Announcements

Church publications can only be as good of the information that is submitted. AUUC needs to make submitting information for announcements quick and easy. I propose that leaders submit information using a Google form for their information to be included in the Order of Service bulletin, Weekly announcements via Constant Contact, the church calendar, and the newsletter. You could also offer another mechanism for leaders to add content to the "Recent News" section of the website.

The office administrator, or communications committee designee, would create a profile in Google to create the form, rename the link to something easily remembered and shared, and would use the data from the Google Sheet the form generates to compile all announcement requests. Google docs, sheets, or folders can be shared with other leaders through a share link or by sending an invite within Google so that worship service coordinators could have access to this information to print bulletins for Sunday morning. The office administrator would get an e-mail to their Gmail stating that there is a new submission in the form.

Likewise, committees can create easily remembered collaborative spreadsheets to allow people to sign-up for greeting, nursery, or RE classes. Google Sheets allow users to view other people's submissions. For signing up for an event like the Service Auction, however, a Google form should be created to keep people from viewing others' submissions in advance. I created an alias to the sample Google Form at tinyurl.com/sampleAUUCannouncement if you want to try it out.

I would recommend that leaders bookmark to create a shortcut to the Announcement form's webpage on their web browser. Leaders could even create a icon on iOS or Android device on their phone's home screen for easy access to the page.

Find videos and tutorials for creating a form, renaming the link and reviewing the data from the form by clicking here or using the drop down menu under Announcements in the upper right hand toolbar.

For presenting the most current announcements on Sunday morning, you could import the Powerpoint that is currently being used into Google Drive to allow church leaders to add announcements directly onto the slides. The presentation could be presented directly in Google on Sunday mornings or it can easily be downloaded into Powerpoint presentation just before service starts. By allowing people to add slides, you could eliminate Flash announcements. You can require that leaders who want something announced to have previously added a slide in the Google form or the presentation.

This could be updated minutes before the service starts because the presentation is a constantly changing slide show by entering the memorable URL into your preferred browser, placing a bookmark on your homescreen, or by using the Google docs or Google Slides app.

Find videos and tutorials for importing a PowerPoint into Google Slides, sharing a presentation, and changing edit privileges by clicking here or using the drop down menu under Announcements in the upper right hand toolbar.

Worship Committee requested help in developing a training on procedures for operating the monitors, using Presentation mode in Powerpoint, and presenting video within the worship service.

Find videos and tutorials for connecting devices to the monitors, opening and loading presentations, and procedures within the worship service by clicking here or using the drop down menu under Announcements in the upper right hand toolbar.