Shout Out Loud!

I am thoroughly enjoying an advertisement for Carte d’Or ice cream at the moment. It features Sandi Toksvig at a dinner party rhapsodizing about the virtues of the particular vanilla used to flavour it. Each flower is pollinated by hand by the grower, something my husband and I learned some years ago when visiting a vanilla plantation in Costa Rica. As she enthusiastically holds forth the eyes of the dinner guests glaze over. Eventually one guest says, “More?” holding up his empty dish. Sandi takes this as encouragement to continue holding forth but what he is wanting is another helping of the delicious ice cream in his dish.

Promoting MU can be just like that. We who are passionate about our organisation find it hard to know where to start—and when to stop! - when encouraging others to think about joining. There is no doubt that word of mouth is a most effective way of ‘shouting out loud’ about MU but you can’t say everything there is to say! Who knows what might strike a chord with a particular listener? This is why I am absolutely delighted we have a new resource in our diocese to give to people to take away and read at their leisure.

I imagine a conversation with someone concluding, long before eyes begin to glaze over, with me saying, “You know, there’s so, so much more I could tell you but I think you would find this helpful because it goes into some detail about exactly what we’re doing on the ground here and now. Something might just be the sort of action you’d like to be involved in.”

Each member received a copy of “What is MU?” with the diocesan magazine. They were asked to carry it so that when the opportunity for a conversation arose it could be passed on. That way hundreds of people in our diocese, and perhaps beyond, may have the opportunity to read about the C of E’s best kept secret. Think of the leaflet in the light of more delicious ice cream in the dish!

Jill Thomson

Communications Coordinator

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