1. What are people viewing on our web site?

The new FUMCSantaRosa.org web site has been here for just over two years.  In that time, we have had thousands of page views and visitors.  Do you know what others are viewing?

In the past year, we have had about 9,000 visits to the web site, and almost 40,000 pages have been viewed.  In the past month, we have had 814 visits from 526 unique visitors, and those visitors have viewed 2,530 pages.  Were you among our visitors?  What did you see, or what did you miss?

Our home page was visited the most, of course, primarily because that is the easiest way to get to any page on the web site.  Our home page also provides a quick listing of the top 6 “coming events” in our church life.  Have you been on the web site since we changed the main menu so that the choices “drop down” to make it much easier to find your way around the site?

(TRY IT ABOVE!)

After the home page, the most-visited page is the Newsletter page.  Thanks to all of you who subscribe electronically to the Roseleaf!

The next most-visited pages were:

1.       Calendar – of coming events

2.       Gawthrop Festival Concert – where you can listen to the music from the concert on June 20.

3.       Preschool and Child Care Center – isn’t it great that so many are interested in this ministry?

4.       Ancient Symbols of Faith – thanks to Joanne Emery, we can learn about them

5.       Pastors and Staff – you can learn more about our great staff, and email them right from this page

6.       Contact Us – if you want to send a message to the office or about a more specific issue, go here to create an email to the appropriate person.

7.       News and Events - the listing of coming events in the life of our church

8.       What We Believe – if you ever wondered, check this out

9.       Senior Pastor – who might that be?

10.   Sermons – we have audio recordings of almost every sermon since November, 2007 that you can listen to right on the web site, or download to your computer or music player or whatever you have that will play an MP3 recording.

11.   Search – if you wondered how to find any of these pages, or any other topic on our web site, use the search form just below the menu bar.

Check future editions of the Roseleaf for more on our web site and how you can use it.  And, of course, you can find this article there, too. 

2. Forums on our web site

One feature of our web site is that it supports forums.

A forum is a way for you to post topics as part of a discussion, and post comments on others' topics.  Let's say that you have read The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey, as part of our church-wide study.  In the first chapter you read, you found a very interesting statement and wanted to let others know how you felt when you read the statement.  Of course, you’ll be able to share your thoughts in person with members of your small study group, but using the forum on the web site, you can also discuss the statement with other members of our FUMC family.

You could go to the forum for the book on the web site and create a topic to tell others about your reading and reacting to a passage.  Other church members can read your topic and post their comments.  We can have an on-line discussion!

For security reasons, everyone who participates in our on-line forums needs to have user account on the church web site. To create an account for yourself, go to the bottom of any of the pages on our web site, you’ll see a line for login:

If you don't yet have an account, click on the link: Create new account.  You will now see a User Account page asking for information from you so we can create your account.  After you fill in the requested information and click "Create new account," a request for a new account is created.  When it is approved, you will receive an email with your login information.  Use that information to login to your very own web site account.

(When you login the next time, enter your username and password, and click "Log in.")

After you login, use the top menu to go to the Forums page.  You can get there by selecting What's Happening, then Forums.  On the Forums page, click on "The Jesus I Never Knew" to see the postings so far in the forum.  Read what others have written, and add your comments and perhaps create a new topic for others to read and comment.

You are now part of the Web 2.0 Community.  Congratulations!  Enjoy!

3. Web Based Event Scheduler and Calendar

• You will be able to request a room and schedule an event through three ways:
  • Complete a paper form in the church office
  • Complete an electronic form on the church web site at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/form/event-schedule-request
  • Directly request a room through the Scheduler web application: http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule
• We will have a unified calendar for scheduling and event publicity that is available:
  • On the church web site (replacing the current web calendar which only included a few events)
  • On the church bulletin boards (as it has been)

In the past, when you needed to schedule a room or let the office know about a coming event, you had to wait until office hours to talk to office staff regarding availability and to place your request. . That was hard on you, and hard on them.

• Schedule a room and event
• Check the schedule

from either the church physically (as you have always been able to do) or from any Internet browser (THIS IS NEW).

We will be training our church staff and Church Council on how to use this new tool. Anyone is welcome to use the Scheduler application. A Scheduler account is required, but it only costs your time. For more details, see the church web site: go to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule and then click “help.”

If you don’t want to use the Internet, that’s fine, too. We will still gladly accept paper requests!

