By the time you’re reading this...there’s a good chance we’ll have launched the new stjohnswv.org!

Part of the transition to the new website is looking at The Interchange from a “digital-first” perspective. Over the last few months the communications committee has noted that St. John's is once again becoming a very busy parish with lots to share, and there is limited page space in the eight pages of a monthly paper or PDF newsletter for all the good news! A monthly release date also means there is often timely content that is not ready by one month’s deadline, but would be out-of-date by the following month's deadline. Lastly, the cost in materials and volunteer time needed to create and print page newsletter once a month are not insignificant and we want to make sure we are making the best use of our resources and capacity.

To this end we are unveiling a new online format of The Interchange. Stories will be posted to the website and Facebook as soon as they are ready, rather than waiting for a monthly release. This also allows us to publish a larger amount of content without the constraints of a monthly page limit.

The submission process for The Interchange will remain the same as it has been in the past (although you also have the option to submit via the website now). Beth Marquart, as well as a group of new volunteers, will continue the role of editing the content for quality control and relevance.

We do recognize that we are a parish of varying comfort online. To this end, we are continuing to publish a monthly four-page printed digest of stories that have been posted on the website in the past month, which will aptly be called The Interchange Digest. The Interchange team will identify pieces on a monthly basis to include in the printed Interchange Digest. See Beth’s column on the next page for more information about this and our updated communications guidelines.