WEBMASTER
The webmaster currently manages three areas: the website, weekly UpDate and the listservs.
THE WEBSITE
The Website's purpose is to be a useful tool, first for visitors, 95% of whom begin their search for a church to visit on the web. We offer sermon topics, a map and directions, some interesting local church events such workshops and picnics, information about the minister, the weekly Calendar (UUpDate), links to Childrens’ Religious Education and Adult Enrichment pages, and a whole Newcomers section which includes our principles and purpose, another page of what UUs believe with specifics, what to expect at the church service - and what to wear, the newsletter online, and a page about "Our Town." Newcomer Orientations are announced whenever there is a new session offered.
With an equally important focus on members, we also provide on the website our Bylaws and Policies, and a page of all the committees, collected and with contacts noted and links to their own web pages on the church site. We also offer pages for committees to indicate what their work consists of and what needs they have, as well as their successes. Committees and groups with workshops or other events are featured on the front page and in the weekly UUpDate pages. There are also helpful pages, for email and web tips, Netiquette suggestions, how to reduce spam, how to identify hoaxes and scams, how to find ALL local UUCE listservs, and the site map, which features the Tables of Contents of each category of page. These categories currently include the main Introductory section, Visitor, Membership, Congregational Life, Religious Education, Accessibility, New Building Project, History, Green Sanctuary, Music-Art-Writing, Finances (and budget), Social Justice, Interweave, Leadership, and CUUPs.
The WEEKLY UUpDATE
The UUpDate is not meant to replicate the newsletter, but is intended to be a brief reminder of what is happening in the next 10 days, plus mentions of what will be happening in the near future, especially if any preparation needs to be made (such as reading groups). We also include items of congregational interest, such as what is happening regarding the Property Search, or where to find the Annual Reports, current Budget, or newest Fiver Year plan. The quotations between sections in the UUpDate, and the final section of Religious or Ethical (or vaguely related) news items, studies, and opinions from churches, UU or other, across the nation, are the creative parts of the UUpDate. The UUpDate can be found on the website itself, but it is also sent as an email message to about 550 people, both members and non, local and potentially local.
THE LISTSERVs
The thirty-plus local UUCE listservs are intended to inform, to increase connections among members during the week, and to help committees and groups communicate in the post phone-tree age (while actively remembering that some of our members do not have computer access). Management duties consist of blocking spam, clearing up log jams, helping folks who are having trouble managing their listserv subscriptions, teaching as many folks as possible in little pieces what they do not yet know about email, the web, and even some other programs. We are still pleased to be working with UUism.net for both the website and the lists. Martha Osgood manages most of the lists, with Monica Frank as vice-manager. Monica manages SpontaneUUs and UUCE-Share, with Martha in charge of Vice. Listservs include:
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Main listservs
UUCE-News – almost everyone is on this listserv
UUCE-Share – gentle, personal discussions
UUCE-Chat – politics, current events, theology, silliness, bad jokes, banter
and more politics
UUCEboard – just for the Board members, RE Director and Minister
Biz-UUCE – UUCE lay leaders, Coordinating Council and interested church
members
PlainNews-UUCE – for the UUCE-News folks who prefer plaintext
Committee listservs
Access; Care; Centennial (History and Celebration of our 100th in 2009); GreenSanc; InterWeave; Pastoral Associates; Publications cluster; RE-Families; SJUUCE (Social Justice at UUCE); SocAct.Cluster; SGM (Small Group Ministries); SPC (Strategic Planning Committee); Sundays; UUYouth; Yammer (Young Adults 18-35); YA-Announce (Young Adults 18-25); Worship Associates
Special interest group listservs
Birders; CUUPs (Covenant of UU Pagans); SpontaneUUs; UFOs (Unitarilist Fun Org.)
Building Project
BPOC (Building Project Oversight Committee); Capcam (Capital Campaign); CPR (Communications / PR); Finan (Finance); ValMatrix (Values); PropS (Property Search)
PLANS AND CHALLENGES
The website has made some slow, soft changes over the past 11 years, but it now needs a major overhaul. This would include a new and more progressive design, and a reorganization of categories: how the pages are related to other pages and how intuitive and friendly it is for those unfamiliar with the organization of the website. Martha has purchased Dreamweaver (a web-building program) and Contribute (which may allow the leaders of groups and committees to refresh their own web pages on the church site), and taken two classes in Dreamweaver in order to upgrade the possibilities. There IS a learning curve...
There are about 166 pages on the website at the moment (plus PDFs). We hope to reduce the number and simplify the arrangement so that there is some real chance that the few pages that do require regular changes can be handled by a potential office employee, while other pages needing refreshing can be done at their leisure.
Photos for the website have been difficult – often they are not structured nor able to be restructured for the needs of a web page. Ordinary shots often do not work. It would be very useful for someone, who knows what would work, to take digital photos, crop and prepare them, get permissions, and send photos to the webmaster targeted for specific pages.
Finding someone(s) with plenty of time who would be interested in taking over all or parts of this position has not been fruitful (yet). Those who have expressed an interest, have had things come up, and they often have a family and a full-time job. Determining how to break the three jobs apart has also been difficult.
APPRECIATION
I am grateful to have had and to have this manner of participating in the success of the church here in Eugene. My health has taken a few beatings lately, but webmastering is never a burden. Working with such cooperative, cheerful folks on the common goal of providing worthy and meaningful spiritual opportunities for the varied interests of church members and friends is a huge blessing all by itself.
Martha Osgood
webmaster since September 1997
