with a plethora of other information sources and must be constantly trying to remain pertinent and engaging.

Our monthly newsletter is our third communication channel. It is not an exaggeration to say that if council families did nothing except pay attention to the newsletter, they would know everything they need to know about what’s going on in the Council. The newsletter comes out once a month. If it has a downside, it would be again that it is competing for peoples’ attention in a very crowded media universe.

Our Roundtables are held on the first Thursday of every month via Zoom. They began in the old days when everyone gathered in a physical venue to hear about updates and discuss issues of concern. That model is obviously not workable in a council of our size. Each Roundtable begins with a formal opening ceremony and then discusses a few items of current importance. Separate rooms are then broken out by program (Cub, Scout, Venturing, etc.) for more in-depth discussions.

Finally is our direct email channel. This is perhaps the most personal channel that we utilize. Although It requires people to sign up, the email messages are sent directly to their inbox. We are exploring the possibility of doing more targeted emails. An example will illustrate what I mean. Say we have an event going on in Farmington that would be of particular interest to Cub Scout families. With our email platform from MailerLite, we would be able to target those families based on information from their registration records. Cool, huh? We’re still exploring that capability and I will keep you posted in future blogs.

OK, since it’s supposed to be a blog and not a novel, I will quit for now. I would be very interested to hear from you with your thoughts and ideas about our communication efforts. I learned a long time ago that you’re never quite as stupid as you are when you just talk to yourself. Till later, Fred.

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