Professional Narrative
About five years ago, I started to feel what I later recognized as God’s calling to the vocation of a religious communicator. From my days in high school when I was hired as professional singer, through various positions as director of music to my current position as director of communications; my experience has allowed me to work closely with people at all levels of the church.
This church experience includes working closely with Churchwide and volunteer staff during the 2007 and 2009 Churchwide Assemblies and the 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Youth Gathering. Work at these events included voice work, news reporting, and webcasting with professionals at the top of their games. These experiences helped me to understand the level of professionalism involved in producing these important events.
Work in the public sector, as a teacher and radio personality, has exposed me to a broad spectrum of cultures and people. During my time as a teacher my responsibilities included a period as a technology coordinator where I administrated a network of over 100 computers and developed websites.
Work in the private sector, as a manager in retail, I learned to work within budgets, manage people and inventory and most importantly set priorities to achieve goals.
Professional Experience
Director of Communications
Upstate New York Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
December 2008 - Current
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Coordinate with staff as communication strategies are planned
- Manage the development, design, content of the synod website and social media outlets
- Produce and distribute bi-weekly Synod newsletter, Upstate Update
- Produce and distribute press releases to media upon approval of the Bishop
- Produce and distribute Synod supplements, message inserts and publications as requested
- Work with technology providers to understand new applications that will enhance and expand communications among congregations and leaders in the synod
- Assist with planning and execution of events i.e. Synod Assembly
- Build and maintain marketing and branding standards throughout all synod communications
- Assist with the photography, videotaping and webcasting of synod events
Key Skills
- Ability to develop and implement a strategic plan for religious communications
- Ability to set priorities for the delivery of critical information through the best possible delivery options
- Creative in team leadership
- Excellent corporate communication skills both written and verbal
- Professional in voice, web and print content development
- Focused on feedback and market research
- Excellence in public performance
- Understanding the need for professionalism and confidentiality requirements of working for the larger church.
Computer Skills
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Publisher
- Microsoft FrontPage
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Illustrator
- Email Marketing
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Basic networking and routing
- Webcasting
- Social Networking via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Writing Examples
The Upstate New York Synod, Social Media and YOU!
It isn’t really a secret that the world is rapidly becoming more connected each day. Leading this revolution is the expansion of internet accessibility and the use of social media. Services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are expanding how we interact, obtain knowledge and most importantly share what we have learned.
How much has the process of obtaining knowledge and sharing it changed? Reflect on the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The very first acknowledgment of the crisis and cries for help were shared on Twitter and Facebook status updates. The Red Cross raised millions by posting an appeal to Twitter first, and later on television, that they were accepting donations by text message. The very first videos of the earthquake were posted on YouTube. This lead to traditional news organizations all over the world enhancing their coverage with additional footage and information from trusted sources on social media outlets.
The Upstate New York Synod is adding to our communications and evangelism infrastructure through the use of social media. We hope these tools will enhance member engagement with the synod, create member-to-member sharing of meaningful stories, and ultimately lead members to share God’s boundless love with the world.
We encourage you to visit the Synod’s website. If your church’s website has the ability to add RSS feeds (rich site summary) please consider adding our website feed. We hope you will “like” us on Facebook, “follow” us on Twitter, and “subscribe” on YouTube.
No computer or want to stay updated while you are away from your computer? Have a cell phone? Get updates on your cell phone by texting “follow @upstatenysynod” to 40404 to follow our “tweets” (standard text messaging rates apply.) We will continue to provide paper copies of Upstate Update to those who prefer to receive information in paper format. As we increase our use of media, however, there may be times when content will not be available in this form.
Synod Educational Opportunities
In an ongoing effort to improve the effectiveness of our communications, and thanks to some helpful feedback, we are shifting how we distribute information about educational opportunities. Over the last year we released Enlighten, an education newsletter, via Adobe Acrobat “pdf” files through email. The outlet was well received but had some limitations. Most importantly, timeliness.
In order to get information in everyone’s hands earlier, and to expand the audience size, we are moving this information to a blog on the synod website called Growing in Faith. The benefits of this format will be that these opportunities will be posted earlier, giving more notice for planning purposes, and the information will be searchable through the website.
What people are saying about me
Ava - “Neal is a consummate professional. His attention to detail and expert knowledge provided an excellent service to our production. Neal goes beyond the call of duty to make things happen. His friendly and gentle personality make him a pleasure to work with.”
Len - “Neal Fischer is a hard worker that pays attention to detail. He can be counted on to accomplish what he says he will do.”
Ben - “Neal has been a valuable colleague who has found innovative ways to use Web technology (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, video, and webcasting) to connect the people of the ELCA Upstate New York Synod with what's going on nationally in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.”