A lot of people visited my site this week looking for information about the carnival at St Joseph's in Keyport. I didn't see a street sign announcing the carnival until the event was nearly over. Perhaps a Facebook page and press release would be in order?
St Joe's actually has two websites -- a .org page and an old .com page, so people are bound to be confused about where to find information. One of the websites has an actual carnival link under a Ministries category, but the link is blank. Who was running THAT commitee?? Last year there was a carnival link, but it only contained a plea for volunteers to help with the carnival;there were no details about the event. So I ended up calling the church office last year to get the information I included in my blog article. But that's not the way things should be handled.
The Church is going to have to take the media seriously if they want to be effective in the community. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Newspapers, and Street Signs are all important tools of communication. St Joe's is only a small step ahead of St Clement's, which has no website at all. (I think St Clement's is piggybacking on a Diocesan web network, but all they have posted is basic information -- address and phone.) St Joe's has a stronger web infrastructure, with graphics and buttons, but there is little if any current programmatic content. It's a start to get a site up and running, to be sure, but that's all it is. A start. Not an end in itself.
In the past years, physical signs for the carnival were everywhere. These signs were like the small political signs we see at election time, and were put up about 1 month before the event and stretched pretty far from Laurence Harbor, into Hazlet, Marlboro, and Holmdel. But one thing happened a few years ago, the school closed, and I would bet that with the school closure, so went the bulk of the workers for the carnival. The only sign I saw advertising the event was the one located in front of St. Joe's. In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before the carnival also closes, for good.
ReplyDeleteIn your last paragraph, I believe you made a mistake in confusing St. Benedict of Holmdel with St. Clement of Matawan. St Clement has no webiste, but St. Benedict has an extensive one: http://www.stbenedictholmdel.org
ReplyDeleteIndeed I meant St Clement. Sorry for the confusion. I'll edit the article.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed a sign for the carnival at the corner of Cliffwood Avenue and Matawan Avenue. Maybe it was there earlier, but I drive by that spot every day and don't recall seeing it. All the same, they should promote the carnival online and in The Independent. It's too big an event not to advertise. Maybe they've never played Rollercoaster Tycoon?
I agree that the school closing must be hurting St Joe's turnout of carnival volunteers. I imagine attendance at mass is also down. Elementary education has always been an important part of Catholicism.