MCAC is getting a new site… now what?
I’ve decided to split V2 of Montreal-CAC.org into multiple phases, otherwise it would just take too long to get something out there.
BETA
As soon as I have some semblance of a site, I will put it up @ beta.montreal-cac.org. There, potential users/fellowship staffs can start getting acquainted to using the site.
PHASE 1
The goal of Phase 1 is 1) to migrate all the old content (that we intend to keep) to the new structure, 2) to have the site updated more often, 3) to bring the information to the user, not relying on them to look for it and 4) Churchie.org integration.
WHAT DO WE KEEP?
Even though most of our site has been untouched for years, there are certain sections that are still up to date. For instance, we have 5 years worth of sermons from the English Congregation. Moving forward, we’ll need to decide what to keep and what needs to be revamped.
AVOIDING AN ABANDONED SITE
It’s going to be crucial for us to find a way to keep the new site up-to-date. The #1 factor (no research made lol) in retaining visitors is giving the users the information that they came for. If a visitor gets the impression that our site is no longer being used, they’re not coming back. We can’t still have posts about Christmas service when Easter is coming up.
Of course, the information generated on the site will not depend on me… I’ll need the cooperation of the MCAC community in order to keep it up-to-date. What I need to do, as the web developer, is make it easy for our community to update the site.
The people expected to drive this site’s content will be the Fellowship PRs. Typically, they will send out a weekly emails to advise the fellowship’s members what’s going on this week. However, the staff needs to be convinced that weekly emails are NOT the approach to take. Why? Because after a couple months, you end up with an email list of about 50 people even though only 20 of them actually want to stay on the mailing list. There is no way to unsubscribe.
This is where the new site comes in hand. We’ll be implementing newsletters per small group/fellowship so that people can subscribe/unsubscribe to whichever newsletters they wish. The beauty of using these newsletters is that it will simultaneously be posted on the church site! That way, even people not registered to the mailing lists can see what’s going on around the church… and, if successful, will keep the site updated regularly without requiring anyone to do more work than they did before.
BRINGING THE CHURCH TO THEM
Let’s face it… people are NOT going to go to Montreal-CAC.org regularly. We’re going to need to bring Montreal-CAC.org to them. How? It all works around the new newsletter feature. For each newsletter written, there will be options to post to twitter and post to Facebook so that, as long as you’re following MCAC on twitter or are a fan of MCAC (or whichever small group/fellowship) on Facebook, you’ll receive a short blurb along with a link to the full details located on our site. This way, users can keep up-to-date with the ongoings of MCAC without ever visiting the site!
SHARING THE WEALTH
As a developer, I want everything I create to be re-usable. As a Christian, I want to help as many churches “get online” as I can. A lot of the features on Montreal-CAC.org are not specific to MCAC — most churches have sermons and fellowships — and if it’s good enough for MCAC to use, I’m sure many other churches would find it useful as well. That’s why everything developed for this site will be written generically, to be re-implemented on Churchie.org where churches will be able to register for free and take advantage of those features.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 will consist of more church management tools like viewing your tithing records online and reserving rooms in the church.
Hope you guys are as excited as I am!
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