The Art of Communication

Originally written for the January edition of JLife:

As community development worker there is nothing more important than communicating what Leeds has to offer to everyone I can, whenever I can! This includes not only people who regularly attend communal events, but the unaffiliated within our own community and the Jewish world at large. With the advent of modern technology the opportunities for communication are unprecedented and we must take advantage of them.

However, we must bear in mind that: “The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.” (Edward Murrow) If the community bombards you with emails, then its only fan will be the 'Deleted Items' folder! The attempt to communicate is nullified by trying to say too much.

This, unfortunately, is a problem within this community where you might get the same advert multiple times from different organisations who have been asked to send it out. It is no wonder that people do not want to give out their details. However, I'm building a community-wide database that will solve this problem. As such, in an ironic twist, I kindly request your details once more!

When the database is fully operational we will ask all organisations affiliated with the Representative Council to stop sending out emails unrelated to their own activities. Anything of relevance to the community-at-large will be sent out via this single database in one weekly email. There will be an online facility for you to select by interest what kind of communications you want to receive and the option to always or never receive communications from a particular organisation. The emails will automatically be constructed according to your individual preferences.

As the adage goes: “Less is more”. With less emails but which are relevant to you, we might be able to communicate more. To sign up please visit: www.lji.org.uk