Talk to Us: A New Year Brings Fresh Opportunity to Renew Our “Highly Active Communications Culture” at ROOTS

Within the next month, Alternate ROOTS’ multi-year Communication Strategy will take a giant step forward, with the launch of our brand new website. We couldn’t be more excited, or more grateful, to the good folks at Social Impact Studios led by the indomitable Ennis Carter, Alternate ROOTS member and consultant, who spearheads the initiative. Not only is the new website gorgeous, interactive, and user-friendly, it will also meet the Communication Strategy’s four goals:

1. align ROOTS’ communications with our strategic plan,
2. highlight ROOTS work in communities,
3. garner national and international attention for ROOTS and our members,
4. facilitate really good internal communications.

(To learn more, check out the full ROOTS Communication Strategy here.)

Regarding the work so far and the work to come, Ennis Carter says, “Creating a rich communications culture among the ROOTS community is central to these goals.  The recommendation is that we need people other than the centralized staff involved in the plan. It needs to be a hybrid of staff and members. Staff, partners, members, everyone communicates and tells the story of our organization and what’s going on in the field!”

Last summer we began hosting Guest Social Media Artists who keep our blog and Facebook page up to date on ROOTS and ROOTS-related activities, such as ROOTS Week, the Power and Aesthetics Learning Exchange, and Free Southern Theatre’s 50th Anniversary. We’ve added more voices to our blog and newsletter by working with Guest Writers, like our Partners in Action (formerly C/APP) grantees – SpiritHouse, Speed Killed My Cousin, Cry You One, and the Cucalorus Film Festival.

And this month, we’re thrilled to feature an article by Jamie Haft of Imagining America and Roadside Theatreabout the urgent need for documentation in the arts and cultural organizing.

In addition to these initiatives, we’re calling on each and every ROOTS member to help us build a greater sense of community and communication on our new website.

Once the new site launches, here are a few simple things you can do:

• Update your member profile. You’ll be able to create a full member profile with bio, pics, and links to your social media.  You’ll also be able to track your membership status, grant proposals, and other communications.
• Post links to art and cultural organizing events on our Facebook page. We want to know what you are up to! And we want everyone else to know as well.
• Document and share the good work you are doing on the ROOTS Flickr account. It’s important to tell the story of ROOTS visually as well as textually, but we need a steady supply of images in order to do so. Help us out! The Flickr account will have a link embedded in the new site.
• Comment, comment, comment. Got an opinion? A word of encouragement for a Guest Writer? A link to a related article/project/song? We want our blog and Facebook page to feel as noisy as the cafeteria at ROOTS Week.

Nicole Gurgel is Alternate ROOTS’ Content Developer, as well as a performance-maker, educator and activist based in Austin, Texas. In addition to her work with ROOTS, she is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Drama at Austin Community College.