Corner on Vocations and Social Media

Written on: June 29, 2017

Sister Eileen Spanier, Maryellen Glackin and Sarah Freer, a student from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, participated in the NRVC  Vocation Ambassador Program which was sponsored by a grant from the Hilton Foundation. Each Congregational team consisted of a Vocation Director, Communication professional and a young adult. Information was shared about religious vocations since about 2/3 of those attending were non-vowed laity. Sister Debbie Bornemann, SS.C.M. NRVC Director of Member Relations shared some surprising statistics about religious life, such as:

The number of new vocations and number of communities receiving new vocations is on the rise!

The workshops provided hands-on learning experiences using new technology to create exciting, shareable posts for the web and social media.  Learning shoulder-to-shoulder with young adults brought us up to speed quickly with these new tools!

During the program, we were tasked with developing a goal and 3 strategies to accomplish the goal. The overarching goal we picked was :

Raise awareness of St. Marguerite d’Youville’s story and how the GNSH mission is an extension of her ministry in Montreal.

We then created three strategies to accomplish our goal using the following as our guide:

1)  Improve something we are already doing;

2) Create something new we’d like to achieve;

3) BHAG: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal-  a shoot for the stars dream we’d like to work on.

We shared details of the overarching goal and strategies for achieving it with leadership when we returned. Each strategy is contingent upon achieving success with the one before it.  Each strategy also requires collaboration with others, both inside and outside of the Congregation. The various strategies and tasks will  be rolled out over the next  9 months of the program. We look forward to keeping you updated as we  move forward.

Social Media Tip for July:

Our first strategy, and this month’s tip is to improve our use of Social Media.

An important way YOU can help is by letting family and friends know the GNSH are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, whether you are or not. For sisters and Associates and others who do use Social Media, please share our posts. Some do a great job of this, which is wonderful, but we ask everyone to please give it a try. By sharing our posts, you expand the GNSH audience exponentially and faster than one person can alone!

Last month, we suggested using a quote at the end of your email signature. The one we are putting forth first is:

Every day I marvel at Divine Providence…it provides for everything.  Marguerite d’Youville.

But, please feel free to use another quote that you like. And, send us your suggestions!

This entry was posted in News and tagged: Facebook, Instagram, Signature quote, Social Media, St. Marguerite d'Youville, Twitter, Vocation Ambassadors, vocations