Web Team Meeting 2/23/09

Results from discussion at this and previous meetings are highlighted. These notes are from the 2/23/09 meeting. Jeff's updates look like this. Charlie, thanks for setting up the Agenda this way.

Previous and subsequent meeting information should be on the Web Team Blog .

Discussion items--stuff to talk about or figure out:

1. Web page appearance
• Jeff and I found out this week that in some pages the links were blue, in some pages they were green, sometimes they were bold faced and sometimes not. Currently I have some of the links in blue and underlined, which is default for the web--do we want to change to that? It looks bad, but it's better for communication. Can we change our CSS so this kind of thing happens automatically?
  We picked text which is dark green
  
• Questions about font size also came up this week--we picked size 2
  
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) questions--do we want to sign up with Ryan Duba's Rockford Network?
   It's all about content. We will have Ryan speak at a marketing or web team meeting.
   
3. Discuss T shirts for the April 11 Easter Egg hunt. I know this isn't a web team thing, but it's driving me nuts. How about

• Yellow, since it's a pastel type color that's not too offensive, use orange, yellow, and blue. 12 Small orange, 6 medium yellow, 6 large blue.
  

• Everything on one side of the shirt, in a single color--saves money. If we want, we could get the same thing on the back too (or our old White Pines screen) for about $2 more per shirt. Or we could get different stuff on each side which would be another $15 charge for the screen.
• Don't want T shirts nobody can see because there are coats over them. If we can get sweatshirts (near) the same color do we want to offer them?
• Youth sizes of sweatshirts may come from a different company so the color may be slightly different.
• Where does the money come from? Do we want to order a few extra to give to the Y people who do Faith and Fitness?
  
4. Home page--do we want to
• Mention the Y earlier in the home page and/or link to it
  We want to move the addresses around on the home page
  
• Put some of our buzzwords out there
• Worship at the Y
• Spirit-Mind-Body Connection (We are the Spirit Connection at the Y)
• Faith and Fitness
  Jeff to write up something to go on the home page.
  
5. Logos on web page--what else do we need? (Sorry for my rant on the logo page, but I get really tired of explaining this stuff--let me know if anything there is inaccurate.)
   Need the black logo--added to the todo list. Also need transparent trees.
   
6. Templates on web page--what do we need, and how can we get it?
• Word -- Patsy has one.
  
• Powerpoint -- Randy has one
• Publisher -- Patsy has one.
  What other types?
• Banners--may not need templates for these. Signarama should have our artwork.
• Road side sign still needed--to marketing
  
• Posters -- Randy has some templates for these
• Communication cards? They are in Excel. We should put an Excel template up with the logo. We should put these on green paper next time.
• Thank you cards with our logo on the front, duplexed with the logo upside down. We may need an upside down logo. This will probably be in Word.
  What other formats?
7. What to get rid of--revisit what pages on the web site should be archived to clean things up. Make a quick list of these for someone to work on later.
   The ministries drop down menu is way too big, and there are plenty of outdated things there. Jeff would like about 5 items under a heading.
   
8. What to put back--go through the archived pages that are invisible and determine what should be made visible as past items. The rocketry page does a good job of looking back, but most other stuff only looks forward. There may be other things we want to look back on, that don't even have archived items or pictures--we might want a separate page for things like
• Children's Musical pictures
• Description and pictures for Shamrock Cookie Bake Devos Children's Hospital
• Music Festival (?)
9. Sermon links--these are out of date, does anyone know if Mike is going to start uploading them again? See separate email. Willing to record, someone needs to edit the mp3 and post it. Maybe we should be doing video. swerve.lifechurch.tv does video of the sermon Saturday night, and puts it on the screen Sunday morning in multiple buildings.
10. Figure out what to do with the different groups and how to promote them. Do we want to keep a list of these groups? Do we want to put links to them on the web site? Jeff wants to note them in an upcoming Family Tree News. So far we have
    
    • multiple google groups--with ministry team sections
      
    • at least one yahoo group--they have an address book now.
      
