“We've received very favorable feedback on the change we Electronic annual made last year,” said Paige Peak, assistant executive director and chief communications officer for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. “Many people have found the new format very easy to use, and we've had less than 50 requests for printed copies. Clearly, our churches are more frequently utilizing electronic media to communicate -- to receive and to store information.”

The Virginia Baptist Annual, a yearly compilation of historical and statistical Virginia Baptist information, is sent to all Baptist General Association of Virginia churches, as well as district associations, Mission Board members, mission partners and other state conventions and affiliates.

Until 2007, the Annual was a print publication of approximately 500 pages, with slightly over 2,000 copies printed. Printing and mailing costs for the publication used to total around $23,000. After the conversion to a CD format, production and mailing costs for the same number of copies now run approximately $5,000.

Production of the Annual on a CD also allows for distribution of other resources on the same disk, including “What Every Virginia Baptist Wants to Know” (a compilation of “On These Truths We Stand,” “BGAV: the Right Choice” and “Truthfully Speaking”) and downloadable Cooperative Missions ads for use in church bulletins, newsletters and websites.

In electronic format on the CD or website, the Virginia Baptist Annual and “What Every Virginia Baptist Wants to Know” can be easily reviewed using bookmarks and the search function. Users can also save the documents to their computer and print sections or the entire document as needed. It is not possible to modify or copy these documents, however, because they are protected by security preferences to prevent their use for solicitation, development of mailing lists or other commercial purposes.

Those with no computer access, or limited access, can request that the VBMB print and mail a copy of the Virginia Baptist Annual by calling 800. ALL.BGAV, ext. 1212.

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