By Gardening Grandma
In a planning meeting for the November 2009 convention of the Reform Movement, we started talking about Facebook and whether it would be a good way to build understanding of and excitement about the Biennial.

It turns out that nine of the ten folks around the table have Facebook accounts, and at least three of them were checking it as the meeting was going on. When I asked how often everyone checks Facebook, the numbers ranged from almost never, (as in less than once a week) to about 10 times a day. But there was a clear division in the room: under 50, active users; over 50, only occasional.

Which made me wonder: If most Biennial attendees--save a large number of high school and college students--are in the upper bracket, how useful would it be to try to promote the Biennial on Facebook?

If I'd asked the question before the 2007 Biennial, the answer would probably have been no, not worth the time - our demographics just weren't using Facebook way back then.

But all that is changing.

Recently Facebook announced they've hit the 100 million users mark. But that was actually a few days ago....who knows where they will be at the time you read this.

According to the company, more than half of Facebook users are outside of college, and the fastest growing group are over 25. Facebook doesn't give out the average age of its users, but I bet it's going up with each additional million accounts.

One woman at the meeting said her parents, aunts and uncles are all on Facebook. "That's the way they communicate with their grandchildren," she said.

So what about you? Do you Facebook? Why not try it out.

And yes, you'll find me on Facebook. I'm in the Union for Reform Judaism group as well as a group of ex-Houston Post staffers. Given that the paper shut its doors in 1995, most of us are in the "over 50" generation now.

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