I realized I'm being vague, but it isn't like I haven't shared the church website here before...so if anyone is still keeping track of this thread and wants to see what we are starting with, here you go https://www.fccwp.org/ Feel free to point out what you feel is missing (events!!!! Outreach!) and anything else. it's a bit clunky in places, and the graphics will all be changing as it isn't um...pretty. and we have a gorgeous 140 year old church, and a amazing people, and you don't get that from this website. I'll delete the website link in a day or so. Oh, and I hate the "donate now" right in your face - this is NOT that kind of church always preaching about money, and our events/activities are always "if you can't pay, don't worry about it" so I worry that having the link there right in the beginning is frankly offputting.

I'm glad to hear this - DH is going to use a tool that can cut out and caption shorter clips from longer sermons - glad to know someone else might like that and find it worthwhile. And agree totally on the outreach - and we don't have ANYTHING on the website about it!!! We have right now a campaign to provide items for a local women's shelter, before that it was items for kids in foster care, before that it was a shelter for LGBTQ Youth who have been kicked out and don't feel safe in regular shelters, before that it was a program for survivors of human trafficking, plus we are always working with a food pantry and monthly serve meals at a soup kitchen type place, etc etc.

I was about to ask what you mean, but then I think I realized. Would an Open and Affirming statement and logo on the main page serve that purpose, with more detail somewhere else on the website? I'm wondering if it would also help to show photos of the church marching in the local Pride parade? Or would statements or quotes from some of our LGBTQ members be better - although I wonder if that is a bit weird thing to ask of them.

My current job is to find some favorite sermons for DH to put into a tool that will pull out possible short clips to use - but the way the website is every time i back out of a video it goes back to the homepage of the website and then I have to go click on livestream, scroll, touch a different place on the page and scroll, and then hit next page, etc. Each time. And the audio and video were out of sync on the new one with the new fancy equipment. And they paid extra for better streaming but have it set to stream in 720 so it's blurry. Which I guess makes it harder to notice the lips and audio are out of sync...so there is that 🙂

I suppose during prep they could have found skin cancer, or as you say, abnormal labs

We have the kids parent's in youth group sign a photography consent/waiver thing at the start of every year (or decline it, in which case that is respected). Same with VBS - every year there are a few kids that we put a sitcker on their nametag so people know not to take their photo, or edit out their face if they get caught in one. So thankfully, that's pretty covered for kids. Adults is an interesting thought, I hadn't considered that, mostly because if services are streamed they already know they might be on their. But for photos up front and center being purposely shown I could see getting permission first.

Thank you! I had wanted to hear this. I love how music crosses generations and color lines and geography, and this shows that. But, I'd pick Tracy Chapman's version over his, just because I adore her.

Surgical treatment for enlarged prostate is done using a scope put through the urethra followed by removal of part of the prostate. I'm guessing that as they inserted the scope they found urethral cancer - which does has a very poor prognosis in men and would involve very very drastic surgery that a 75 year old man may not have interest in doing, given that it often doesn't prevent the cancer from coming back. It's a rare cancer, less than 1 in a million, but is associated with HPV sometimes.

I do make sure to do anything "heavier" on the way to the activity, so the audio of History Quest or other non fiction, and then a novel or more fun podcast if anything, on the way home. Sometimes if they are dead we just listen to music or have quiet in the car on the way home, because yes, if they are beat they aren't going to be able to concentrate. But because EVERYTHING we do is at least 20, and usually 25-35, minutes away it's so much "lost" time that I want to make use of at least some of it. Plus, to be frank, it makes my life easier as then I don't have to fit in another chunk of time reading aloud later. And thank you for reassurance on the value of field trips - I do think they get so much out of them. Hoping to go to Everglades National Park next month!

Yay, ok, we are actually doing that stuff pretty well! The very top of the front page of the website has the denomination. And bulletin is listed at bulletin. I think they are good with the bulletin because we try to use paper as little as possible, so although we do have printed copies available for those that need/want one, most people use their phone or tablet - there are qr code stickers in the pews as well to easily pull it up.

