United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Meeting Report

Quarterly Meeting Videoconference
August 6-9, 2012

Part 2 of 3

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The session was called to order by Chairman Melvin Rhodes at 4:10 EDT with all Council members present plus Roy Holladay, via videoconferencing. As is the usual, president Dennis Luker and all three operation managers—Aaron Dean, Peter Eddington and Victor Kubik—were in attendance. Also present for the discussion were Aaron Booth, Milan Bizic, Tom Disher, Clint Porter, Rudy Rangel and Tory Trone—all members of the media team who helped shape the media proposal that was discussed.

The opening prayer was given by Mark Mickelson.

As chairman of the Roles and Rules Committee, Gary Antion gave the annual public reading of the Code of Ethics of the Council of Elders as required for the beginning of each Council year.

Discussion of the Media Department's Proposed Public Proclamation Identity

Mr. Dennis Luker began the discussion with some positive comments about the team in media operations that put the proposal together. He spoke highly of their dedication to God and to the gospel and his appreciation for their energetic commitment to their duties. “Their whole heart and soul is to help the United Church of God accomplish its purpose.”

He said that it has taken him some time to fully comprehend what the proposal entails, which is a consolidation of all our gospel efforts under one media identity. He also explained that the Council was not being asked to approve the proposal at this time, but he believed that it was time for them to see it, discuss it and provide added guidance.

In the latest eNews from Ministerial and Member Services sent out on Friday, August 10, it was stated that the media identity video prepared for the Council would be made available for all elders. The Council is still in preliminary discussions with regard to this issue and still has much to deliberate about the topic. The Council plans to have another videoconference at the end of the month to further discuss the issue. In the meantime, members of the Council will be putting forth their suggestions and ideas. With that in mind, the Council believes it needs to develop its response before seeking comments from the General Conference of Elders.

Media and Communications Services operation manager Peter Eddington then introduced the topic of discussion: the media identity proposal. He explained that the video sent to all Council members for earlier viewing provided the details and scope of the proposal. Starting with the slide from the presentation that showed all of our various logos, he suggested that it especially highlights the present lack of media identity coordination. He asked if the Council understood the point of the proposal.

John Elliott commented on his appreciation for the hard work of the team. He also commented that advertising is not rocket science, but is more of an art. He commented that the various logos mark all the different entry points that people can come into the contact with the truth and asked for clarification.

Mr. Eddington explained that companies who sell diverse products differ from our effort in the sense that theirs don't directly compete with each other for audience. A company that produces toothpaste and diapers can have different brands for each. They are not competing. But our message of the Kingdom of God should be seen in all our efforts under one unified approach. Mr. Elliott asked about the proposal of presenting marriage and other seminars. Mr. Eddington explained that the purpose is to have one concentrated message—the Kingdom of God, and that marriage for instance ties into the Kingdom, as does any aspect of God's way, through topic searches, not because of the name of our magazine.

Aaron Dean explained that he misunderstood how people search for us on the Internet and that we would not lose any of the “long-tail searches.” A long-tail search is when a person types in a question like “What is the meaning of life?” or “What is the Sabbath?” into an Internet search engine to find the answer. The proposal's presentation pointed out that the majority of our hits on The Good News website come to us this way.

Scott Ashley thought that part of the presentation overstated the situation, citing the inclusion of logos for United Youth Camps (UYC) and Ambassador Bible Center (ABC) are internal programs that don't compare with logos for outreach entities like The Good News, Beyond Today or Vertical Thought. Tom Disher pointed out that UYC, ABC and such will fall under the UCG identity rather than under the main media identity, which would be for the public proclamation products. He added that eight or 10 years ago the effective strategy was to have multiple websites, but now a consolidated media presence works best on the Web because Google rewards websites for having one “deep” (containing lots of applicable content) site. He said that they carefully evaluate “human usefulness” for the site.

