Dominican Communicators Strategize On Justice Agenda

ADRIAN, MI -- February 4, 2008. Communications coordinators and directors from across the US met at Weber Center, in Adrian, January 24-27 to sharpen their skills and engage in conversation with Dominican Sisters from Iraq and the North American Co-Promoters of Justice, Dusty Farnan, OP (Adrian) and Chuck Dahm, OP ( St. Albert) . Dusty has recently returned from a Catholic Relief Services delegation to Syria and Lebanon.

The meeting's theme: Reaching Beyond our Own Borders was carried out in conversation with Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Sienna, Mosul, Iraq and with Galia Thomas of the Caldean Community in Detroit. The communicators explored ways to get the message out from the Iraqi sisters both to congregations and provinces as well as the public media.

The communicators also heard a preliminary report from Dusty Farnan, OP (Adrian) North American Co-Promoter of Justice on her recent CRS sponsored visit to Syria and Lebanon. The goal of that trip was to gather information about the health and educational needs of Iraqi refugees who are pouring out of Iraq.

Anne Lythgoe, OP DLC Communications Coordinator gave an update on the work of the office over the last year, including statistics on DomLife.org and showed a powerful powerpoint presentation that was first aired at the DLC Annual Meeting in October.

Guest presenters also included Ray Casey, staff photographer for the Dominican Sisters of Adrian who offered a very technical and informative session on digital photography. Robert Delaney, reporter for the Michigan Catholic, offered some perspectives on the current realities for the Catholic press.

Scott Steinkerchner, OP, (St. Albert) Promoter of the Internet for the Dominican Order, engaged the group in a demonstration of newer open source technologies that allow greater collaboration and content management and offered a sneak preview of the renovations to the Order's main website (www.op.org).

Best Practices is a session that communicators appreciate because it offers real life examples of projects and events that require sound communications planning and expertise. This year, JoAnn Niehaus, OP (Houston) described a collaborative website for four Houston area religious communities (www.catholicnunstoday.org). Mary Karen McClellan, Director of Communications and Technology for the Dominicans of Adrian demonstrated how they are using webpages to keep media informed with background information and print ready photos. Tricia Buxton, Communications Director for Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa showed a flash video virtual tour of the chapel windows at Sinsinawa Mound.

At the end of the very full agenda, the communicators worked on next steps in creating opportunities to share the message of the Iraqi sisters and the findings of the delegation to Syria and Lebanon. The hope is to create stories that can be shared locally and nationally.