They have two 4K expensive cameras mounted side by side - so no different angles - and then are streaming in 720. That's IF you can find the stream on our website because despite paying WAY too much for the software that is supposed to stream everywhere is NOT streaming anywhere but our website. People were trying....but they were taken advantage of it seems, and sold the wrong equipment for the needs, and a way too expensive hardware device that isn't needed and WAY too expensive software. DH just feels badly that he didn't step in before this so he could have saved them a lot of money.

DH is going through all the photos he took of the AV set up (cables, cameras, etc) and the diagrams and he just keeps alternating between using very un Christian words, and whimpering while saying, "it just makes me so sad" and "I want to cry".

DH is currently digging through the tools/software they are currently using to stream and muttering a blue streak, lol. He cannot BELIEVE how much the church is paying for the service! They also just paid 1K for a piece of equpment DH says is a bad idea, and he's going to talk to them about why they wanted it and if they can return it - it was just purchased two days ago. But basically, they are paying $199 a month for a tool that can't do what a $29 a month streamyard or similar program could do. He's also going through the documentation of how the AV equipment is set up...and can only say it is VERY well documented but done very badly. The man running it now is about 80 years old and an engineer - so as DH put it he'd love to have the guy write technical specifications, cause his diagrams of the system are wonderful, but he did not pick out the right equipment. Still, bless the man for being willing to do SOMETHING. DH isn't going to step on toes, he says he knows how to "speak engineer", and will work with the guy. Who honestly, isn't going to be the one running the AV stuff anyway as soon as they hire someone.

Yes, this is definitely important. Especially given that no one really knows much about the denomination (United Church of Christ) - it gets confused with the Church of Christ or Unitarian Universalist. Which means just seeing the denomination isn't a clue - and even it if it was, because it is congregational values can vary. I think we have a pretty good description on the website of what we believe, with a link down at the bottom kind of hidden that goes to the main denomination's website. We have at the top of the main page that we are an open and affirming church, and then we also have a page discussing what being an open and affirming parish means. The pastor is VERY on board. He's the one that actually said, "that website was built quite a while ago - and I would love to see it redone totally". Thankfully, there is a lot of good stuff already there, about the ministries, etc. What we need most is to make it more clear, and to have our current events on their, etc. It looks too thrown together, and no one is updating it with events, etc. I mean, I don't even think Christmas services were on there! So yes, you can find out what time the service is, what to wear, a general description of various ministries, and a crude map for parking information, that there is childcare, etc....but nothing for Vacation Bible School which sign ups are going out for, or the upcoming easter egg hunt, or even Easter service info (I mean, it's the same time, but there should be something up front about it). What we will likely do is set it up so that there is a "blog" for each ministry, and one person from each ministry will have access JUST to write blog posts - just a quick thing about upcoming events with a photo or graphic - and then their ministry page will be set up to have the most recent blog post embedded. (wix allows for this and that is what they are using). That way they aren't having to actually configure webpages. Love the photographer idea!!! A photoshoot would be awesome!

Um, yeah, that's us currently. LOTS gets posted to a members only facebook GROUP but almost nothing to the actual facebook page that non members can see. Which obviously, is NOT going to be good for people looking for a church. It seems part of the issue is the church secretary not wanting anyone to have the password to access the page, yet she didn't have the time to do it herself. DH is going to set it up with a service like Ask Edgar where people (say, each board chair or whatever) can log into THAT program, create a post and add it to a queue, and then whoever is chosen- probably 2 or 3 people- approve posts using that software, and the they go out to Facebook, Instagram, etc etc. That way you give the ability to create content for the social media pages to everyone who needs it, but only the power to actually post to a few trusted people. Because yes, right now, it looks like the church is pretty much dead.