The rest of this document is the information that was presented at the training for the Scheduler.

What is it?

FUMC Scheduler is a web based application that is used to schedule events and rooms.  It also provides the web site calendar.  You can use it to request a room reservation, which is the same as scheduling a meeting.  If you have an off-site meeting, we encourage you to reserve the "off-site" room so that your meeting or event appears on the church calendar.

You can now request a room or schedule an event from anywhere you have access to the World Wide Web.  We have tested it with several web browsers, but not with cell phones, so we recommend using a computer rather than a cell phone to access it.   (Let us know if you try it from a cell phone so we can update our information.)

There are at least two good reasons to register your event and reserve your room through the Scheduler:

1. You will have the room reserved for your use, and can also reserve accessories.  If your event requires setup, our staff will know about this as well.
2. Your event will appear on our church calendar (both web site and paper) which will provide publicity for your event and just let us all know about it!

The web site calendar is available to anyone, whether or not you have an account on the Scheduler.  See it at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule/rocalendar.php

In addition to the calendar, there is a weekly schedule available online at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule/roschedule.php and this schedule is also printed and displayed outside the church office for you to refer to when you arrive for a meeting - or are just curious about what is happening.

REGISTER

Before you can schedule an event, you must register for a Scheduler account.

NOTE that this account is for the Scheduler only, and is not the same as your account on the church web site.

To register, go to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule/register.php or click on "Click here to register" on the Scheduler login page.  Complete all the required fields marked with an *.

After you register, you will be taken to the "Control Panel."  

SETTING UP YOUR ACCOUNT

Once you are logged in and viewing the Control Panel, you can set your email preferences.  We recommend using the default settings, but you can change them if desired.  You might want to change your preference to "html" so that the emails sent to you are easier to read.

VIEWING THE SCHEDULE

You have several ways to view the current schedule.

The Schedule Calendar view shows the schedule in month (traditional calendar format), week, or day increments.  While viewing the Schedule Calendar, hover your mouse over any event to see more details of that event.  An event with the recurring event symbol ( ) shows an event that re-occurs on some frequency.  When you make reservations, you can request a recurring event if that makes sense for you.  All recurring events will end on June 30.  You will need to request the reservation for each year.

My Calendar is a view of just the events that you have scheduled.

Bookings is a view of events, resources (or rooms), and days and times in a tabular listing.  It is useful for seeing what event is booked for the near future.  It is also the view that you use to schedule an event, or reserve a resource/room.

SCHEDULE AN EVENT

You must login to the Scheduler before you can schedule an event.  You will find the login screen at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/schedule.

Once you have logged in, click Bookings.  You will see today and the next 6 days, with the hours across the top and the resources/rooms down the side of the page.

Navigate to the date, time, and resource/room.  When you position your mouse over the schedule you want, you will see a green colored block, showing that you can click to reserve that resource.  When you click, you will see a popup Reservation window.

(If you don't see the popup Reservation window, check if your browser or security program on your computer prevents popup windows.  You must set it to allow popup windows to schedule.)

In the Reservation window, select:

• Starting time
• Ending time
• Summary (this is where you enter what the event is about, such as the committee or purpose of your event.  The summary can be more than one line if you would like more details displayed.  The first line of the summary will appear on the calendar view, and all lines will appear when you hover the mouse over the event in the calendar.)
• Number of persons expected (we use this to provide setup services if requested)
• If this is a recurring event, use the Repeat Every... part of the window to indicate the recurrence pattern (daily, weekly, monthly).  Examples of typical recurrence patterns are:
  • Every 1 day
  • Every 2 weeks on Wednesday
  • Every 3rd month on a specified date
  • Every second Tuesday of the month.
• Also show the final date of the recurrence (which can't be beyond June 30).
• If you need accessories, such as projector and screen, click Accessories to select them
• You can click Participants to select other participants for your event, but we don't support or encourage its use at this time.

Click Check Availability to be sure that your reservation can be completed.

Click Submit to submit the reservation for approval.  If you have your email preferences set to allow, you will receive an email confirming your submission.

All reservations will show on the calendar as "pending" until they have been approved.  The reason for this is that our staff will edit the summary as needed to be consistent with other events as viewed by the public.  Our staff will review pending reservations daily.  When approved, you will receive an email confirming the event.

