Meeting for Sufferings: Speaking out for Friends

Meeting for Sufferings heard about the communications work of Britain Yearly Meeting

Paul Parker, the recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, spoke about the broader role of communications from Friends House. All of the speaking out, he explained, is done on behalf of Friends and, in doing work on a huge range of issues, ‘we work on your behalf and we have to prioritise’.

Jane Dawson, head of External Communications, then talked about the Britain Yearly Meeting Communications Speaking Out policy and stressed that ‘every Quaker is a communicator’.

She said during Quaker Week Friends across Britain were involved in all kinds of communicating. The questions, she said, that need to be asked, when Friends produced something and communicated it, are: ‘Who was it aimed at? Did it reach the people you wanted it to?’

She stressed that the communications team at Friends House existed ‘to help staff communicate your vision and to help staff work on your behalf’ and said: ‘Our quarterly report is done on your behalf’. She also mentioned how new types of communication and initiatives were being taken up, such as Instagram and a new podcast.

There are nine people in the Advocacy and Public Relations team at Friends House, with defined roles, and they ‘know the most effective way of communicating with people’ and were there ‘to help you communicate more effectively.’

Jane Dawson talked about the ‘general public perception’ of Quakers and said: ‘I spend a lot of time thinking about how I explain Quakers to outsiders.’

She explained that the communications team was presently ‘in the process of producing a family of templates for Meetings’ and working on ‘our system of Quaker logos’, adding, ‘we want to help you be more easily recognised. We are a small team. We would love to help you or your Meeting to communicate in the most effective way.’

A very useful page of statistics and graphs, showing the work done by the communications team, was available for Friends at Sufferings. It gave a break down of what was communicated, from printed material to web-based content, and a helpful analysis the reach of this coverage.

Paul Parker said that a lot of communication is done centrally. He asked Sufferings: ‘Do you feel we’re broadly on the right lines and getting the balance and tone right?’ He also explained that Friends House had ‘struggled a bit about how we keep you informed on what we’re doing on your behalf’. He stressed the importance, for all Friends in Britain, of communicating with a ‘confident Quaker voice’.

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