    • a group on facebook
    • cafe press--any progress on getting our stuff back up after they took it down because of the Y logo? Yes, with Y.
      
    • several smileboxes
    • probably other photo sites
    • Google's blog on blogger.com, which ties the URL whitepinesumc.blogspot.com to my gmail account. That might be a bad thing since we might want Pastor Jeff or someone to post to it. I recently posted to it, and am currently using it as a personal blog about White Pines stuff.
    • Jeff's blog Jeff has a blogger.com blog of his own, and he has copied the blog on the whitepinesumc.org site to it so it's in both places.
11. Discuss the role of laptop operator and use of laptop/projector in worship (ongoing discussion).
• It wasn't working this past week in the 9:30 service. Jeff and Mike did not get the remote connected and working before worship. He did use it the second service. Jeff is finding preparation time on Sunday morning more complicated with setting up the WP laptop & projector in the gym for Sunday School and other final set up details.
  
• A separate laptop and projector are used for Sunday school--there the picture is narrow and I can't remember what we did last week to fix it. Perhaps do a factory reset?
  
12. Set next meeting--we want to wait until next month, April 6 which is during spring break.

Action items--stuff to work on:

1. Jeff's Family Tree News Digest page needs a few more entries posted. I posted 2/23 and 2/2. We may want to get fancy and do it as a blog or something else that has an RSS feed attached.
2. Eliminate the telephone2 column from the contacts (or use it) if possible
3. Need 6 master logos--colored side by side, colored tree logo over, and tree only (versions--black and white, white background, and transparent background)--not done yet, though we have the black and white ones. Jeff will talk to the sign company when we order the new signs so on hold until then.
4. Need smaller versions of these logos, with multiple colors, that can be sized smaller for the web site (on hold as above).
5. Calendar logo not working - look into changing the logo size and possibly changing our web hosting for the logo, images work best if they are on a white background and are no larger than 200 pixels wide and 110 pixels high--on hold until we get hosting that can supply the logo.
6. Also for logos, make up a special log in that can only see the logo, to be used by vendors such as Earthbound. Or else make a portion of the page publicly available.
7. Revamp the directory page
   1. Make the directory info easier to find
   2. Move the pictures to another page?
   3. Move the leadership info to another page?
8. Update the online directory--ongoing, updated 10/13/08
9. Clean up Thunderbird on office desktop--ongoing
10. Need to make sure work email addresses are out of MembershipPlus and Thunderbird. We probably need to keep a list of them (like a do not call list) since they keep creeping back in.
11. Check web site for other problems, there are lots. Flashing link behavior on the lower portion of the Worship Themes & Bulletins page in Thunderbird. Fixed.
    
12. Google group--Patsy set one up, Charlie needs to confirm his ID. :)
13. Add more links to quick links, test web site without javascript.
14. Many updates to brochures, fliers, and other advertising material--ongoing.
15. Check on mobile version of web site, see swerve.lifechurch.tv (the old version of dotnetnuke had a way to make some modules not show up on mobile devices, not sure if the new one does--any announcements about worship cancellation due to weather should certainly show up!)
    
16. Make it possible to click for directions using the map on the web page, perhaps by replacing it with an embedded google map in an iframe (note that not all browsers support iframes, javascript, etc.)
17. Hide the Weekly Worship Leaders and Support Teams page.
18. Check the Meijer Rewards information.
19. Clean up/archive unused links and pages on the web site.
20. Put a copy of the peanut allergy information that includes the name and a printable copy of the original document in the subscribers area of the web site.
21. Check the web site for new registrations.
22. Move addresses around on the home page--worship site at the Y first and centered.
23. Add the Y to the quick links so it's on every page on our site.
24. See if worshipattheY.org is available.
25. Need the resizable black tree on the logo page.