“We use our blog as a way of communicating with all sisters in our ward boundaries.  Sisters who are inactive, less active, new converts, and non-members.   At the beginning of the year we gave out refrigerator magnets (of course!) with important dates on it and the blog address.  We had extra magnets that we gave sisters on home visits who don’t come out.  We have found that they do indeed visit the blog and so we feel that if for no other reason, the effort and work is worth every minute.  We post ward events, noteworthy events, community events, provident living help and links that fall into all these areas.  We have cut back on the number of “invitations” sent out to RS functions and have cut the paper size in half of our weekly RS announcement sheet.

We have a photographer on our Enrichment committee who helps with the photos.  Prior to the summer I was posting a “snippet” from each of the Sunday RS lessons which the teacher would email to me.   I feel like I am the newspaper editor, reporter and special interest writer all in one!  My goal is to have 2 sisters who can help-one for Provident Living info and one for the Sunday Lesson info.

Our theme for 2009 has been “Angels Among Us-Heavenly Hands” so everything has revolved around that.  Next year our theme will change as will our Blog format.

Best of luck to you as we all try to lift and serve each other in this wonderful journey!”

www.camarillosecondwardreliefsociety.blogspot.com

This is such a great idea!  May I just add a few more thoughts of the possibility of RS Blogs:

With a Relief Society blog, ward or stake level, you could actually communicate with most of the sisters, no matter where they serve, in the ward.  Of course, the older sisters still prefer the newsletter, but that’s okay.    An entire “web-committee” could be given access to the site to post in their own areas.  Information could be changing constantly and not rest on one poor sister having to do it all.

Benefits of a blog:

• Handling Business and Announcements
• List Birthdays-with a link to sending a free e-card
• Themes with projects and goals to work toward
• Political Issues, Community meetings-Announcements urging involvement, or reports from those who attended, so everyone knows what’s going on.
• Classifieds/Bartering within the ward or stake
• Tips-Housekeeping, Parenting, Budgeting, etc.
• Recipes
• Pattern Instructions
• Spiritual boosts
• Pictures
• Enrichment and Activities

Areas of interest-Family History, Food Storage, Sales, Education, Marriage helps, Humanitarian, etc.  If you have a person in charge of these various areas, it’s easy for them to get their information out and help people with a volume of information at their fingertips.

No more lengthy announcements and more focus on the all important lesson.

Granted, some of us are becoming addicted to blogs, spending many hours on line.  Of course, we need to control that.  And there is an important note:  Do not put personal information on line (such as ways to get hold of you outside of an email address), just as a precaution.

We can use this technology for a great good to unify us, to bring us together with goals, efforts, hope, and involvement.