Communications Committees: Making Collaborative Work Manageable
by Ret David North
Having a committee for communications can be a great thing: you can divide up work, give people the opportunity to focus on something they may specialize in, and you may be able to accomplish more in the time you have available to you. Being part of and/or leading a communications committee can make your job easier to engage with, until it doesn’t. But then what?
Here we’ll be exploring about how you can effectively manage your committee, responsibilities, expectations, and projects: what works, what does not work, and what tools you have available to you for more effective committee member management.
Why start a committee?
Communications is a broad and sometimes tedious ministry in church administrative work, and all of that can be overwhelming for one person to tackle. A committee can be a great resource when you have so much to do that you feel like you need to clone yourself. Need more work done than you have time for, or don’t know where to start with certain parts of your work? Starting a committee with specific needs for them to target can be a great way to make all methods of communicating with your committee effective, efficient, and current.
But, as many of us are aware, it takes a lot of time on the front end to start and maintain a committee that works productively, and it can be difficult to figure out the right routine, strategies, and personalities to bring in so that the committee does not turn into an uncontrollable monster. Lack of planning ahead can result in a lot of people who do not want or know how to be present. If you get too far in, none of these people know how to get off the committee, and in many cases, they certainly do not want to say no to you because they know you have a need.
At the same time, it can also be very easy to run into people you have no need for, people who actually slow down or complicate your work more than they contribute. Some people have lots of ideas, but no capacity or motivation to execute those ideas themselves. These people then, more often than not, come in with the expectation that you will execute all of their ideas. This does not work; rather, it defeats the purpose of the committee in the first place. It can be difficult to draw the boundary line to help you avoid these people, but it is okay and valid to acknowledge that there is a difference between people with ideas, who think they are qualified to help, and people with experience, who are qualified, able, and willing to do the work.
It is also important to acknowledge in your efforts that the communications you need to accomplish must be current according to the way your community expects you to communicate with them, especially in this time of transition where people expect information to be not only available to them quickly, but also quick to absorb. A wordy writer may not be the best asset to you when most of your community will only scroll through the first page of your newsletter before clicking away. Someone with lots of ideas for things to print out may not be a great asset to you when most of your community is more responsive to online communication and social media. Those who do not know exactly what they can or want to contribute may not be helpful to you at first if you are not able to provide a focused and engaging contribution for them to make.
Who am I looking for and how do I find them?
What we all look for in a communications committee is people who can meaningfully contribute, both in planning and in actual content production, especially in a way that responds to an increasing demand for evolved, strategic communication in greater frequency. You need the people who know how to engage your community enough to scroll past the first page.
Whether you are trying to resurrect a previous committee or starting fresh to help accomplish more tasks more effectively, a great way to start is by setting up focus groups. Put out a call for feedback on specific things, ideally things that you dread doing or things that you feel out of touch doing: whether you’re asking for feedback on your website and social media platforms, your newsletter, your service bulletin, or anything else, people with ideas may come out of the woodwork, whether they have been part of your community for years or if they are just starting to come more frequently. Often, these may be people who are retired or stay-at-home parents looking for something to do. Sometimes, they could be people who typically complain about your work; if these people have ideas and expertise, you might be able to turn them around from thorns in your side to resources and champion contributors. Throw out your net to see what fish you catch, and find the biggest, fattest fish to see if they can become a resource to you.
This open call should be specific. Prepare the job descriptions you need before even putting out the call, so the people you find who might be able to contribute know exactly what is being asked of them in terms of time commitment, frequency, and skill set. Something as broad as “Please join our communications committee” will not attract the people you are looking for, and it may not attract anyone at all. Rather, a focus group on a specific topic, especially as a one-time commitment, can be a very good first step for people who are not very involved but want to be and have not yet found something they feel capable and motivated of helping with.
