Web Team Meeting 6/1/09

Results from previous meetings are highlighted. We will also want to highlight new items to pay attention to. We can add to this over time. The plan is to move things off this list as we address them, so that this will always be the current agenda (so the link doesn't change). Jeff's updates look like this. Charlie, thanks for setting up the Agenda this way.

This agenda is stored online at http://docs.google.com/ViewDoc?docid=dhc342g_15d5jdf79c . Previous agenda lists should be on the Web Team Blog .

New business discussion items--stuff to talk about or figure out:

1. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc--we need a presence and may want to link to them. We decided this would be good to pursue, but have questions.

• How can we use these kinds of sites for ministry?

• What kind of experience can we provide through them?

• Who can administer our pages on these sites and do periodic maintenance? I had put several young people in as administrators, perhaps they can help.
  

• Do we continue to let everyone in? What does that mean for what content we provide?

• How about posting our announcements on Facebook
• Ministry notes
• Worship notes
• Calendar stuff (we have fallen behind on posting bulletins--it sounds like people do use them). Jeff needs to review the posting process with Kelli so it can happen each week when she produces the bulletin.
  
2. Upcoming Events--do we want to mention Teacher/Coach/Instructor appreciation Sunday on the web site? It would let those teachers we just invited know that they're on the right site. We did have it on the web site, and in the Family Tree News email newsletter.
   
3. Logo from Earthbound--we finally have a color logo we can resize.
• Blank space--the logo has a lot of blank space around it so takes lots of memory to render. If anyone has software that can edit a PDF in vector mode, maybe they can remove the white space. Nobody does, so we have what we have.
  
• Web upload--The logo has been uploaded to the web site as a PDF file. I haven't bothered to make GIF or JPG files out of it, because they'd be the same as the ones we already have (just easier to make).
  
• We only have a stacked version--we haven't used the side by side version on anything that Earthbound printed for us, so they don't have that one--they could probably make one but the alignment would be tricky and since they're working for free I don't want to push them.
• Please delete or mark as "bad" any previous color logos that are vectors that can be resized (usually EPS or PDF). This is the only one we have that's correct. The old ones have the incorrect cross and flame so could cause a copyright issue with the United Methodist Church.
  
4. Marketing via the web site--how can we make the site appeal more to people who just found us and want to learn more? Do we need more information? More columns? Less fluff? No, we need to have less in the drop downs. Our web page is not bad, we need to work on content, and have lots of people work on it. Can we wiki it? Add a blog, wiki and migrate?
5. What if people could log in on our web site with their facebook login? Or OpenID? See https://rpxnow.com/ which is designed for exactly this. Not sure if it will work with our site--seems unlikely. Check dotnetnuke?
6. One of the templates the quality goes down when changing from PPT to PDF. It's a gif file that's degrading. Jeff could look at office 2007. Randy to send it to me.
   
7. Brochures--Randy was working on some, and Jeff emailed some recently. Do we want to put templates on the web site? Which? Added a page for Templates under the Logos page. Put a 'Simple Upload' module on it, which says "Valid File Types Include ( *. swf, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.jpe, *.gif, *.bmp, *.png, *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt, *.pdf, *.txt, *.xml, *.xsl, *.css, *.zip, *.ico )."

8. Double check the office address on the web site--change the address or eliminate it (from 2355 to 6350 Jupiter Suite 103, Belmont, MI 49306). It has been updated to the 6350 Jupiter address. Given the rapid pace of change and the likelihood of more changes July 1, should we remove the office address from the web site? What do people think?

9. We have the "Worship at the Y" artwork from Earthbound--do we want to (can we) put that on one or the other web site? Add colors and make it available on the logo page?
   
10. We are listed in the Find-a-Church for 49306 (Belmont), 49321 (Comstock Park), 49317 (Cannonsburg). I updated our office address and removed the obsolete fax (Jeff; 6/1/09). Do we want to link to them? It would be another external link that I don't think we need (Jeff). Does their page have a link to us? Yes, under each zip code. Can we put our logo on their page? Yes, there is an option to add a church picture.
    
11. Review calendar:
• The Marketing Team calendar is currently in the strategic planning page--keep it there or move elsewhere?
• Near the end of the year, decide whether to use Google calendar or stay with mychurchevents for our main calendar. How is the printed calendar each month done if any? We don't do a hardcopy calendar any more because it was a lot of work in publisher. Hardcopy is something to check on with Google. Events at other locations get links--like other churches or the Williams home get maps or links.
  
