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News at a Glance
ABC Student Leaders SelectedAmbassador Bible Center announced on Feb. 16 the officers and leaders selected to serve and lead the class of 2006. After receiving input from the students through balloting, the leaders were selected in discussion with the ABC administrative team. Gary Antion announced the names of the 2006 leadership. The officers are: president, Chris Stewart; secretary, Laura Beth Childers; and treasurer, Eduardo Elizondo. The committee heads are: Social Activities, Amanda Weitzel; Service Projects, Stephanie Healey; Music Coordinators, Corbin Rose and Audry Bauer; Message Board, Crystal Pettigrew; Kitchen Care, Cynthia Eckman and John Marinkov; ABC Times, Erin Roscoe; ABC Web Page, Jason Nitzberg; and Technical Support, A.J. Smith. The level of respect the class has for each other was evident in how many different names were put forth for the various positions by the students. —Gary E. Antion [ back to top ]Web Site Traffic IncreasingThree years ago the redesigned United Church of God Web site was completed and rereleased to the public. This past January over 359,000 visitors browsed through the UCG Web site (a 5 percent increase over last January). The highest number of visitors in one month is currently 372,940 from September 2005. Over the next year we hope to continue making improvements to the UCG Web site to benefit our regular and new visitors. Traffic at www.gnmagazine.org is now at 86,591 visitors per month, up 405 percent over a year ago! We had a high visit count of 112,679 in August of 2005. —Peter Eddington [ back to top ]Virtually Free Subscriber Development E-Mail Reaching 18,543Since March of 2003, the U.S. Good News renewal cover wraps have asked for subscribers' e-mail addresses. The goal of this is to add to the circulation of the monthly e-letter from the president, similar to the member updates that go to our Church members. This is a virtually cost-free way to reach out monthly via e-mail to our GN readers. At present we have more than 18,000 signed up, and we are adding to it daily. Our new gnmagazine.org site also has a prominent sign-up link to encourage more subscribers. This is one method of subscriber development that is virtually free to us. We continue to reach out to our readers in new ways to encourage them to become more involved in the work of the Church. The GN reader e-letter update for February 2006 was sent to 18,543 recipients. —Peter Eddington [ back to top ] Donors and Coworkers Provide 11 Percent of IncomeAs part of the Media and Communications Services report for the February Council meetings, Council members received a chart of "Donation and Income Analysis by Source." This is a report first developed three years ago, and it covered donations by source from 1996 to Feb. 6, 2006. It's interesting to note that over the past eight years nonmembers provided around 11 percent of the Church's income. The donations were grouped by which promotional piece the person first responded to. After discounting the "unknown" and "miscellaneous" categories, most donations came from those who were first added to the file from a gift subscription, followed by the Internet (up from third place last year) and then insert cards. Interestingly, those people who first came onto our file from a gift subscription also give the highest average donation. Subscribers who donate to the Church who first came onto our file from the Internet are also very strong contributors in both average donation and overall amount. Some interesting additional information: For 2005, nonmember subscribers gave 1.4 percent more individual donations that totaled 10.1 percent more dollars than for 2004. The average donation was up from $95 (the average for the past five years has been $96) to $103, which is an encouraging trend. —Peter Eddington [ back to top ] Australian Web Site Becoming Point of First ContactThe Australian UCG Web site (www.ucg.org.au) has been gathering strength as a principal means of first contact. During the past year the Web site was developed and improved to take maximum advantage of this fact, using in particular the promotional services provided by Google to advertise our magazines and booklets. When Internet users type specific keywords into search engines linked to our Internet advertisements, these advertisements guide them to our Web site. In this financial year: •3,991 new Good News subscribers have been added by the Australian office. •58.36 percent of these new subscribers were provided by the Internet. •Google ads have been shown over 8,500,000 times. • 43,627 people have read the offer pages. 80,687 people have visited the Australian Web site. UN Excerpted from United News Australia . [ back to top ]
