Make Truth Common

MTCROAUMKTMEHON

A Guide to the MML
Publishing Team

First Edition by Aaron Betts
Edited by Amanda Keesee

FOREWORD

Welcome to the team!

My name is Aaron Betts, I am the first Publishing Team
Director. As I write this, Common has not even fully launched
and the Publishing team is still establishing a team iden-
tity as well as methodology. We have had more than our
share of setbacks, but I am confident in the capable people
who have joined, and their potential for excellence.

Enough of the past, you are here to learn about the concepts
and practices that make the Publishing Team operate and
where you fit into that process.

I formatted this book in front of you so that you only need
to read the sections addressing your role. You are most cer-
tainly welcome to read it entirely if you are curious, but the
chapters are designed to provide the knowledge you will
need to get started. The positions and methods are dynam-
ic and will always require some adaptation but what I have
included is what I see as essential tools that will continue
to be useful as the team moves forward.

Additionally, each section will include the ideological drive
behind each role. The “how” may sound simple on paper
but without the Why, any of these positions can derail the
purpose of the whole team.

I hold brevity as a virtue, so you need not fear long chap-
ters. My hope is you will be able to read the information
about your position without needing to interrupt your al-
ready busy homework schedule.

Let’s get to it.

1. OVERVIEW

What is Common?

Common is an idea first and a website second. Even so,
when I use the word Common throughout this book I will
be referring to the website platform that has been built to
carry the idea of Common out to the public.

Common as an Idea

I do not know if Professor Kammerzelt still speaks grandly
about Common whenever the opportunity arises, however
there is reason to his enthusiasm. Without the ideological
foundation for Common, it would regress into another web-
site for creatives glorifying themselves and recognition for
their work. Common's aim is much higher and it will al-
ways be essential to this team’s operation that core value
is remembered.

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Common is culmination of Kammerzelt's reforms in the
Communication department as department chair. Below is
his statement on the core of Common.

“We come together around what we hold in common.
In that, we begin to commune with one another around
our common center. From that communion, a commu-
nity and its identity are formed. When a community
begins to express its identity and beliefs, it external-
izes in what we know as communications—this is the
site where artists paint, writers write, speakers speak,
filmmakers film, and the broadcasters broadcast. The
communications of any given community have an
innate reason for being, a purpose to accomplish—a
commission. All flowing from a common center.

This platform is to be a representation of our collabo-
rative creative community. Here you find images and
words of all kinds as an expression of our communion.

Our Common Center? Yeshua the Nazarene. We believe
every word recorded about him and everything said.
We want to point to that truth and experience that
meaning through the public witness of our community.

What do we make here? We make truth common. What
do we believe? Come and see.”

Common is a platform for the creatives of Moody Bible In-
stitute to display their work as the Christ-centered work
that it is. We have been told that our work as creatives is not
applicable to the Church and in response we have created
books, videos, photos, dramas, podcasts, articles, and oth-
er experimental mediums to prove them wrong. But until
Common, those works have been scattered across count-
less social media accounts, portfolios, and lost hard drives.
We have a message, that message has lacked the focus to
reach the reality-healing potential that concentrated truth
has.

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We were commissioned to go into the world and preach the
Gospel, and with Common we will.

With all that said here are a few things Common is not

Common is not for self-promotion. The works displayed
here not to help someone build their recognition or brand.
Our goal is to always speak the truth of Christ first. If the
piece does not fit our purpose, it is not for the site.

Common as a Website

As a platform, Common is fairly straightforward. It is a gal-
lery of the high-quality work that Moody Creatives have
made. The content is curated and edited to fit the site. Con-
tent is gathered through our submission form on the site or
through professor recommended class work. The site does
not seek to build its own identity but only to promote the
truth within the content we post. To this end the design
is minimal, branding is barely existent, and the content is
always the focus. Consistency in content delivery is a pri-
mary functional goal of the site itself.

There is presently one extension of Common that is not the
site itself, the social media account. This account still main-
tains the mission and purpose of Common but through the
platform of a more public facing service.

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Publishing Team

The team is consists of smaller roles which focus on only
one or two elements in the publishing Process. Here is a
brief summary of each role.

