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Telephone Alert Network

1.  Communications Committee - The purpose of the communication committee is to maintain effective lines of communication so that every member can be activated smoothly, quickly and efficiently when necessary.

Setting Up a Calling Tree

• The Respect Life Chairman should appoint a calling tree or communications committee chairman who in turn picks a co-chairman.  These individuals then divide the names of interested people in the parish into groups of five to eight, giving each group a clear designation Group A or Group 1, so that each group is easily differentiated from other groups.  They then find a captain for each group who agrees to call those on his/her list whenever notified by the chairman or co-chairman.  It is recommended that each group be typed on a separate page with telephone numbers or e-mail addresses.

• The number of groups will naturally depend on the number of people who have shown interest in being part of this network.  When making the sheet for each calling tree group, such as the best time to get them, what they can help with, work numbers, friends they can contact, and the like.  The Communications chairman will of course keep the master list of all groups and their captains.

• When the Respect Life Chairman is alerted by the Respect Life Office to activate the telephone tree, he or she calls the telephone or communications chairman, giving them the message in as concise form as possible, making sure that all necessary information is included (phone number, addresses).

• The Chairman and Co-Chairman call the group captains and each captain calls another captain, plus the members in their group.  In this way, no one person has more than six or eight people to call.

Parish Respect Life Chairman

Using the Telephone Tree

• As soon as the Respect Life Chairman becomes aware of significant information requiring action, this data will be transferred to the Communications Chairman who will activate the rest of the tree.  If the tree is a large one, requiring over 20 groups, it has been found useful to have some friends keeps notes of when they were called and what the message consisted of to be certain that the information is getting out.  Alternately, the chairman could randomly call several people to see if they have been contacted.

• It is the responsibility of the Communications Chairman to be certain that the tree is current, up-to-date and that everyone knows what to do.  With 15 or 20 groups, there will be a constant turnover in group captains.  Do not assume that new captains know what to do and how to pass on information.

• If there are other pro-life churches in your vicinity that indicate an interest in being informed of action alerts or other activities such as speakers or programs, the Communication Chairman should make arrangements to tie them into the calling tree.  This should usually consist of one or two calls to key people in their organization.