Sure! REALLY simple and easy! And you could add more sweetener, or raisins or other dried fruit, nuts, etc. https://www.thespruceeats.com/yummy-easy-traditional-flapjack-recipe-435285

Ok, another thought I had, was to keep going slowly, with added books and videos, and just do the first half or so of American History this year, and do the second half next year, as her high school american history credit. Now HOW exactly I'd do that, not sure. But it's a thought.

Praying!

Thank you all so much! Adding to my list - these seem to be the same kinds of things I look for, so I'm glad I'm on the right track! And good point about masking! We have on the front of every bulletin, and on all the doors, that masking is welcome but not mandatory (it was mandatory for a long time). There are always some masked but not the majority, but would be easy to be sure some photos show that there are people in masks, including some in the choir. Because obviously, having it on the door is too late to get a feel for it, and not everyone will click to see the bulletin and if they do they may miss it on the first point.

Update at bottom of this post BACKGROUND: A while back I posted about our church, which I LOVE, having a website that was not up to date, no social media presence to speak of, and worst of all our livestream services are not even on youtube, only hidden away on our own website. etc etc. Just, all the tech/social stuff is not what it could or should be. I reached out, and they were actually really receptive. Today the Pastor, my husband, myself, and a husband and wife team (she's on the Outreach Board and he's on the Vestry) got together about this. It ended up being almost 3 hours! But we worked out a LOT, DH is volunteering to get the infrastructure in place and train people (and record training videos) on how to keep things up once it is built, the Pastor it turns out is actually really into some of the same tools and products for video streaming and such as my husband, so they geeked out a bit. He is TOTALLY on board with revamping what is being used. AND they now have a budget to PAY an AV person to help with all this, probably 5 hours a week. Full Sail college is literally down the street, where one of the big majors is video production and DH used to teach there until recently, so he knows everyone over there and is going to reach out to see if there are students interested in this part time job. Oh, and bonus, I got to ask if the church would be able/willing to rent facilities to our homeschool group and what would be needed for that - he said absolutely! So yay!! (especially since I got kicked out of the local group that does dances, and the co-ops that are local are uber conservative and a bunch of my friends want an alternative, etc). AND the Pastor's son just started college and wants to do cybersecurity as a career and DH is going to meet with him and help mentor him. It was just fantastic, and went so much better than I ever anticipated. QUESTION: The pastor said he would actually be fine with totally redoing the website. I've got my own list of things that should be on there, but what do YOU look for - both when looking for a new church/church shopping and as a member? What is helpful, what would be frustrating if you didn't have it, what do you love about your church's website, anything. Thank you! UPDATE: This is the new website! Still a work in progress, and many of the pages need the text rewritten. I did try to fix the most egregious of grammatical issues (I found several places where they used an apostrophe S for what were plurals, not posessives!). But for now, it is SO much better, and I'm keeping on top of creating events, quick and dirty blog posts, etc so it seems like people actually attend there, lol. AND created an Outreach and Social Justice page to show yes, we do things in the community and for the community, because NONE of that was on the website before. www.fccwp.org

Oh, they are. The one and a half sticks of butter are the problem. A delicious, delicious problem:) I was the only one who liked them, and I REALLY liked them. Too much, and had to throw them away finally because they were too much temptation for me while trying to lose weight. If I wasn’t dieting and the rest of the family was willing to eat their share they’d be fine.

If he already did a lot of Miller Levine (high school text), how about just watching Crash Course Biology videos and doing some virtual labs? Maybe one in person lab on a weekend just to write it up and such.

What if he gets injured and can't be a cowboy anymore? Having an AS opens up a lot more doors than a highschool diploma. And if he were injured or something happened and he couldn't or didn't want to continue in being a cowboy, and did want to go back to school, he'd have a lot less to do.

You know, what's funny is I was fine with us getting to whatever period in time we get to when I was making my own curriculum out of a mishmash of others. But once I start using a textbook, I get the urge to finish the textbook and do it "right". Sigh.

Tell her a homeschool mom in Florida thinks her books are awesome! I learned SO much - for instance that the Boston Tea Party wasn't about the price of tea!!! The tax on tea was already repealed and tea was actually cheaper than usual!