Editors

The editing roles exist at the heart of the publishing pro-
cess. Without dedicated editors, content will cease to flow
through Common and we will lose consistency as a site.
They review and prepare content for the site with the pur-
pose of maintaining our standard of quality and message.

Web Designers

To enable the Editors to focus solely on the content, Web
Designers take the edited and reviewed content and pres-
ent it in the best possible way on the site. Since not all con-
tent is intended for a web format, designers make sure the
message isn’t lost in translation.

Social Media Managers

The goal of social media roles is to build up community
around the message and truth of Common through their
platforms. Community building and engagement are es-
sential to moving our content outside the walls of Moody.

Web Developers

As a website, Common will require constant maintenance,
improvements, and redesigns. It is the nature of the plat-
form that there will always be room for improvement. A
website is never 'done'. It is the Web Developers task to car-
ry out this improvement.

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Content Manager

Handling the day-to-day tasks of the content process, the
Content Manager supervises the Editors, Web Designers
and Social Media managers to ensure the content process
operates will. They assign tasks and follow up to make sure
the whole content team is operating to the best of their
ability.

Director

The Director oversees the whole team while working on
long term goals for expansion and continuation of Com-
mon. What each director does will largely depend upon the
state of Common and where they want it to improve. One
thing that each director will do is helping the team keep
their focus on the purpose of Common. If there is anyone
that should be able to answer, “what is Common?” at any
point in time, it is the director.

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2. EDITORIAL

Just as a newspaper couldn’t operate without editors,
Common cannot operate without you. With that necessity
comes responsibility. When an editor fails to keep dead-
lines, the whole team stumbles. I don’t write this scare you,
but it is important to know what your role is and its man-
ifestation within the team. You are needed and will be de-
pended upon, that is important to understand before mov-
ing forward.

Goals

As an editor, you will need to find and decide what content
ends up on the site. The review process, does not exist for
us to create rockstars in the department as a title for every-
one to fight over. The process exists to motivate creatives
to produce quality content. Having a standard is what will
set Common apart. By delivering quality content consis-
tently, we will show the care and work that many invest in
their art.

Maintaining that quality will be difficult, there’s no doubt
about that. To help with that I’ve written out a process that
I hope provides enough structure to get you started.

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The Editorial Process

1. Review
2. Strategy
3. Preparation
4. Design
5. Delivery

Process

Since the editorial process is more involved than the other
positions, I have created a work-flow chart to help you keep
the process in mind.

1. Review

As content comes in, you will be the one to decide what fits
on the site and what does not. To assist that task, below is
a review guide to help you understand the principles we
are looking for in submitted work. There is also a printable
walkthrough that reflects these principles if you prefer.
That will be located on the team Dropbox.

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Quality – The overall quality of the content does not au-

tomatically disqualify a piece from Common. However, you
may need to contact the original artist(s) and request a re-
submission a higher fidelity version.

Message – Quality can be fixed. The message of a piece

cannot. We will receive a variety of messages submitted for
publication. It is your responsibility to ensure they fit with-
in Common's mission before publishing. We are not bound
to the doctrinal statement of MBI but anything that is far
outside that statement should not be lightly accepted for
Common. Even then it will need to be approved by a faculty
advisor to protect the department from backlash.

Audience – This factor is more nebulous than the others

as Common is a gallery first and does not have a specific
audience beyond those that want to see a specific piece.
Still if a piece is directed at a highly specific audience or if
it would be impossible to provide enough context for it to
make sense, rejection must be considered.

Format – This is an important factor in the strategy of

the site. Most formats will need some work to maintain
their message on the web. That said, I foresee content that
simply can’t be adapted to the web. In this case, we need
to value the message above just arbitrarily throwing some-
thing online.

If a piece can’t pass these qualifications then it is our re-
sponsibility to drop it.

Before proceeding to the next stage, we need to see if a fac-
ulty member has approved it. Either it will have been sent
to us via faculty recommendation in which case we can
move on, or we need to send it off to get approved by the
publishing advisor.

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2. Strategy

Once a piece goes through review and is chosen it we will
need to discuss its usage. Not all pieces will be automati-
cally fit for the web and will probably require some adapta-
tion. You will work with the Content Manager to settle on
the what needs to be done and when.

