Big changes coming for TheMeetingHouse!
We have launched upon a six-month make-over of our print, audio, and video production. The purpose is to upgrade our production values, expand our market reach, and increase our engagement with the national conversation on Religion and American Life. We are tagging this endeavor with the moniker MH+.
Over the next half year, we will:
- Enlarge and strengthen the board of directors for our nonprofit organization, The Meetinghouse Inc. We are seeking at least four (and as many as eight) new board members, raising our board size from five to at least eight (with one current director rotating off). We need board members who are (or will be) MH readers, listeners, and donors and who bring to our collaboration strong connections to either the financial community, the media community, or the religious community.
- Redesign both the web site and the newsletter. Work has already begun on rethinking our brand and the presentation of our brand. We want to freshen our website with innovative and interactive capacity while ensuring that our newsletter exhibits strong appeal to readers.
- Suspend production of the weekly audio and video broadcast for six months. We are doing this partly in response to changes in both the radio and television platforms we have been using, a situation which has contributed to the poor production values of the MH in the last few months. This action will free us to focus on the deeper and wider challenges and opportunities facing TheMeetingHouse. One of these is the potential of one or more PBS affiliates picking up the show and distributing it (that is, broadcasting it) from their television platforms. For more on this, click HERE.
- Embrace a more strategic and successful use of social media, especially in light of the incredible expansion of both the video and podcast worlds. We need to retool how we package and distribute our material.
- Continue our effort to raise at least $120,000. To date, this year we have raised more than $20,000 in cash and pledges, but what we envision (with a greater dependence upon production professionals and national distribution platforms) will demand greater financial resources. You may donate today to signal your enthusiasm for this expansion of TheMeetingHouse we call MH+!
- Host our first in-person event, probably in January of 2023. To mark the end of this MH+ process (and the end of our broadcast sabbatical), we will invite all MH readers, donors, guests, and friends, to gather somewhere (could be in the mountains between Asheville and Nashville or could be on St. Simons Island) to witness our new look, our new team, our new products, and our new strategy.
During our sabbatical, you can still access our many commentaries, reviews, and podcasts on this website (and also on our Facebook page at TheMeetinghouse.net). In the next few weeks, you will see the names of new directors for our non-profit corporation, a survey seeking your input on certain key issues, and (of course) an appeal for your financial support.
Thank you for your interest in TheMeetingHouse, for your engagement in the wider conversation about Religion and American Life, and for your investment in our success. Don’t hesitate to make your ideas and suggestions known. Call me or write. Or come see me!! Let’s do something good together, and that could be just listening to the sweet sounds of John Prine!!
Dwight A. Moody
Creator and Host
TheMeetingHouse MH+
859-229-8642
