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MEDIA TEAM ANNUAL REPORT 2023
The basic mandate of Hillcrest’s Media Team (during 2023 Brenda Dewar, Melissa Mullen, Anne White, Mary Martin and Nancy VanWeichen) is to regularly publish news of the church’s activities. We do this weekly on www.hillcrestunitedpei.com, on www.facebook.com/HillcrestUnitedChurchPEI and, when appropriate, in the local newspapers and on local radio. In addition, all accumulated materials (photos, videos and written items) are securely archived in the church’s computer filing system to be accessible always as part of our church’s history. If anyone wants/needs any of these, the church’s administrator (Nancy VanWiechen) will share them with you. In addition to the five members of our team, we wish to thank Sandra MacDonald and David White for contributing many photos over the past twelve months and Timothy Wisnicki and Nancy VanWiechen for sending the bulletins and sermons each week for inclusion on the website. In 2024 we intend to continue these services and also hope to teach the congregation a few tips for accessing information on the website. Also, during January 2024, we will be asking all Hillcrest groups to read all things relevant to their activities online and make suggestions for necessary updates which we can then insert to ensure our information continues to be accurate. Submitted Dec 31, 2023 Brenda Dewar |
HILLCRESTMEDIA TEAM ANNUAL REPORT 2022
The Hillcrest Media Team was established in November of 2021 for the purpose of showing people both outside and within our congregation what is happening in our church. It consists of five volunteers: Melissa Mullen keeps our FaceBook page up-to-date each week; Brenda changes information regularly on our website www.hillcrestunitedpei.com; Mary Martin, Anne White and Nancy VanWiecken provide steady input of information and photos. Melissa and Anne do occasional radio announcements for special occasions.
As an offshoot of Session Outreach, we aim to make our church more widely known but take care with what we post. For example, we seldom mention children’s names though we do like to praise them for what they do. So far, we have heard no criticisms.
The Hillcrest website has been our biggest project. Beginning in late November, we contacted all Hillcrest committees to gather information and photos. Melissa wrote most of the copy; we all configured the design and organization of the website (now >55 multi-linked pages!) and Brenda put it together using Weebly. This program was chosen as advised by several professional web designers and because Brenda had used it for 15+ years but, more importantly, because it will be easier for any new volunteer/s to continue than many other website-building-programs are.
We intentionally use a more “homely/chatty” approach (eg.changing the home page constantly akin to FaceBook use) than many bigger churches do because we feel it better reflects who we are. Brenda updates the website each week; Melissa updates Hillcrest’s FaceBook page at least once a week: the two of us each pinch-hit for the other as needed.
New each week for the Website are the Bulletins and Minuts for Mission (provided by Nancy), last week’s sermon (provided by Timothy), links to videos of all Sunday services on YouTube (provided by David & John) and always new photos & announcements of up-coming events (provided by Mary and Anne.)
It would be difficult to find a more congenial and productive team anywhere!
Building the website brought other items to our attention too. We have updated Hillcrest’s page on the CanadaHelps website after discovering there are at least 4 other Hillcrest United Churches in Canada. The church’s constantly-changing calendar can be viewed from the Home Page. And we are accumulating a steady history of our church in photos and words. Items retired from the website are stored now on Hillcrest’s cloud, accessible to any who want to use them. We hope www.hillcrestunitedpei.com will be well used for years to come.