For example, you could set up a one-time focus group event and gather 10 people in attendance. Focus groups often have the potential to let some things to bubble to the surface that you might not have seen or understood before, especially when you recruit people who are not already heavily involved in something else. These people have more time and more of an open mind and perspective to give, rather than coming from one focused perspective or needing their own help in another area or ministry. In this way, you might find one or two people whose hearts are in the right place.
When you do find the individuals that you are looking for, have that talk with them and figure out a trial period to start them out and see how well the commitment works for them and for you. If it is not working, for whatever reason, a trial period provides you with the wiggle room to reevaluate and figure out how to improve the situation, or, if necessary, show them the door.
You should go into focus group events like this with a focus on the need(s) you are trying to target so that you know and the people you are gathering know that you have planned ahead. However, it is also important for you to keep an open mind in focus group events like this because you may find people willing to get their foot in the door and help you accomplish other needs. For example, you may find people who have shown up, not because they are willing to do that work, but who would like to contribute financially, to replace the copier being held together with duct tape or the computer with Windows 95 still on it. Your focus group may reap people who have the capacity to contribute in different ways but have never been asked or have never had the opportunity to find out what the focused needs of your community and your work really are. At the same time, you may also run into people willing to do the work, but who do not have the means, equipment or otherwise, to contribute the way they would like. Consider how you may be able to provide these people with opportunities to contribute, or who could be able to help you do this.
You might also consider the equity between the people who make up the committee you are trying to people. Are there people on this committee with more power, authority, or influence in your relationship than you have?? If so, does this affect your ability to keep people on the committee who contribute meaningfully? Is there a power dynamic that gets in the way of the productivity potential of your committee? Do you get to choose the people you need? There may also be people who only come into the committee and contribute on occasion, rather than on a regular basis, because their contribution may only be meaningful in this format.
Where to go from here?
Maintaining a successful committee can come with a lot of moving pieces when you finally have one. How do you honor those contributing to your committee in a way that makes them feel truly appreciated? Some contributors with specialized expertise and contributions (photographers, writers, web developers, etc.) may need an honorarium or regular pay – how will you enable yourself to make sure they feel appreciated? Other contributors would feel slapped in the face if you tried to pay them for their contributions – how do you make them feel appreciated?
How do you acknowledge those who contribute to your community at a high level? Language is a vital component in everything that we do, even when it is not necessarily put into words. Unpaid contributors can seem temporary and/or unqualified if they are simply referred to as “volunteers.” Rather, calling them servants communicates a connection between their contribution to your communication and their relationship with God, making their commitment and their talents more meaningful in context. For those with specialized expertise and contributions, they may be better referred to as specialists, consultants, or experts.
Your communication strategies will develop and grow as your community continues their work, but it is also important to keep a record of what you standardize as policy or at least relatively permanent, indefinite strategy. When you have multiple hands in the communications pot, a lack of consistency can make it very easy to tell how consistent your communications are across the board. How are times and dates written? Do you all use the Oxford comma? How frequently does your messaging contain spelling/grammar errors? Casual language? It is important to set standards and rules about the little things so that all communications, no matter how many people are doing this work, are consistent and smooth across the board.
At the same time, setting a standards policy also gives you the opportunity to set standards and expectations for what you need your committee to accomplish. The line can be a bit blurry, because (as always) it is important to acknowledge that every person on that committee, including you, is an individual with a life and commitments outside of the committee and outside of your community. When the humanity in the dynamic is lost, so is the purpose and productivity of your committee. However, make sure that you can accomplish what you need to maintain smooth and effective communications across the board. As a result, the committee may go through some iterations over time as some people are no longer contributing meaningfully, and that’s okay! As communication needs and strategies evolve, so do we.
The art of communications is managing opportunities: each of us gets to choose what we need to push off our plates to be more successful and what is easier to keep on our plate because we know that we are the best people for the job. Whether you establish a communications committee, or you only outsource help every once in a while, consider what you know will be the most rewarding, manageable, and productive experience for you without killing your soul.