How to talk about General Conference

On April 15, 2024, from 9 to 10 a.m. Pacific Time, church leaders (lay and clergy) are invited to attend a one-hour Zoom presentation on communicating about the upcoming General Conference with the Directors of Communications from each conference in the Western Jurisdiction and Brenda Smotherman from United Methodist Communications (UMCom).

In essence, this is a crisis communication training/refresher, but we’ll also share our plans for distributing news about General Conference 2024 before exploring the following:

1. What should you do if a reporter contacts your church in person, by phone, or via social media and asks you to comment on their story about the General Conference?
2. How can you offer your opinion while being clear that you don’t speak for the entirety of The United Methodist Church?
3. Where can members find the real news and daily outcomes, especially if they see something alarming on social media about General Conference?

The Desert Southwest Conference is managing Zoom registrations for this event as part of its Monday Moments program. You can register for this opportunity at https://dscumc.org/monday-moments-registration/.

About the Guest Presenter

Brenda Smotherman is the Associate Public Relations Director at United Methodist Communications and has been with the agency for more than five years. She provides publicity support for UMCom, communicators across the UMC connection, The Connectional Table, and the Commission on the General Conference. Smotherman oversees media pitching, several social media channels, publicity consultation and training, and supportive written content, resources and reports.