CHANGES AND DELETIONS

To CHANGE a reservation, use either

• My Reservations on the Control Panel, or
• Click on the event on the Bookings view

You can change the time, summary, repeating pattern, and accessories.  You cna change a single event or all events of a recurring set.  Click Submit to submit the changes.  The changed event will show as "pending" until approved.

If you need to change the room of a reservation, you must delete and request a new reservation.

To DELETE a reservation, find it as above for changes, then click Delete, and Submit.  No approval is required for deletions.

4. Your Team Can Use The Web Site, too

You may use our church web site for looking up the preaching schedule, or seeing photos from the recent VIM trip to Iowa, or to see the electronic version of the Roseleaf. Did you know that you can use it for your group/committee in ways that work just for your team?

Recent requests to include custom pages and content for specific groups include:

• The Montgomery Audio team, the people who make the amplified sound available on Sunday mornings, use a page for scheduling their team. When one of the team commits to taking a turn, they login to the web site and show it on their page.
• The Lydia Circle wants to have a forum for their use that would be restricted to circle members.
• The audio recordings for the Christmas Choir to learn their parts are available for them to play as an alternative to using a CD. Some have told us that using web audio is easier and more flexible than using a CD.
• Angels’ Attic will be using the web site for showing the volunteer schedule, and may use it for volunteers to schedule themselves.
• The Winter Musical 2010 team will use the web site for showing interested participants what last year’s show was like, and for providing audition materials.

What web site use would help your team? How can you use the web site to make available text, pictures, video, or audio that will enhance your ministry, and maybe save a tree or two at the same time?

If you are interested, use the web site Contact form to send a message to the web team. Use the category “Website Submission or Feedback.” While you are at it, see if there is any other contact you could make using the Contact form, now or in the future. You can use it to contact any staff member as well.
 

Do more with a user account

If you want to do more with the web site, you will need a user account.  It's easy to get an account.  Look at the bottom of this page.  You will see a line "log in or register ."  Notice that the words "log in" and "register" are links.  (In the version of this article on the web site, you can actually click on these links in the article.)

If you click on "register," you will go to a page where you can request a user account.  We only offer accounts to church members and attendees, as we plan to provide some content only for you.  After you request an account, we will approve it and you will be good to go -- log in, that is.

You can create invitations to others to attend our events.  Let's say that you looked at the event listing for the Children's Easter Play, The Littlest Donkey, and wanted to invite some of your friends and neighbors to attend.  When you read the event listing, you will see a "tab" at the top of the listing, RSVP.  If you click on this tab, you will go to a second page where you can create an RSVP to the event.  Invite your friends by entering their email addresses and your invitation message.  When you return to the RSVP page for this event later, you can see who has responded and what their response was.  You can even send a followup email and allow your friends to invite their friends, too.  You might get such a large response that you would have to rent a bus to attend!

There are parts of the web site that you can view only if you have an account.  Right now, these include minutes of church meetings and Forums.  If you would like us to create forums or other church-only areas of the web site, let us know by using the Contact form.  (You can find the Contact form by clicking on Contact in the top menu.)  Our web site has lots of power to support interactive web features, and we would love to be able to provide them.

You can use the web site to tell us about you.  If you go to your user account page by clicking on the link "My account" on the left menu, you can update your email address or phone number, and change your password.

You can find the article on the web site at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/DoMoreWithAnAccount

Getting Started

This is the first in a series of articles that try to explain how the web site works, how you can use it effectively, how you can do things with it to enhance your life with the church, and where we hope to go with the web site in the future.

Who can use the web site?  Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet.  If you have a computer and an account that gives you web access, you can do it.

What if you don't have a computer or account?  You can still use it.  The Sonoma County Public Library has public computers that you can use to access the Internet.

What's on the web site?  The top level menu gives you a good idea.  To give you a little peek, you can find the following: news and events, including a calendar; some sermons in audio format that you can listen to on your computer; the Roseleaf, often before the printed edition is available; photo albums; staff listing; information on the programs of the church; and a contact form if you want to contact us about anything.

This will be a guided tour, so you should be sitting at your computer while you read the rest of this.  Open a browser window (like Internet Explorer)  and navigate to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org which will take you to the home page.  The site has a top-level menu across the top of every page.  You can always get back to the home page by clicking on the photos at the top of every page, or on "FUMC Home."  The home page shows you the top-level menu, a welcome message, a listing of News and Events, and a bottom navigation bar.

