Online or paper bulletin to inform parish?

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Ann_Stanton

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Would you preferred that your parish used email /online notification or just bulletins or both? When should online notifications be made (before Sunday or a week later)?[poll type=regular]
    1. bulletin only
    1. Email/online posted before Saturdy/Sunday
    1. Both if ready before Saturday/Sunday
      [/poll]
 
We have both. Online the day before, paper in church.
I read paper one, but if I am away or miss mass, it’s good to know its online.
 
I wish it came by email in a mobile-friendly format. No need to waste paper. It would also be nice to have a QR code on the bulletin holder that I could scan and get it right on my phone if I wanted it to pop up.
 
I love having both. We have an app that shows the bulletins of all the area Catholic Churches. So I can read the bulletins of all the parishes I’ve been to.
 
We have early online access to our bulletins, and you can subscribe to notifications when they are posted, but I typically read the printed version on our way home from Mass.

We also get email announcements from time to time, but unfortunately the formatting is really horrible. Instead of text you have to open a PDF attachment to see the information. I imagine that it’s not very intuitive for any elderly members of our parish who use email (and they’re more likely to do that than follow our parish on Facebook!)
 
Both. I like having the paper bulletin, because I have enough junk to keep track of online, it’s easy to miss important stuff. I don’t follow links in my email, and I don’t go out of my way to visit Facebook or websites or anything, unless I’m looking for specific information. But having it right there in black-and-white in my hand, and be able to read it and stick it on the fridge, or cut important parts out— that’s good.

But I also visit a lot of parishes, like when I travel, or when the Holy Day Mass schedule for my home parish doesn’t work for me. Then, I like to be able to pop over to a neighboring parish’s website and take a peek at their most recent bulletin online. Because I’ve had too many times where I’ve used websites like MassTimes… and it says, “St. So-and-So has a 7:30 p.m. Mass” and I show up at 7:20… just in time for the communion hymn. Or it says that “St. So-and-So has a 12:10 pm Mass time on weekdays”, except, oops, it’s been canceled and replaced with a 6 p.m. Mass because today’s All Saints’ Day, and the usual Masses get canceled and replaced, not extra services added in.
 
Both is pretty standard (you may not realize that your parish bulletin is online. If you are in the US and on the very back of your bulletin check and see if it says “LPI” or “JS Paluch”. These two vendors print most of the bulletins in the US. If your parish is one of their customers, you can subscribe to get it online:

Paluch portal J.S. Paluch

LPI Portal http://www.parishesonline.com/
 
Our parish has an online bulletin through a major vendor.

Link to that same online bulletin on the website.

Paper bulletin.

Facebook page.

We also keep in touch through phone calls to all households, texts, email blasts of special events or reminders.
 
We have human ushers as bulletin holders, but, I am going to add a QR code on the bulletin board.
 
Getting a bulletin is easy, but it’s one more step I don’t want to do and always an annoying pdf. I want it emailed to me mobile friendly.
 
We put a qr on both sides doors of the parish that I did my masters project for. Highly successful and great for urgent updates.
 
I like seeing the bulletin online because it’s one less piece of paper that kills a tree, clutters my house and needs to be recycled, but the parish has to reliably put them online every Saturday. In my experience, many parishes either don’t post them every week, or post them late so if some event is happening Sunday or Monday, you miss it. (And don’t even get me started on how lacking in information the parish calendars that are posted online usually are.)

I think the paper bulletin currently has some use among parishioners who are not as connected to electronics or who are elderly. I would think that as time goes by, the number of people in this category will decline.
 
Here in Pittsburgh, a large number of our Catholic population isn’t online at all. And a lot who are only do limited things online, as they are old and don’t see the point of changing. Probably wouldn’t work around here that well.
 
Online is good, but the elderly of our parish just can’t navigate it well.
However, I’ve always hated that most parishioners line the floorboards of their cars with the bulletins, and then call us every day to ask the same question: What time is Midnight Mass? :roll_eyes:

Just this week someone chewed me out for not being aware of EMHC training.
It was in the bulletin for a MONTH, and in the pulpit announcements for 3 weeks.
It’s a constant struggle to inform people. 😔
 
You definitely need both now although in the future the paper ones could be phased out.
 
Our parish began sending text messages for events if people signed up to receive them. I like the idea. However, I also like reading the weekly bulletin.
 
We put an enlarged copy of the bulletin up on the porch noticeboard, so at least there’s the option of encouraging people to look in the church to get information direct.

Of course, we are very lucky to be able to have the church open all day - I can see that wouldn’t work in all parishes.
 
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