The Coal Forum

THE COAL FORUM logo transOrganized under the West Virginia Mine Safety & Technical Review Committee (TRC), the Coal Forum exists to promote the coal industry in West Virginia.  While the TRC handles individual safety issues, the Coal Forum’s primary focus is advocacy.

Company Story

The Coal Forum had a website when Joel Watts was appointed administrator four years ago, but according to Watts,  “It was really, really underused.”  With a good grasp of technology himself, Watts and the Coal Forum were able to make the website “more robust”; that included enlisting the help of Jamie Summers-Brown and Bricks Without Straw.  “Jamie redesigned the site, set the server correctly, got us really nice graphics; he redesigned the whole thing so it’s much more user friendly.” 

Communicating the Coal Forum’s Message

The Coal Forum entrusted another major project to Jamie, as well—the Coal Forum Headlines. “Jamie set that up from scratch.  I was able to work with him, giving him just a few outline structures and telling him what we wanted.   He took off with it.”

Referred to by Watts as “mailing lists” or “email blasts”, Jamie designed a way to daily communicate to individuals involved in and concerned about the coal industry in West Virginia.  Each day, Jamie and his staff  pull news stories that pertain to the mining, coal and energy industries.  They hand sort them, building a daily dispatch that is delivered to the 1000+ email subscribers.  In addition, the headlines are also sent out over Twitter and included on the Coal Forum website and Facebook page.  Though the Coal Forum occasionally sends Jamie certain news stories or events to be highlighted in the email, the major responsibility for locating these news items rests with Jamie and his staff. 

Jamie also monitors the website’s metrics, keeping Watts apprised of the Coal Forum’s audience and impact.  And the statistics are encouraging; Watts shared, “The response to the Coal Forum Headlines has been better than expected.”  Chuckling, he said, “Every once in a while we’ll get personal emails from people that we have made otherwise unhappy, so that’s awesome.”  Reaching professionals, semi-professionals, government workers, environmental groups, news organizations, and others, these daily updates help the Coal Forum’s advocacy efforts by keeping people aware and up to date.

Beyond The Coal Forum

When Watts has a technology need, Jamie has become his go-to-guy, even beyond the Coal Forum.  Serving as the administrator of four West Virginia coal boards in addition to the Coal Forum, Watts enlisted Bricks Without Straw in the development of a central website for these five groups.  The site is being built in pieces,  currently focusing on the Mine Safety Technology Taskforce. With Jamie’s help, the task force will  highlight products, individuals, and companies that have the potential to strengthen the West Virginia coal mining industry.
 
Unlike many people, Watts is comfortable with technology, which makes the confidence he expresses in Jamie’s abilities even more significant.  Describing Jamie as “responsive and responsible” and “very open” to ideas, Watts remarked,  “Talking with Jamie is like talking with a twin.  He can read my mind . .  . I can just give him the idea and he knows how to do it.” 

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.