Mark Mickelson asked if we had talked to a Church member that works for Google about their internal processes. John Elliott asked the same question about another Google employee who focuses on advertising. Peter Eddington said that he did talk with the latter and plans to talk with both of them as we move past the identity development phase, since their areas of expertise focus on other areas of the Internet.

Bob Berendt commented about the need to make our Web presence more international in perspective and functionality. He commented that he has found the present UCG.org to be hard to navigate. Mr. Disher pointed out that we have just recently begun using a Google search product that has greatly improved the usefulness of UCG.org. He agreed that the previous internal search feature was ponderous and the new one is much faster. In addition, consolidating our media efforts would improve our site navigation dramatically. This is one of the main reasons for this proclamation identity proposal.

Bill Bradford also commented that the logo slide in the presentation contains many of our “products” that won't be affected by our media outreach efforts. Mr. Eddington explained that the proposal is advocating developing two identities within the overall umbrella of the United Church of God: 1) preaching the gospel and 2) serving the Church. All of our products would be designed to make it clear whether they are part of either public proclamation or serving the Church. He then pulled up the slide from the presentation that shows which UCG products would be under the new media label and which would be listed under the Church.

In response to Mr. Bradford's questions, Mr. Eddington pointed out that the second part of the proposal asks whether we should consolidate our efforts and under what label. Mr. Bradford said that he hadn't yet heard or seen in the proposal what would be the benefits of the proposed consolidation.

Mr. Berendt expressed some concern about just using the English title for Beyond Today in other languages. Don Ward commented that the presentation proposed first the media identity consolidation, and the other part had to do with the visual guide—which he said was clearly needed. Mr. Eddington explained that all elements of both public proclamation and our internal programs would continue to be produced by the United Church of God and be labeled as such.

Dr. Ward expressed concern that the proposal was calling for another magazine in these tight economic times. Mr. Eddington explained that the proposal would rename the present Good News to something else like perhaps Beyond Today magazine, and The Good News would merge in some way with our current United News. Dr. Ward countered that in effect we would be launching two new magazines then, which will be a major change. He asked if plans were made to deal with the increased budget strain and workload. Mr. Eddington explained that the production cost of our main public proclamation magazine would not change (it would be only a title change), and that moving The Good News more towards a member publication with United News, would be of approximately equal cost.

Clint Porter added that there would be a realigning process of 12 to 18 months to provide the transition from the present publications to the renamed ones. Tory Trone verified that under the proposal Beyond Today magazine would assume the present place of The Good News, and The Good News would combine with the United News position. He added that part of the desire is to provide our public proclamation magazine a title that can be a platform to address some of the bad news and the prophecies that the world needs to hear about, and that the goal is to increasingly address the large percentage of very secular people in the world's population rather than just our present religious audience.

Robin Webber cautioned that we should not try to proclaim two identities, but remain focused with one established prominent identity, as a Christian church—the United Church of God, that has two components (rather than “two identities”). How we frame this proposal is as important as what we might do so the membership understands and supports any new effort. One component like Beyond Today (and related products) would be focused towards a broader audience, and the second component, the United News publication, for our membership. He stated the need to maintain the “United News” name, because that is exactly what we are focusing on—news and needs of the United Church of God. The name plainly spells out the focus of that publication. He was concerned that if we strive to maintain another product to simply retain “The Good News” name would challenge our editorial manpower. The goal after all is to simplify, streamline and establish focus on what we are doing and not multiply our efforts at this time. Mr. Eddington pointed out, however, that when anyone sees the content of our program or magazine they will recognize quickly enough that we are a Christian entity. The proposal is for UCG to have two main arms—one for preaching the gospel and one for preparing a people—but both under the main umbrella of the United Church of God.

Mr. Elliott suggested renaming everything to Tomorrow. Mr. Eddington pointed out that seven years ago that was considered, but the Council selected Beyond Today for the television program. Tom Disher explained that the media team prefers Beyond Today because we own it already and that people searching our websites spend considerable time on the Beyond Today page.