• Google calendar--embed in our own site, copy events among multiple calendars, easy to edit, free
• Mychurchevents--customizable with little images, event descriptions can have html
12. White Pines office desktop machine
    
• Thunderbird lost all settings and email accounts, tried reboot
  
• Saving things is slow and they don't always save in MS Word.
• Printer buttons are not responsive
  
• How recently has a backup on the desktop machine been done? Unknown. The external drive is in Jeff's office.
  
13. Check the Meijer Rewards information
• Our address appears to be wrong, should be the PO Box
• Did we get the most recent check ok? Yes
  
• Check dollars before kids go to camp if necessary
  
14. Audio editing and posting the sermons (ftp to ftp://wpines04umc:newkirk12@ftp.whitepinesumc.org/Portals/0/Sermons/ worked at one time, but not tested recently)
• Need to get the sound files from Mike
  
• Jeff needs to get up to speed on audacity. He has the software, and a good set of headphones and microphone.
  
• Need a better way to present the files, currently they have to be downloaded and it would be nice to have them play immediately in the browser.
• How do we use Adobe FlashPlayer 10? CrossWind Community Church Sermons work this way. We looked at the web site, it just downloads a .swf file.
  
15. Google adsense--I signed up, waiting to hear on application.
    
16. Set next meeting date (normally the first Monday of the month, 7pm at the church office).
    

Old business discussion items:

1. Home page--check on plans:
   
• Mention the Y earlier in the home page and/or link to it
  We want to move the addresses around on the home page. Patsy got this done!
• Pictures on the home page--we need a few near the announcements.
• 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 about Worshiping at the Y.
  
2. Logos on web page--we have the transparent trees and the WorshipAtTheY PDF, still need the black logo. What else do we need if any?
   
3. 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?
4. 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.
   
5. 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
• Mention of things the youth groups do every year, like parent appreciation dinner, progressive dinner, GVSU visit, retreats
  
• Music Festival (?)
6. 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. We may want a list, with URL, description, and admin information. So far we have
   
   • multiple google groups--with ministry team sections
   • Need to list these
     
   • 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 letter Y.
     
   • several smileboxes
   • probably other photo sites (picasa?)
     
   • 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. Do we have a link to the blogger.com one and does it have our logo?
     
7. SEO--we had talked about having Ryan Duba speak more to us about search engine optimization and about his services, but haven't done that yet. He charges $215 a year(?), which we may be unwilling to spend for little gain.
8. More jobs to do--some things that may be available for someone to work on include:
   
   • video recording, editing if any
   • photo editing/archiving--Patsy does a lot of this but there are folks who haven't given her their pictures
   For some of these, if we try to store everything online, we find we run out of space.
9. Video and other information from the news coverage of Faith and Fitness--can we save it or link to it? Can we post the article, perhaps on a Faith and Fitness page?
10. Combine video testimonials onto single DVD for promotional purposes, i.e. East Nelson financial request; they are currently on 3 DVDs.
11. Jeff still struggles with putting pictures inline for Family Tree News...HELP. (It looks like he figured it out--the 3/23/09 FTN is fine.)
    
12. Google group WPUMC-CONNECTIONS, possibly coordinate with Family Tree News. Using a google group for news could make a list of the previous posts automatic, but might make things more complicated as far as posting old news and managing the mailing list. We have no idea what would happen if we tried to send a message with images to a google group so this might be something to test. Facebook group might also be good to look at since we have more Facebook users than google users.

Action items--stuff to work on:

1. Jeff's Family Tree News Digest page might need a way to comment, or an RSS feed. See above discussion of using a google group for it.
   
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 (and the tree only--the color is a bit too light on it). 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. Found a setting in the webhost4life control panel that they added--security > security guard > level strong > set to medium--by default it doesn't allow us to set up new users, and also prevents linking to our images. So in theory this should be fixed.
   
6. Also for logos, make up a special login that can only see the logo page, 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 by doing a periodic export from MemberShip Plus--ongoing, updated 10/13/08. Since MembershipPlus is used for financials, addresses must be correct there. Thunderbird is used for email, and Jeff's Palm for telephone contacts.
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.
    
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. Clean up/archive unused links and pages on the web site.
19. 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.
20. Check the web site for new registrations.
21. Move addresses around on the home page--worship site at the Y first and centered.
22. Add the Y to the quick links so it's on every page on our site.
23. Need the resizable black tree on the logo page.