3. Preparation

Once the strategic questions are answered the content will
be prepared to be adapted for the web. What happens here
can vary wildly. Examples may include asking the author
for a description or explanation to preface the work, find-
ing pull-quotes from the writing, choosing sections of to
use, etc. Once this is completed, all relevant content will be
passed to the content designers for formatting.

4. Design

While this step does not fully belong to the editors, you may
be involved in some capacity. You have the most informa-
tion as to the why and how this content is going to be used,
you may assist the designers in making sure that their lay-
outs match your expected vision. Anticipate this to require
at least two rounds of revisions before a satisfactory result.

5. Delivery

This step is just the culmination of the previous steps. All
that remains is to schedule the date and time for the post.
Don’t forget to celebrate even the smallest victories

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Tools

Communication: Slack

Inter-team communication will be done through the MML
Slack channel. Due to Slack’s cross-platform compatibility,
it is ideal for student collaboration.

Project Management: Asana

Tasks and steps for larger projects will be assigned through
an Asana team. Here, task requirements, resources, and
due dates are easily observable at a glance.

Asana is incredibly helpful in keeping track of the various
steps in the Editorial process, especially when you are re-
viewing several pieces at once.

Storage: Dropbox

We will be utilizing the MML Publishing folders to store
and share digital media files. Each piece or series should
be well organized within the Publishing Dropbox so that
anybody on the team can easily find all associated content.

3. WEB DESIGN

Common exists to provide a frame for the content of MBI’s
creatives. The problem is that not all shapes fit into frames
easily.

Not everything submitted will be prepared for the web and
even the stuff that is prepared will take some work for it to
transfer well into our post builder. We hope that every con-
tributor has a vision and voice for how their work should
appear on Common. When there is none, it is your job to
seek out the best way to represent their work. For the most
part the editors will handle the content side of this equa-
tion while you will take over the visual representation of
the pieces.

Goals

There is no simple process or system that anyone will be
able to create to answer how to adapt each work. All I can
do is set principles and let you loose into the creative pro-
cess. While these are similar to the guidelines the editors
use in evaluation, the similarities end there. When you re-
ceive content, you are not making a decision on whether it
will be used, but how it will be used and what it will look
like.

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Quality – This will come more into question when piec-

es lack any visual art, or there is only a low-quality image.
We do not want a photo compressed beyond recognition on
any high-rez screen. That will detract from the work. This
may mean that we need to create or acquire a new image to
accompany the piece, or we may need to rely on web-based
graphics to highlight the intent of the work.


Message – When visuals are paired with written content,

there is usually a reason behind it. In that case, we want
to avoid removing these connections. The emphasis may
come through the page design and layout itself.

Process

After the Editors are finished reviewing and preparing a
piece, they will hand it off to you. You should get the full
body copy along with any visual elements.
All content should be in a shared Dropbox folder.

From there, you should have a short discussion on the pur-
pose/goals/message of the piece itself with the editor.

Then, draft two or three design options while receiving
feedback from Editorial and the Content Manager.

Pick the best draft, revise the design as needed.

Once draft is solidified, schedule the post using the post
builder.

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Tools

Communication: Slack

Inter-team communication will be done through the MML
Slack channel. Due to Slack’s cross-platform compatibility,
it is ideal for student collaboration.

Project Management: Asana

Tasks and steps for larger projects will be assigned through
an Asana team. Here, task requirements, resources, and
due dates are easily observable at a glance.

Storage: Dropbox

We will be utilizing the MML Publishing folders to store
and share digital media files. Each piece or series should
be well organized within the Publishing Dropbox so that
anybody on the team can easily find all associated content.
This is where all the edited and approved content should
end up once it is through the editing process.

Role Specific Tool: Elementor

We are currently using the Elementor WordPress plugin as
it provides a visual interface to build post pages. The block
types that are included will suffice for our tasks. The Word-
Press' post builder can work, but we have had fewer issues
when formatting larger pieces in Elementor.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is, in many ways, the end of the line for what
we edit and prepare. It is where we will build a community
of people outside of Moody. Our hope is that what we make
points them to Christ. Social media can work this way but
it will require some effort.