Your exercise: go to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite and read the rest of this chapter.

You can find this article and future articles at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite.

THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER

Welcome to the web site. 

The top-level menu is the "buttons" that you see just below the photos at the top of every page.  Each button takes you to a major section of the web site.  Click on each and see where you go.  Notice that when you go to a major section, the left menu shows you items in that section.

You can navigate around the web site by clicking on "links."  A link is any spot that, when clicked, will take you to another page on the web site.  On our site, they are brown or green, and change color when you move your mouse pointer on top of them.  The pointer will change shape, usually to a small "hand," to show you that you are on top of a link.

If a menu item has a "twistie" (a little sideways arrow), then there is another menu below that item.  Click on the item to go to that page and expand that part of the menu.

The main part of every page is the large section below the menu bar and to the right of the left menu.  If you go to the bottom of this page, or any page, you will see a "breadcrumb" menu that shows you how the page fits into the overall structure of the web site.  Click on any link in the breadcrumbs to go to that part of the web site.  It's a quick way to go back up the menu tree.

Where can you find the content that I listed above?

• News and Events: There is a short version on the right side of the home page.  You can get the whole listing at the top level menu item, "What's Happening."
• Calendar: Once you click on What's Happening, the left menu shows the "Calendar" as a link.  Note that there is also a direct URL for the calendar.  Like all of our URLs, it is the URL of the church site (http://www.fumcsantarosa.org) followed by the  page URL.  In this case, it is "calendar," so the entire URL is http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/calendar.  You can click on the link in this sentence to also go to the calendar.  A "URL" is the web address of a page  and you enter it in the address bar at the top of the browser window.  If you look at that window, you will see the address of this page, http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite.  We plan to expand the calendar from its current main news and events to be a complete calendar for the church.
• Sermons: They are listed under the following menu path: What We Do > Worship > Sermons and Services.  A "menu path" is a set of menu choices you make.  To follow this page, click on "What We Do," then "Worship," then "Sermons and Services."
• Photo albums: They can be found at What's Happening > Our Albums.
• Roseleaf: Issues can be found at What's Happening > Newsletter.
• Staff listing: can be found at Who We Are > Pastors and Staff.
• Church Programs: Can you guess?  Try What We Do and explore them.
• Contact form: Click on Contact in the upper right, or Contact Us in the lower left.  Your comments on the web site are welcomed and encouraged.

Speaking of the menu tree, click on Site Map at the bottom left of any page.  The Site Map shows you the overall organization of the web site.  It can provide a way for you to find some place on the web site that you have visited but can't remember exactly how you got there.  Try it!

At the bottom of each page, you also see links to the Contact Us page, and Login and Register links.

We will explain more about the five major sections in the next article, "How the site is organized."

How the site is organized

Our web site is organized in six basic sections:

• Home page - This page is where you will normally start viewing the site.  It includes links to the five groups of content, a welcome message, testimonials, and the top news and event on the right side of the page.

• Who We Are - This section tells our story, shows our pastors and staff, maps and directions to our locations, and resources, which are links to other web sites we hope you will find useful.  You can use this section to find out, for example, which pastor likes to play golf.

• What We Do - This section describes the programs of this church.  You will find topics on our ministries, worship, creative arts, outreach, caring, preschool, life celebrations, and stewardship.  Take time to explore these program areas as you will learn things you did not know about our church.  Under worship, for example, you can find what services we offer and when and where, and audio versions of many sermons.  If you particularly liked Pastor Greg's sermon last week, or missed it, you can listen to it here.

• What We Believe - This is a brief, but important, page that contains our purpose statement.  It describes the basis of our belief in Reaching Up and Reaching Out.

• What's Happening - This section includes information on current events and news about our church.  You can find the events calendar, Roseleaf newsletter, photo and video albums of recent events, and more.

• How Do I Get Involved - If you happened on our web site and would like to get more connected to our church, or just wanted a little more information, this section is for you.

A feature of all web sites is that they can make it easy for you to go from the page that you are reading to some other page on the World Wide Web.  Use "links" to go to another page.  For example, did you notice above that some text is in a different color?  If you position your mouse pointer on top of that text and click, you will be taken to the linked page.  If you haven't tried it, try clicking on a link above.  There are LOTS of them.

