United Methodist Women’s Online Community Membership Tops 2,000
by YVETTE MOORE*
United Methodist Women’s Online Community reached 2,007 members Jan. 4, meeting the cyber-membership goal set when the new initiative was launched last summer. By Jan. 31, membership had topped 2,200 and continued to grow almost daily.
“The thing that has excited me is how women who were at first uneasy about this new technology have really taken hold and participated,” said Julia Tulloch, Online Community coordinator and executive of the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. “Some people who come on read without commenting – that’s one way to participle – but more and more women are venturing into discussions and posting information. I think we will double our online member in the next year.”
Women of all ages are joining the community, Ms. Tulloch said. About 10 percent are new to United Methodist Women. Some members check the site several times a day while others check a few times a week.
Online information, conversations and options are growing. The site now includes a section on United Methodist Women’s Reading Program, where Online Community members discuss books and share ways they are expanding the Reading Program in their local units and districts. There is a racial-justice section where members discuss issues of race and ways to live out the United Methodist Church’s Charter for Racial Justice.
Articles and information on issues such as immigration and the environment are also posted. In the membership and nurture section of the site, young women are sharing how they are organizing their peers into United Methodist Women units and circles. In the site’s faith exploration section, members are sharing prayers and prayer concerns from the personal and to those for world situations. Devotional materials are posted.
“There’s good discussion and ideas being shared on spiritual growth, social-justice advocacy, membership concerns and support – all aspects of our United Methodist Women’s purpose,” Ms. Tulloch said.
Visit the Online Community at www.UMWonline.org. Click onto the Welcome Center for an introduction and site overview with video host Women’s Division executive Marva Usher-Kerr.
*Yvette Moore is an executive secretary for communications with the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.
