Spread the word with a click

New Web site helps spread the word about Unitarian Universalism.
By Tom Stites
Fall 2005 8.15.05

Are you a Unitarian Universalist like me who thinks the world would be better off if there were way more of us? If so, we’ve just been handed a fine new tool so we can help.

As the ad inside the front cover shows, uuworld.org is brand new as you read this. In the last issue “From the Editor” was devoted to telling you about the new Internet magazine the UUA is launching, which will include almost all content of UU World issues as they’re published but also lots of timely and exclusive news, updated weekly. I explained that in addition to making UU journalism more timely for UU World readers like you, uuworld.org offers powerful outreach to religious seekers who want to check us out and to UU young adults on campus and elsewhere who are not yet affiliated with congregations. And now I’d like to share a vision of how you and I can use uuworld.org to help attract people to Unitarian Universalism.

Have you ever been tempted, as I have been many times, to make a photocopy of a UU World article for a friend who you’re confident would enjoy reading it—and who might then become more interested in Unitarian Universalism? That requires finding your way to a copy machine, making a copy, addressing an envelope, licking a stamp, and mailing it.

uuworld.org sweeps away all these barriers. Now all you need to do is point your browser to www.uuworld.org and e-mail the article to your friend by clicking on a link right there on the page with the story you’re reading. Every time someone receives such an e-mail, they will find a direct link to the article, as well as links to uuworld.org’s home page and to the newcomer information at the UUA’s Web site, www.uua.org.

Not only that, uuworld.org will also bring UU World readers and all others who come across the Web magazine easy access to material about Unitarian Uni¬versalism that’s never before been available without a lot of searching. For example, on uuworld.org’s front page you’ll find a feature called “Unitarian Universalists in the Media,” a news blog that will be updated every Monday morning with the most interesting articles about Unitarian Universalism that newspapers and magazines have published in the previous week. These articles will be of interest not only to Unitarian Universalists, but to seekers, others who come across uuworld.org, and anyone you might be inspired to e-mail them to.

As you flip through the pages of this issue, look for this little icon: [small computer icon]. This is a signal of related material on-line if you are interested. These little icons will be a fixture of UU World from now on.

So the next time you sit down in front of a computer, at home or at your local library, go to www.uuworld.org. Take a look; let us know what you think—this is just the beginning of our new Internet magazine, and we have lots to learn from you and from people we don’t know yet. And, if you’ve seen something in this issue that you think a non-UU friend would like, click on “E-mail This Article.” It’s as easy as that to help spread the word about Unitarian Universalism.