Good News/Beyond Today Radio UpdateA total of 13,648 responses have come through this medium. We see some people attending Sabbath services and baptized as a result of this programming. The overall number of stations airing the program currently stands at 16. Also, we are very pleased to have enjoyed our first full year of national coverage on satellite radio—XM 170 Sundays 8:30 a.m. EST. We air right after James Dobson. Responses per year have been: 2000—676 (partial year) One change that began in February is that the radio program is now Beyond Today Radio —based on the soundtrack of the video program of the same name. We will still have the same station lineup as before, but responses to the new format will be handled by the same telephone response company that takes our regular television Beyond Today calls, instead of being taken at the home office. However, the previously recorded 120 Good News Radio programs will continue to "air" online every week and are still connected to several Internet podcast feeds. In addition, Beyond Today Radio is also being submitted separately to Internet podcast services. The current station log can be viewed on our Web site at www.beyondtoday.tv/radio. —Peter Eddington [ back to top ]
Two More ABC Classes Now OnlineIn January, two more Ambassador Bible Center classes were posted on the ABC section of our Web site. The two classes are the Acts of the Apostles (by Matthew Fenchel) and the Epistles of Paul (by Roy Holladay). You can listen to them online in MP3 format at www.ucg.org/abc/classes. A total of seven complete classes and three additional, special presentations are now available. This year we are recording Gary Antion's Comparative Religion class. After this there will be five classes to go before the entire syllabus is available to all Internet visitors. MP3 CD copies of these two new classes are being mailed to pastors. Members can either download them online or get them from their congregation's tape library. Please don't contact the home office for copies. All seven classes found online have been sent to pastors over the past few years for their local congregation tape libraries as well. —Peter Eddington [ back to top ] Families for God Weekend in Twin Cities March 25-26The annual Families for God weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota , will be held March 25 and 26. The theme is "Turning the Hearts" based on Malachi 4:6. The weekend includes Sabbath services, informative seminars, a concert, teen prom and more! Special guests for the weekend will be Council member Larry Salyer and his wife, Judy. Activities will be at the Marriott Minneapolis West in St. Louis Park . Seminars will be presented by Mike Hanisko, "A Vision for Manhood"; Steve Myers, a special focus teen study; Galen Morrison, "Family Conflict Resolution"; and Larry Salyer, "Rise Up and Walk." There will be also be a special seminar for the ladies. The teen dinner and prom will be Saturday evening following the Sabbath at the elegant ballroom within the Marriott. Sunday will host great savings on discounted tickets to a family activity at the world-famous Mall of America, Camp Snoopy . Registration is required for the activities throughout the weekend by early March. You may make reservations at the Marriott at (800) 228-9290. Additional details will be provided at www.ucgstp.org/familiesforgod, or you may call Steve or Amy Allwine at (651) 552-0136 or e-mail them at familiesforgod@allwine.net. —Gale Black [ back to top ] Correction: Winter Camp Dates Dec. 27 to Jan. 1The Winter Camp dates printed on the back cover of the United Youth Camps 2006 magazine were incorrect. The article about the new Winter Camp site inside the magazine has the correct dates, which are Dec. 27, 2006, to Jan. 1, 2007. [ back to top ] Calendar of EventsMarch 24-26: "Hidden Treasure—The Pearl" ladies' retreat, Portland , Oregon (scruggsjr@aol.com). March 25-26: Families for God week end, Minneapolis, Minnesota (www.ucgstp.org/familiesforgod). May 7-8: General Conference of Elders annual meeting. May 9-11: Council meetings. May 19-21: Ladies' Retreat on Deer Lake (north of Spokane, Washington). Theme: Pearl of Great Price; guests: Victor and Beverly Kubik; for more information, call (509) 466-4899 or e-mail mmickelson@msn.com. May 26-29: Memorial Day Weekend, Kansas City, Missouri (www.kc2006.com). July 2-4: Melody of Music, Lafayett, Indiana (www.mom07.com). Aug. 4-9: Council meetings. Sept. 3: Second Annual UCG Houston Music Festival. Please send calendar items to mike_bennett@ucg.org. [ back to top ] What's New on the Web?On www.ucg.orgCompass Check See video of home office weekly meeting. UCG Commentary on This Week's News Weekly commentaries by UCG written on world news and trends, from a biblical perspective. Read these and more: "Tower of London Prepares for Bird Flu" Current World News & Trends Browse up-to-date world news events by subject categories! E-mail Updates and UCG eNews Receive e-mail updates relevant to UCG members and weekly HTML newsletters
with ucg.org updates. Sign up today! On vcmagazine.orgThe March VCM has articles on "Answered Prayer on the Coeur d'Alene
River," "Why Is God So Silent?" and more. On verticalthought.org New article posted on the Web site for March is "Movies and the
Culture War." Featured Links of the MonthYouth and young adults' Web site. Singles' Web site for singles in the Church. If you have questions, contact: webmaster@ucg.org |
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