At the bottom of the left menu, you will see a link "Recent Posts."  If you want to find out what has recently been posted to the web site, click on this link to see the list.

That's it for the basic navigation of the web site.  Spend some time "cruising around" the site and you will discover happenings at our church you didn't know existed.

Our next article will tell you about how you can use our web site for your use and for sharing our fellowship with others..

Meet Your IT: Information Team

MEET YOUR IT (Information Team)

For over two years now, there's been a core of very faithful people meeting monthly to talk about and work on things related to print and electronic communication, starting with church bulletins, the Roseleaf, and the website.  They've contributed, for instance, to a more streamlined bulletin, the electronic Roseleaf option, and a number of website additions and improvements, especially its initial launch!

The group's principal function is to lead the management of FUMC's communication activities, particularly with regard to the various modes of electronic media we utilize, but also with regard to other forms of more familiar communication tools, like print and signage.

In 2009, the team has three major goals:

• coordinate with our Church Council on the recently-adopted Long Range Plans
• refresh old web pages and complete new ones
• continue to promote and find ways to most effectively utilize our church website

If you have suggestions for your IT members, or would like to inquire further about their meetings, please email them using our web form.

Testimonials

Have you got something to say?

Consider submitting a testimonial to the church web site!

What's a testimonial?  For our purposes,it is a short statement, one or two sentences, that tell something about you and the church.  For example, it might be your thought on why you like attending our services, or what you especially like about Stony Point, Ligaya, SCUMY, Bible classes, whatever is important to you.

We have a place reserved for testimonials on the home page of the church web site.  If you look at the lower left, you will see a purpose statement and a photo with "Reach Up, Reach Out" on it.  This is actually a space for a set of testimonials that will change about every 5 seconds.

If you would like to contribute a testimonial, click on "Contact" at the top of any web page or "Contact Us" at the bottom of any web page, select the Category of "Testimonial for the web site" and submit your testimonial.  We will edit it to fit the space, and we will arrange to get your photo, or a photo that complements your testimonial, to go with it.  We can only include a few at a time, so yours may not appear right away.  Just be patient and enjoy reading what our FUMC family has to say!

See this article and the rest of the series at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite.

The future of the web site

** DRAFT **

Where do we hope to go with the web site in the future?

Well, there are lots of possibilities.  And you can help us to determine what they are.

Some things we plan to do are:

• Include more media content in the site.  For example, we have added audio recordings of sermons that you can play back when you want.  We would like to add video content as well.  We might have video versions of sermons and services.  We might have video clips of staff members talking about themselves and their area of responsibility.
• Include a membership directory.  We would like to provide an online directory for you so that you can see up-to-date information on our members and staff.  We would also like you to be able to change your information to let others know the latest.  What if you change your email address?  Today, you need to let the office know that it changed, and you also need to change it in your user account on the web site.  We would like to let you change it on the web site and we would take it from there.

  You might be concerned about the security of the information.  Since it is only accessible by those with user accounts on the web site, your information would only be available to those with accounts.  All information is stored in a database, so it can't be "found" by someone snooping around the web site.  We only give user accounts to people we know.  You must be a member or staff or regular attendee to have an account.

What else?  There are many possibilities.  We would really like your input on what you would find most valuable.  You can use the site contact page to let us know.  Where is it?  Look in the upper right of this window, and click on "Contact."  It's that easy.

Using the Church Website

Beginning in April, you’ll be able to sign up for an electronic copy of the Roseleaf. To sign up, visit the church website (www.fumcsantarosa.org) and click on Electronic Roseleaf in the left menu. You can also fill out an "I Am Here" card at a church service, being sure to include your e-mail address. Once a month you will receive an e-mail with a link to a copy of the newest Roseleaf, which you can read on-line. By signing up for an electronic copy, you can save paper, printing, and postage. This is good for our church finances and for the environment, too. If you want, you’ll be able to print selected pages or the whole issue.

Of course, don’t forget to visit our website to find out what’s going on at FUMC! Information about how to navigate the website was included in the first two installments of this series. You can read them at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/OurWebSite.

Another function that our website provides is the ability to sign up for certain church events online. This was offered for the “Confronting the Controversies” series, and will be available for more events in the future. You’ll simply click on the “sign up” link on the event listing, and enter the requested information. Let your fingers do the walking!
You can find the electronic copy of this article on the web site at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/HowYouCanUseIt

Look for more information on using the church website next month!