Goals

I think it’s worth explaining about community building as
goal. While Common is the platform we are using to show-
case the work of the creatives on campus, this alone does
not create a community. A place is needed for people to
gather and discuss/celebrate the work on display. We also
want this community to move outside the walls of Moody.
The world says that we have little to give in terms of art
or culture. Unfortunately this has been true for quite some
time.

If we want to change that mentality then we need to break
out of the walls of Sweeting 4 and present our work pub-
licly. This will take time, it will likely take several years of
dedicated community building to make this goal a reality,
but that’s why we are here, to build something that will out-
last us.

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Process

The social media process will be more flexible than the
other positions on the Publishing team. Beyond the simple
principle of consistency, the “how” is largely left up to the
social media managers.

Running any social media account is a game, and it is a
game with many principles and more interpretations of
those principles. That is why I can’t provide a simple list of
steps and actions, this position doesn’t fit into that clear-
cut process. It requires you to think creatively on how con-
tent is viewed and how best to deliver that content to an
audience.

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Tools

Communication: Slack

Inter-team communication will be done through the MML
Slack channel. Due to Slack’s cross-platform compatibility,
it is ideal for student collaboration.

Project Management: Asana

Tasks and steps for larger projects will be assigned through
an Asana team. Here, task requirements, resources, and
due dates are easily observable at a glance.

Thanks to Asana’s task-to-calendar features it is simple to
plan out social media posts all through this app alone.

Storage: Dropbox

We will be utilizing the MML Publishing folders to store
and share the digital media files that come from the main
site posts. Resources not used by the Editors may be here
and ready for social media.

Role Specific Tool: Social Media Accounts

@common.center (Instagram)

At the time of writing we are only using this one account to
publish content to social media. Other platforms are being
considered but currently our focus is to use Instagram cor-
rectly before expanding to other platforms.

5. WEB DEVELOPMENT

Your position in web dev is inherently different than the
rest of the team. You are not wrapped up in the content
stream. You will be more focused on improvement and
maintenance of Common.

Goals

A cornerstone of all web development is iteration. This is
no less true for us as it is for any other website. Regardless
of what the site looks like at the time of my departure, I fully
expect to see revisions and structural updates to Common.
If you have a web development background, you likely un-
derstand this concept already but if you are new to web de-
sign work than this is vastly different from other mediums.
You cannot take ownership of the site and its designs in
the same way as a logo you made or photograph you took.

Make the site the best you can, improve and build on pre-
vious contributions, but know that what you make may be
changed radically after you leave. That’s ok. It’s the nature
of the work.

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Process

Direction for what areas need improvement will come from
a couple places.

Firstly, from the Publishing Director. This position spends
the most time looking towards the future and as a result,
changes to the site naturally result.

Second, feedback from others in the Communications de-
partment. While it may be unfocused, feedback from others
in our major is important to consider as we need their con-
tinual enthusiasm for the platform.

Finally, Professor Kammerzelt will likely have the most to
say about what needs improving. He has years of web ex-
perience and has a strong vision for what Common can do.
He will always have ideas on what needs improving if you
ever feel lost.

From those channels of input, discussions on task size and
timelines as necessary.

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Tools

Communication: Slack

Inter-team communication will be done through the MML
Slack channel. Due to Slack’s cross-platform compatibility,
it is ideal for student collaboration.

Project Management: Asana

Tasks and steps for larger projects will be assigned through
an Asana team. Here, task requirements, resources, and
due dates are easily observable at a glance.

Storage: Dropbox

We will be utilizing the MML Publishing folders to store
and share digital media files. Each piece or series should
be well organized within the Publishing Dropbox so that
anybody on the team can easily find all associated content.

Role Specific Tools: WordPress

This is where the site is hosted. Any adjustments will need
to be made through WordPress’s built-in page editor or one
of the visual plugins we have added.

6. CONTENT MANAGER

The process our content needs to go through is lengthy. It
goes through multiple teams and processes. Any hiccup
can lead to more work done the line. That is why we have
you, the content manager. By placing someone to directly
supervise specific steps and tasks we hope avoid needless
confusion and wasted time.

