Welcome to our ‘Renewed’ Website. Please let us Know what You Think.
There have been some valuable lessons learned over the past year including how vital communications have been for staying in touch, staying current and staying engaged throughout this COVID-19 period. Without the freedom to meet in person, there was, and continues to be, the likelihood of losing ground in our efforts to stave off the impending climate change crisis . . . which led to our renewed emphasis on Sustainable Orillia’s communications.
Late in 2020, a small team came together to review our overall communications from a creative and technical perspective. Our consultant for redesigning the website was Stefanie Moy-Shuster and our in-house tech wizards Zac Waite, Weiqi Xu and Sophie Mathewson provided ongoing support as we worked through the initial concepts resulting in a new creative framework—which was launched quietly just a few short weeks ago.
We quickly realized that once the table is set we need to provide meaningful content to serve our visitors. Relevant, readable content that supports Sustainable Orillia’s overall vision and makes it easy for visitors to find what they want and more. Another small team took on the task of developing the site-content plan. Despite the shift to technical platforms over the past fifteen years, we were relieved to discover that the content development process has remained pretty much the same. This team—Stan Mathewson, Gord Ball, Susanne Laperle and Kari Klassen—worked together to define our audience(s) and how best to reach them—all while asking ourselves “What are the relevant messages?” and equally important, “What is our capacity to actually do all this?”
This analysis informed the final plan which is currently ramping up. Thankfully our capacity to deliver increased by 33.3% in March, when we welcomed Fred Larsen back to the Communications Team. The plan itself is built around quarterly themes. These themes are broad subject matter areas that provide focus and allow us to emphasize key messages across many different sectors and activities. Our current theme is ‘renewal’, which you will find highlighted in many of our recent communications, including this one.
The web-site isn’t Sustainable Orillia’s only renewed and refreshed communications platform. It is our home-site, but not our only one. Sustainable Orillia volunteer and communications specialist, Kari Klassen oversees our Facebook page and does an excellent job of keeping it up-to-date. The Youth Council has an active Instagram account and Sustainable Orillia’s Twitter Account is scheduled to be re-activated over the next few weeks. Even the format of this newsletter has been renewed and we hope that you find it as inviting and informative as our earlier editions.
In general, communications reflect and reinforce change across a community. Sustainable Orillia’s refreshed website reflects a renewed commitment to keeping our Friends, partners and all interested followers informed and in touch with sustainable matters across our community. As Orillia’s sustainability movement evolves and acquires more momentum and greater ability to influence change – so will our communications evolve.
And please, remember it’s always a two-way street – your input (including feedback, stories and suggestions) is always welcome and appreciated as we take this next step in strengthening our ability to share important information with all of you.