Mario Seiglie explained that he is in agreement with carefully consolidating our media efforts. He said that these are tough decisions, but we do need find the right way to be more effective in the long run.

Darris McNeely explained that the team seven years ago first chose the name “Future Focus” for the television program, but the Council didn't care for it. They then came up with Beyond Today, and since then have invested considerable energy into making it successful. Originally, he wasn't all that enthused about the name, but over the years he and the other presenters have come to see the value of the name. He told about how it was Mr. Armstrong's passion of expounding the gospel of the Kingdom that made The World Tomorrow and The Plain Truth so effective. He encouraged everyone to be patient and consider the process.

Mark Mickelson asked about whether The Good News would be a magazine or a newspaper (like United News currently is). He expressed concern for alienation of members by dramatic changes. He expressed concern that the proposal would be very expensive during these economic low times. He commented that if the proposal goes forward, the Good News' presentation should be what the members are used to. Peter Eddington said that The Good News as a member publication would be a much shorter print run and therefore not substantially change our budget.

Mr. Berendt expressed concern about the impact on the Church members. Mr. Disher and Mr. Trone explained the case studies about transitioning products as some insight for our situation. The key was how appropriately the process was handled—which would be very important for us.

Mr. Elliott commented that the process should not be an emotional hot point, but that the name Beyond Today is more abstract than The Good News. He said that he could see the sense of the transition, but is concerned about the emotional hit. Rudy Rangel pointed out that Beyond Today is just a delivery channel—it is not the message—and that our message is the Kingdom of God. He said that a program or magazine name is not our message—we define our message—that the meaning of the magazine or television program name is attached to our message by the definition process.

Carmelo Anastasi expressed concern with the title of Beyond Today because it does not express the “now”—the present urgency. He suggested combining The Good News and Beyond Today into one logo. Aaron Booth answered that each of us has a personal story—a trial, problem, search for meaning, etc.—that drew us into the Kingdom of God. Beyond Today is to get people to stop and think about whether they are going in a good or bad direction. Beyond Today is trying to point people to the future to live a better life now and in the Kingdom. Jesus Christ spent so much of His time telling the story of the Kingdom of God. This (the program title) all came about in an effort to help people with their personal stories, have a relationship with God and move toward His Kingdom.

Mr. Eddington summarized the discussion with some thoughts about how years ago The Plain Truth was our public proclamation vehicle, and although it wasn't overtly religious, it worked very well. He also pointed out that The Good News before 1995 had historically been our member-coworker magazine name.

Melvin Rhodes expressed his main concern about what the international areas thought about the media identity. Mr. Eddington said that most of the international offices said that they would simply use the English name when speaking or writing about Beyond Today. Carmelo Anastasi expressed the caution because people are more sensitive about a religious publication.

Mr. Mickelson commented on his impression that the French-speaking areas that he serves like the French language used for title rather than using English. Mr. Anastasi pointed out that the Vatican is gaining momentum in Europe, and it paints any American-sounding religion as a “crazy” religion—and people listen to them. Mr. Eddington said that in such situations, the name could be adapted locally for the best language-culture impact.

Gary Antion commented on his appreciation for the efforts of the younger men in the media department. He expressed his concerns about how this might shake up the Church. Even though he did understand the video, he does think that the Church needs to be featured as our core identity.

Mr. Disher explained that they are restructuring the website (a year-long project) this year toward a “mobile-first” approach as delineated in this year's Strategic Plan, and it would be helpful to see the direction this proposal goes soon. If we change the publication name a year or more from now, then the website will need to be redone again later. Mr. Luker asked him to elaborate on the Web restructuring. Mr. Disher then explained that the Web team is redesigning to go mobile first because of the current trend for people to use their phones and tablets to access and read from the Internet. The Web design is not something where the team can “just flip a switch” but must be built from the ground up. Dr. Ward expressed his concern that the members must be behind such a proposed plan before we make any move. Mr. Disher explained that he didn't want to give the impression that he was pressuring the Council at all, just to explain the logistics of the programming to make the gospel more readily available to today's more mobile (via smart phones) Internet users.