Goals

You are the problem solver for issues in the content process.
Familiarity with the content process should be your pri-
mary goal. Understanding the roles and procedures, should
solve most questions. Familiarity with the process will also
enable you to anticipate problems before they happen.

Process

The main way you will carry this out is through our proj-
ect management software Asana. Each role will have tasks
and steps that they need to complete. You need to check in
regularly and make sure everything is completed properly
and address the issue when it isn't.

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Tools

Communication: Slack

Inter-team communication will be done through the MML
Slack channel. Due to Slack’s cross-platform compatibility,
it is ideal for student collaboration.

Project Management: Asana

Tasks and steps for larger projects will be assigned through
an Asana team. Here, task requirements, resources, and
due dates are easily observable at a glance.

In many ways you will need to take the initiative of using
Asana since the team will not do it naturally. Expect some
miscommunication as the team gets used to the app. Start
with smaller less important tasks before moving on to the
bigger deadlines. This way any confusion with the app get
cleared up with less pressure.

Storage: Dropbox

We will be utilizing the MML Publishing folders to store
and share the digital media files that come from the main
site posts.

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7. DIRECTOR

The director must lead the team in its long-term vision
and focus. Something I have found time and time again is
the need to outline the goals and direction of the publish-
ing team with them. As we are all students, this team only
makes up for a fraction of the focus that we have to give. I
hope this document will help alleviate those repeat con-
cerns since each role can read it to understand their place
in the process. Of course, the director will still need to step
in when things move off direction (and they most certainly
will).

Goals

As the leader, your priority must be the well-being of your
team. You will almost certainly be the person on the team
with the most experience and you must make sure your
team can grow and learn from you. The team should always
be better when you leave than when you took over. Theoret-
ically, the team could run under only a project manager, as
mechanically churning out content. Your purpose is make
things better. This does not mean you have to improve ab-
solutely everything but pick an area that your talents and
skills best address and focus on that one area. Kammerzelt
regularly says that, “education has no memory” and this is
mostly true; much of what my team has built will need to
be rediscovered and relearned in the future. That is why I
have worked to counteract that cycle of forgetfulness and I
hope you do as well.

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I can only speak from personal experience, but you will
lead it in your own style. This position (like all of MML) is a
learning position and no one can do it perfect. Accept that
you will fail your team and trust them enough to be honest
when you do. That said, I will be including some resources
that I feel will greatly benefit your time as Director.

Process

Meetings are your main focus week-to-week. Your Content
Manager will handle the details of the content process,
though it is likely you will have to step in when questions
arise. Due to the variety of tasks, I recommend that you
set up a short meeting with every role, once a week. I have
found that discussions on tasks often don't overlap.

Another aspect that will greatly impact your team is who
you hire. I expect that as Common grows, more people will
want to be a part. However, that may take some time. You
will likely need to visit the Intro to Communication and Core
Tools classes since they have the most indecisive people in
the major. As for when to start hiring for the next semester,
I recommend starting right before class registration. This
will help them schedule around the required meet times as
well as open the possibility of practicum credit.

Tools

While I can’t require reading, I will highly recommend
these books for leading the team. They're from Prof. Pet-
titt’s Team Dynamics class that I was fortunate enough
to take during the first semester of the Publishing team.
I would recommend that class also, since reading will not
prepare you completely to lead a team well.

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Patrick Lencioni

A business fable, Lencioni demonstrates what the
causes of team dysfunctions are. This is a quick read and
should give you an idea of what to anticipate before the
team falls apart.

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: John C. Maxwell

Like the title implies, this book will give you 17 prac-
tical “laws” on improving teamwork. Or you could read The
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by Maxwell if you would
prefer. They paint a largely the same picture just from dif-
ferent angles.

StrengthsFinder 2.0

What I am recommending here is the test, not the
book. I did not read it, but from my understanding it ex-
plains the results of the test. Helpful summaries are already
included with the test. If the Publishing team is ever grant-
ed a budget, I would recommend everyone on the team take
this test. For now, you might find difficult to drum up par-
ticipation from those not taking the practicum for credit.
Regardless, the director and the Content manager should
both take this test. Going through the results and under-
standing your strengths will help the both of you plan and
separate responsibilities properly.

