An amateur will make the parish look amateurish. Put on the best image! Find a parishioner who has a knack for computers and for the graphic arts, preferably someone who already has experience in website design. This person should also have a love for serving the Lord and the Church; you want a website manager who understands that the webwork is a ministry. But make it worth their while - a Pro is a Pro and worthy of workman's wages. The image you portray on the Internet is important enough to hire a website manager as part of your staff.

1. The website manager monitors the guestbook and threaded discussion boards, updates the online calendar -- as soon as they go online.
     
2. The website manager sets up mailing lists of parishioners, committee members, etc., then maintains them by deleting addresses that stop working, adding permissions for who may send mail to the list, etc. Also oversees the email announcements that are sent out to the parishioners.
     
3. The website manager posts sign-up forms for special events that require registrations.
     
4. The website manager assigns parish email addresses (e.g., secretary@yourparish.org) to appropriate people, adding more if needed, changing forwarding addresses whenever there's personnel changes, etc.
     
5. The website manager uses each new parish newsletter that's published to cull information from it to update the corresponding pages in the website.
     
6. The website manager adds new material to ministries' webpages as they are submitted, including photos and articles, news, change of personnel, and schedules.
     
7. If there is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, the website manager creates a form for people to use, receives the question by email from the form, then gives it to the appropriate person in the parish who can best answer the question. When answered, the website manager posts it online immediately and informs the questioner that the answer is now available.
     
8. It is recommended that the website manager be familiar with and own the following software packages:
   • The latest version of Front Page, Dreamweaver, or another good web designing program
   • WS_FTP Pro (or another FTP program)
   • Paint Shop Pro, PhotoShop, or any graphics program

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SEE ALSO:

Adding new pages using old pages as templates