Honestly, I've been dreading restarting this newsletter. For months, I've been going back and forth between "they take too much time" and "I should've sent a newsletter a long time ago." Late last week, I had to have a serious think on the subject. Why would someone - especially ERG Leaders with limited time - invest the time that it takes to do this regularly?

Ultimately, I came down to this list of considerations:

Newsletters ARE more important when:

• Your members are not all using one communications channel (ex. If your company uses Slack AND Teams) or with a lot of "deskless" employees

• You’re in the midst of a community migration

• If you have thousands of engaged members in your communications channel or a "too lively" community where important updates can easily be lost. (Don’t read into this one too much, it doesn’t apply to most ERG communities)

• If you have a consistent flow of updates and resources for your "audience" aka members

Newsletters are NOT as important when:

• Your communications channel is healthy

• You don't have any additional bandwidth to manage anything outside of your communications channel

• You have a small community (under 800 if I had to put a number to it) or unengaged community channel

See, here's the thing about newsletters that I don't think is often realized -

Many ERG Leaders think "Communications Lead" equals newsletters, when that's far from the truth. Understanding where newsletters fit into your ERG is hand and hand with understanding the true purpose of the Communications Lead. A Communications Lead is not just about promoting what your ERG is doing - it's about building COMMUNITY. A good Communications Leads facilitates community building, provides resources, and promotes initiatives (the last one is intentionally mentioned last). This means, where possible, facilitating a multidirectional conversation.

• ERG Leaders to Members - Sharing updates and resources

• Members to ERG Leaders - Sharing feedback and ideas

• ERG Members to ERG Members - Connecting with each other (this is what newsletters are missing - EVERY strong community has this!)

Bonus consideration: Most ERG Leaders do not know how to leverage email systems that leverage metrics. If that’s the case, then you can't measure if it's a successful initiative. You could be investing major time and efforts into an initiative that isn't worth it. Major red flag on newsletters if you can't measure the results of your efforts.

Now, if you are in a situation where a newsletter is fitting, your next question may be - how do we do our newsletter better?

Here's the thing, I'm literally restarting this newsletter - and have been thinking that same question for MONTHS. Six months from now I should have a clearer answer (note to self, December issue will be a follow up on this conversation). In the meantime, I actually want to turn this question over to you:

If you have an ERG newsletter, share a tip or learning here. If you are subscribed to a newsletter that you consistently tune into (doesn't have to be ERG related) please share - what keeps you coming back? Do you have a favorite newsletter type?

Your tips will be shared in next week's issue. In the meantime, we're going to test it this newsletter thing (and measure success) over the next 6 months.

Learnings to come!

- The ERG Homegirl

That’s it for this week!🙌

Stay tuned as I embark on this 6 month consistency challenge😅