It appears that even though some say the pandemic is waning, we are still seeing the effects of it in our supply chain and our economy. One thing we did not anticipate at this time was the shortage of paper products. I am not referring to toilet paper or paper towels but print paper. The kind of paper this newsletter is printed on. These shortages are showing up everywhere from envelopes, to copy paper, to larger printing press sheets. You will notice this issue of our newsletter only has four pages instead of the usual six. We had to reduce the size due to a paper shortage.
For years, we have debated moving the newsletter entirely to a digital format that would be emailed to each donor and visible on our website. The concern we have is that the printed newsletter is the single largest source of monthly donations to the mission. Should donors stop mailing their donations to us in the envelope included in this newsletter mailing, we could see a drastic decrease in the funds needed to keep our ministries operational. On the flip side, the production of the newsletter does have a significant cost when we look at postage to mail it out, postage for the return envelopes, and the cost of materials to produce each issue.
Another digital opportunity we plan to rollout in the near future are online video presentations where you can hear updates directly from our administration and director staff on all the things happening at Union Mission. There will also be time to present questions to the team. Watch for updates on social media, email, and upcoming newsletters concerning this option.
