Annual Web Report for 2006

The UUCE website’s purpose is two-fold. We are a resource for members (minutes, contact information, calendar, bylaws, policies, forms). And we are a resource for potential members and visitors (sermon topics, activities for all ages, RE information, Our Town, who are the UUs,)

1. UUCE Website

The implementation of a domain name has been a success. It is easy to remember, has a rhythm to it, and makes sense: uueugene.org

We have also moved to a new host, UUism.net, with great success. Jim Hermann, the owner, is an Illinois UU himself and hosts quite a few UU church sites and listservs. He is scrupulous in keeping his networks running well, is responsive, and professional. When something does go down, he keeps his clients informed and resolves the issues quickly. I am completely satisfied with this web hosting company (especially when compared to some of our past experience).

The website has over 120 pages, which can be difficult to keep up to date. The sitemap helps folks find their pages, and notices from the webmaster nudge committee and group leaders update their pages in a timely manner.

2. Church Email Lists (listservs)

There are more listservs in use at the church now.

UUCE-News is the announcements-only listserv, with 450 subscribers, members and friends. The webmaster writes the "UUpDate" a kind of weekly reminder of the current ten-day calendar for the subscribers. Subscriptions are automatic for church members, though they can opt out if they wish. There is no discussion on this list. There is also a Plain-Text version (without HTML colors, bold, italics, underlining, indenting).

UUCE-Share is run by Monica Frank with about 90 subscribers. Think "candlelighting." A warm, gentle list which shares sorrows, joys, poignant moments, gratitude, sympathy, laughter.

UUCE-Chat is an active, friendly discussion listserv with about 55 subscribers. Think "coffee hour" with banter, politics, advice, free kittens, merits/demerits of tapioca, welcoming posts to newcomers, bad jokes, and more politics and banter.

There are also the following more targeted listservs:
UUCEBoard (Board members)
BIZ-UUCE (lay leaders)
Council-UUCE (lay leaders)
RE-Families (RE announcements)
RE-Connect (RE family connections)
CUUPs (Covenant of UU Pagans)
Interweave Chapter (committee discussions)
Green Sanctuary (committee discussions)
Young Adults Announcements
Yammer (Young Adults discussion)
UU Youth (High School youth and parents)
Plus smaller committee lists (SMGs, SPC, Search, Planned Giving, etc)

3. UUCE UUpDate

This is the weekly reminder of the UUCE calendar for the next 10 days. It is sent out each Wednesday evening to close to 550 members and friends. The draft is sent to the BIZ list on Mondays so committee and group heads may make revisions. The origin of each emailed UUpDate is on the website and can be previewed at http://www.uueugene.org/UUpDate.html .

4. Future plans

As our webmaster since 1998, Martha Osgood is always looking for better ways to make the website more useful to members, to prospective members, and to the general public. She visits other church websites for ideas; she is a member of various UUA sponsored listservs on topics of interest to the local church—ordinary UU lay leaders in churches around the country discuss their problems, solutions, and successes on those topic-driven lists.

There is a HOW TO page on the website that talks about how the UUpDate is done, and it mentions other issues such as how we have coped with the problem of the U of O blocking an upstream ISP and thus (inconsistently) blocking most email from any uueugene.org domain (which includes the listservs) that is sent to “uoregon” addresses. Monica Frank is Vice listmanager for all listservs, and primary on Share. She also has a hardcopy page of basic information (how to reach Uuism.net, whom to pay annually for our domain name, passwords to all of this plus all the listservs…) that a person who knows how to do websites and listservs will understand.

Currently we are considering more photos, simplifying the pages we do have, and looking into how to train more backup people for the list and website management.

Submitted by Martha Osgood, volunteer webmaster

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