Encouraging Members to Use Unit Websites

[dragev]

What would aslo be useful would be for them to
create a changelog for the users.

A related suggestion is to provide feeds (Atom and RSS), though this might be problematic for many until secure feeds are better supported by feed readers.

[russellhltn]

For example, say the young women meet "every" Thursday. It would be nice to be able to set up a YW event that repeats every Thursday for the entire year (or repeats indefinitely) recognizing the fact that there will be some Thursdays throughout the year when they will not meet for whatever reason.

You mean they won't be meeting on the 4th Thursday in November? Sheeeesh. :p


Another feature I'd like to see is to link events. For example, maybe the Ward Council meeting is always on Fast Sunday. It would be nice to link it that way rather the replicating all the jogs that happen to the Fast.

Or perhaps the Ward correlation meeting is on the Sunday after Fast Sunday.

And then PEC meeting is on any Sunday that isn't a Ward Council or Ward Correlation meeting.

As it stands now, all that is done manually. Think of the fun when Fast Sunday is suddenly moved.

[michaelcox]

One thing that I've done to try to promote the LUWS is print out the Ward Calendar once a month. I'll give a copy to the different Ward Leaders. They will often times give me more information. I'll also put a copy on the bulletin board. At the bottom of the page I put something to the effect of "For More Information and the Most Current Calendar, visit the Ward Website at LDS.org/units". In one ward, I did both the Website and the Bulletin. I actually would print the Calendar on the Back side of the program once a month. In another Ward, I got the Bulletin person to do the same thing.

Of the 3 Wards I was Website Admin for, I think there were about 50 or 60 people in each ward registered.

[ejarvi-p40]

Solid gold product feedback! If this is the place for wish lists, I wish ward website administrators had the ability to log bugs or feature suggestions directly into the dev team's issue tracking database. Make ward website administrators part of the team and give them full transparency, warts and all. That's the most effective way I know of to make sure every defect report is systematically tracked to a satisfactory state of completion. The current options of (1) sending feedback to a blind email account and (2) posting here on the forums are better than nothing, but they are "less effective" as we used to say in the MTC.

[bhofmann]

I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate way to do this but we had a push to gather everyone's email address. This started with the ward leadership and then went to the Relief Society and Priesthood. Then I pulled everyone's member number and confirmation date and registered them on the site. Then I sent them a document explaining the benefits of the site and gave them their username and password. This seemed to work pretty well and we got quite a few people registered. We also rarely print ward directories for members telling them that the online version is always up-to-date.

We have plenty of people registered but I don't think they visit the site very often.

[margiestroble]

I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate way to do this but .........Then I pulled everyone's member number and confirmation date and registered them on the site. ..... and gave them their username and password.

I've had people give me what they wanted for their username and password and I've gotten them registered but suggested that they change their password once they logged on. Since you can't change your username, it would be good for the members to choose what they can remember and not something that somebody else thinks might be good for them. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me what their username is because they can't remember it and it was something they did themselves. Usually once they hear what it is, then they remember why they used that one.

We also rarely print ward directories for members telling them that the online version is always up-to-date.

We haven't printed a Stake Directory since 2003, which is about the time that the ward and stake webpages started up. We tell everyone to check the webpage for current information. But, of course, if the ward clerk is unable to make the changes on MLS and upload to CHQ, or if CHQ doesn't do their updates quickly, then the webpage isn't up to date either. It seems like CHQ used to process the updates on Tuesdays. Last week, I didn't see a change on someone who moved until Thursday.

For new members or for people who do not have a computer, our Bishop keeps at least one printed copy of the ward directory to give to them. He doesn't keep a lot on hand because of the changes that constantly happen.

[marstorm-p40]

I agree that we need the ability to post more content. (Content is king) For example church members are able to read General Conference talks online. After Stake Conference I often want to review the talk given by the Stake Presidency. Adding the ability to post and read some Stake Conference talks would draw more users online. Stake content would need to be added by the Stake Admin.

[russellhltn]

Adding the ability to post and read some Stake Conference talks would draw more users online.

There is the "News and Information" section. Assuming you're talking about text and not a audio clip, you can attach up to a 1MB file. What's preventing that from being done now?

[nbflint]

I use the Unit Site only occasionally when I need to sync an updated ward phone list to my Palm Pilot or to check a calendar event. There is nothing on the site to draw me there daily. The sites that I use daily all have some common attributes:

1) A forum for community participation.
2) E-mail options for receiving forum postings, news updates, new calendar events, changes, etc.
3) One or more ways for each member to participate.

Currently, you have to be a site Admin on the ward sites to really participate. I don't submit news or calendar events because I figure if the ward leadership wanted it there, they would have put it there already.

Is there an e-mail list where any member can send a (moderated of course) message to everyone on the list? Interactivity is the name of the game. If I can't interact with the ward on the web site, I'll wait until I go to the ward building and interact with them there instead.

[bhofmann]

This is a good idea and I've often tried to think what sort of fresh content could be placed on the ward web sites. Unfortunately most web administrators, me included, don't have time to find and post content that often. Maybe it would be nice to tie into some of the existing church web site functions. Things like quote of the day, news, etc.