Mr. McNeely commented about the need to use our employee resources as cost effectively as possible with regards to our Web development team. He stressed the need (as did others) to improve our writing, preaching, etc., so as to maintain the attention and interest of readers and viewers much better than we do presently. He asked that we let the dust settle, trust each other and move forward without emotional reactions with regards to the roots in our recent past.

Dr. Ward asked if the Council's Media Committee had met on this issue and what their recommendation was concerning this proposal. The real issue, he continued, is not website technology, but whether God is pleased with our efforts to preach His gospel to the world. Mr. McNeely explained that the committee did meet once to discuss the subject.

Mr. Seiglie commented that we have talked about the hierarchy, or order, of our publications, but wondered if we could compromise to have three umbrellas (or organizational structures) of Beyond Today for television, The Good News for publications and UCG for our internal programs? Later, if it seemed prudent, consolidation could take place. We don't need to take another big hit right now—the Church is consolidating itself after the recent division. He felt that The Good News as our banner publication does not have to go under the Beyond Today banner.

Mr. Seiglie suggested that The Good News is comforting for the membership today, and he suggested that it should be produced by Beyond Today. Mr. Mickelson liked the idea of us being thought of as “the Kingdom of God people” (a reference made by Mr. Disher in the proposal) and really likes the Kingdom of God Bible Seminars. He thinks the term “Kingdom of God” should be woven into our message as thoroughly as possible.

Mr. Bradford commented that what is being proposed is more cosmetic than of substance. How will the cosmetic change improve our effort? Is the “identity” our message or our name (of publications, etc.)? He asked, do we not want to focus on improving our product first, and then the marketing will tend to take care of itself? What is our identity and is it coming across in what we preach, broadcast and publish?

Milan “Nick” Bizic explained that the vision guide part of the proposal addresses our voice—how we sound and write about the gospel—both in tone and substance. Dr. Ward commented that we should have such a vision guide already functioning.

Mr. Luker commented on how Mr. Armstrong always strove to be on the cutting edge of technology, and if he were alive today he would be using the Internet extensively now. But the question, he continued, is how we more effectively preach to the world using the Internet—which is what our younger men here are helping us to do. In the future the number one way we'll be preaching the gospel is using the Internet. He cited how U.S. News & World Report (to which he has subscribed since 1963) recently went out of print and is now only available on the Internet. Our fellows on the media team, he said, are trying to help us get the message of the gospel of the Kingdom out more effectively via the Internet. We all need to further humble ourselves with prayer and fasting in the weeks ahead to ask God to show us what He want us to do both to improve our content and our ability to reach the world with the truth.

Mr. Anastasi commented that in addition to what Mr. Luker said, we must remember our most important resource is the brethren. We must not disconnect the organization of the Church and the membership. We should look for effective ways to promote our identity through the membership.

Mitch Moss commented that the vision guide proposed in the presentation will go to the membership to help everyone envision and be energized about the gospel and the work. Clint Porter suggested that we are trying to “un-market” our publications and programs so that the message of the gospel can shine through.

To summarize the session's discussion, Mr. Rhodes suggested that the Council should discuss this subject amongst themselves with active involvement of the Media Committee. He emphasized open discussion among the entire 12 on the Council. Mr. Eddington asked if there was any particular research or added information that the media team can provide for the Council. Mr. Elliott stressed the other part of the UCG motto, “preparing a people,” so that we need to deeply consider the impact on the brethren.

Chairman Rhodes and the Council then made a plan for another meeting about the proposal in a few weeks (August 28) to give Media and Communication Services more specific direction.

Mr. Rhodes announced that Wednesday's meeting would be an executive session for personnel, ordination and other similar issues. He then asked Mr. Ashley to give the closing prayer, ending the session at 8:00 p.m.

-end-

Randy Stiver

Council Reporter

© 2012 United Church of God, an International Association