8. OPERATIONS

Communication: Slack

Login: MBI student email - Manual invite

You should at least be aware of the Comm department
Slack group at this point in time, but if not let me provide
a brief introduction. Slack is a closed communication pro-
gram. This means that only people invited to the group are
included.

You have the ability to send private messages to any oth-
er user, as well as participate in various group chats and
channels. While this adds another social media app to
keep track of, it is the best solution for working with larger
teams. You can easily see past messages as well share files
and other plugins.

One issue we have had is the notifications tend to be a bit
inconsistent. Expect to trouble shoot the first couple of
group chats.

A partial solution we have found is to add “@here” when
sending an important message to a channel. This will noti-
fy all members in a channel. By default, members of chan-
nels won’t get notified of every message in a channel.

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Storage: Dropbox

Login: [email protected] - automatic once
invited

The department just started using Dropbox and for the
amount of files that we manage it is a godsend. We will no
longer be tied to a physical hard drive, but now it can be
accessed anywhere with internet access.

Note: do not use google drive to store and retrieve files for
the website. There is no department google account and if
it goes on google drive then it can be lost easily. We have
spent far too much time trying to decipher why certain files
were unusable or immovable and it will undermine future
use of those files for future teams.

Project Management: Asana

Login: MBI Student email -Manual setup

When working with this many varied tasks and projects or-
ganization is essential. There is nothing special about Asa-
na. However, it has everything I wanted in a management
system though so that’s why I went with it.

Here are a few things that stuck out to me.

-It’s free.
You can invite up to 15 people. I doubt you will have to wor-
ry about needing more slots than that, given our expected
size.

-Task organization is adaptable and fits different roles.
You can switch between viewing your assignments and
those of other members.

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-Auto-generates a calendar from the task list.
With the number of regular processes we have, this is help-
ful in visualizing what is happening for content planning
on a larger scale.

-Mobile app works well.
Even if it's simply for notifying you about a task, it’s nice
and straightforward.

Role Specific Tools

Web Design: Elementor

We are currently using the Elementor WordPress plugin as
it provides a visual interface to build post pages. The block
types that are included will suffice for our tasks. The Word-
Press' post builder can work, but we have had fewer issues
when formatting larger pieces in Elementor.

Social Media: Social Media Accounts

@common.center (Instagram)

At the time of writing we are only using this one account to
publish content to social media. Other platforms are being
considered but currently our focus is to use Instagram cor-
rectly before expanding to other platforms.

Web Development: WordPress

The is where the site is hosted. Any adjustments will need
to be made through WordPress’s built-in page editor or one
of the visual plugins we have added.

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Paths Forward

There are a number of things that I wanted to do as director
that I never was able to due to the nature of building a team
from scratch. I will include a few in hopes that they inspire
your own improvements for the team

Connecting with student groups.

As a site that runs on submissions by MBI students, one
thing that I have been worried about is ensuring that we
will always have quality content remove. One idea I had
was to meet with the various student groups across cam-
pus that create stuff outside of the Comm program. The two
groups I’d recommend are the Student Theological Society
and the Art Society. Both could contribute work that would
integrate well with Common.

Procedural Improvement.

The process as it stands is mostly theoretical. My time as
Director should not be typical of team operations moving
forward. Building the site and team has not allowed me to
test these procedures. As I was writing this document, I got
to thinking that it may be possible to remove some barriers
by having the Director and Content Manager review and
pick projects to lighten the editors' workload. This might
allow them to focus on preparing the content for the site.
The artistic vision that the director will need to speak into
anyway.

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Professional applications.

As we are just starting out, we don’t have a budget for appli-
cations or services that could help the team in the long run.
I could list any number of premium apps, but two I think
could be most beneficial are Hootsuite and Asana Premi-
um.
Social Media will increasingly become an important aspect
of the process and without tools to track and measure post
engagement and reach, it will take longer to grow.
Asana works for what we need now, but the added features
of start dates, task dependencies, timelines, and milestones
would provide an easier understanding of where the pro-
cess is at.

NOTES