On May 26, 2007, Peter submitted a Proposal to the Administration Committee, asking approval for an improved website which would be easy to keep up-to-date:
In the absence of any objections, Peter established the website using Yahoo Small Business webhosting, at a cost of $13/month, and Newsletters were posted starting July 31, 2007.
The top of the homepage lists the times of Sunday Worship, gives the address and a view of the church, identifies the denomination, and links to the pages of the pastor, the youth program, and Wednesday Night Fellowship. Further down the page there is a "Welcome" statement originally written for the old website in 2003.
According to Yahoo, some of the visitors to the site find it by way of the Google search engine. We hope that means that newcomers in Stillwater locate our congregation in that way, but cannot tell for sure.
In order to serve our congregation, we have posted a total of 298 MB of text, photos, and audio
on the website. The hope is that the wealth of current and archival information will lead to
repeated visits by our members. According to Yahoo, we get 20 to 50 page-views per day,
on average about 30.
Conclusion: This is enough usage to justify continuing.
The initial page serves as an index, linking to other information similar to Wikipedia. Contrary to original intent, Peter has also been listing reminders of up-coming events in the upper half of the homepage, similar to the list in the Worship Bulletins, which requires a modest amount of effort. According to Yahoo, roughly half of the page-views are for the homepage; some users may find all they need there, others may go on to one or several other pages.
The Youth page outlines our programs for parents; at the top of the page are current announcements by Sondra. There are also links to photo galleries on this website, as well as to Sondra's Flickr albums elsewhere on the Internet. According to Yahoo, this page is by far the most-viewed page, after our homepage. We believe it has become an important complement to our oral and hand-out communications with Youth and Children. Conclusion: The Children & Youth page should continue to be emphasized.
The next-most used part of our website is the Newsletter, even though most of our members also receive it by either e-mail or snail-mail. Dana Craig, our editor, prepares the Newsletter in a format which folds up to a mailer; Peter then prepares an HTML version (the most time-consuming task of each week) which he enhances with hyperlinks. Both versions are posted on the web. In January, when Peter polled users on their preference: they were about equally divided. More recently, statistics from Yahoo suggest that those who obtain their Newsletter from the web, predominantly read the HTML version. Conclusion: In the long term, shifting to creating the Newsletter directly in HTML should be considered.
The next-most popular page recently has been that of Rev. Owen Cayton. We also archive the texts of Sermons, and the Sermon audio (taken from the recording made for the CDs we make available for shut-ins). Few viewers open the text, and, in Peter's opinion, the quality of the audio is not good enough to encourage listening. He proposes making videos with good audio quality; several test recordings are on our website. So far, he has been unable to find a reasonably priced camcorder which has a line input, rather than forcing the use of a built-in microphone. Conclusion: Making Sermon Videos deserves further research.
The final widely-viewed page is WNF, which posts classes and menus, and has a place for announcing weather-related cancellations.
A few users regularly view the Traditional Worship Bulletin; several Elders have commented that they appreciate being able to check schedule and Scripture in order to prepare for service at the table.
Others occasionally look up the Trustees' Minutes and Financials. Although there are fewer page-views involved, the archival information cannot easily be obtained any other way. Conclusion: Committee archives should be continued, expanded, and re-organized.
Opening a website afforded the opportunity of having a master calendar which can be viewed on-line by our members. This calendar is maintained by Leola Thiemann, our Office Manager, who can apprise you of the advantages and problems of using a Google calendar.
Copies of Microsoft Expression Web have been installed on several of the FCC computers. Sondra has occasionally prepared material for the Children & Youth page. Dana regularly posts the Sunday School Announcements. So far, most of the other material has been handled by Peter. Conclusion: Staff and volunteers should gradually take over the more routine tasks of posting materials to the web. Instruction manuals have been placed in the office, and Peter will walk-through any of the procedures with you.
According to Yahoo, those visiting our pages typically use computers with SVGA resolution, operating system Windows NT 5.1 or 6 (except for a few Macs), predominantly use Microsoft Internet Explorer (except for a few Mozilla and Mac Safari), and typically have Java 1.2 - in other words, Peter's hope of roping in some of the older folks who use older computers, has not been realized. Conclusion: Use of frames, CSS, and Java script is OK.