To: Communiweb members cc: Communiweb associates Saju Joseph, David and Ryan Munson From: Lanie Dickel Date: 2003 November 21 Topic: WebEasel Report - Communiweb 2003 November 20 meeting Attendance - x means missed meeting Communiweb Members x Deborah Townsend David Gerstenecker - Webmaster Kevin Rock Helene Dickel x Scott Bush x Terri Pepper Tom Ward x Richard Langendorf - Graphic Designer David Schowalter - UCF Communiweb Associates x Ruth Gilbert - Moderator x Mike Mulberry - Pastor Linda Morgan - Health & Wellness David Willcox - Music x Jean Creswell - Women's Fellowship x Tom Watembach - Religious Ed REPORT Web Policy Statement Our web policy statement was included in my email of Nov 11, subject: "policy" recommendation re email addresses, photos, etc.. This statement will be brought up by David G. for discussion at the next Council Meeting in December. If any of you wish to suggest further changes, please let David know with cc to the rest of the group. WebEasel Contest Winners at http://www.webeasel.net/news/releaseParty.html Trying out WebEasel at their site http://www.webeasel.net/sites/easeldemo/cucc/ shows David's first foray into creating webeasel templates for Communiweb. Webeasel changes the demo site regularly so it may disappear but it was still there at 10:30 am on Friday Nov 21. You can experiment with editing on WebEasel's dummy site - go to http://www.webeasel.net and click on "try it". Financing We have checks or pledges for most of the WebEasel site license so Roger Wade is sending the $850 check to them today (Nov 21). If you pledged but didn't write your check yet, please do so - thanks. A further $160 was contributed which will go towards the consulting fees related to our installation (@$40/hr). If more contributions come in and there is $150 leftover we can purchase the one-calendar option. WebEasel Templates for Communiweb During the meeting, David Gerstenecker showed us two sample WebEasel "templates" that he'd created - one format for the home page, and another for the other 4 main menu items. We also logged into the www.webeasel.net to see how the "interactive" nature of creating/editing webpages works. David will need to create additional templates including one which allow "tables" (and bullet lists?) and eventually one which would be used for our "photo gallery" page(s). Regarding the webeasel version of our Communweb site, we discussed a few changes from what David had presented. CHANGES to Welcome Page and Menus Items 1. Add "Site Map" and "Campus Ministry" to the menu items on the left (and list at the bottom). [These appear on all pages.] 2. Possible change "When and Where We Meet" to just "When and Where" (unless those not present at the meeting voice strong objections). SUGGESTIONS re Menu Pages and Submenus Pages Currently - Submenus are listed at the top of a menu page as well as on each individual submenu page so one can easily navigate directly from one to another. Alternative - Try removing the list of submenus at the top. Instead, on the particular menu page put a photo, and a brief description with a link to each submenu page. To go between submenus, you would have to return to this higher-level menu page. Compromise? - Combine the two. Submenu buttons - if we keep the submenu list at the top, have it look like tabs and the tab for the submenu page you are on turns a different color or is highlighted compared to the other tabs. DISCUSSION re Browser Support and Other Limitations WebEasel is a browser-based application which works on several platforms which includes the (pc Windows) Explorer, (Sun) Netscape, and (Mac) OS10 (David G. please correct me) and may work on some others but not guaranteed full functionality. So please try editing their demo at www.webeasel.net ("try it") and let us know how it works for you. There is no particular advantage of using WebEasel in terms of the graphic design of our website. Its real advantage will be after we have our current website converted to WebEasel. Then WebEasel will make it easy for lay people in the church to maintain individual webpages and update them on a regular basis. It will also simplify creation of new pages with a conformity of style. Uncomplicated pages such as the Health and Wellness or Women's Fellowship pages should be creatable by non-technical types. More complex pages might need to be created by some of our more experienced members but once made, they would be easily updated by others using WebEasel. WHAT NEXT? David G. will let us know when he has made changes to the templates or created new ones. Once we have most of the needed templates created, and David has the necessary login and password(s), several of us will need to volunteer to convert existing pages using webeasel and these templates. Once several of us have gained experience, we can help others to learn how to do this. OUR GOAL and TARGET DATE It is in our interest and that of WebEasel that we have our current site COMPLETELY CONVERTED BY END OF JANUARY 2004, i.e. by the time of our Annual Meeting. Otherwise, OJC Technologies may insist that we get together and do it simultaneously on their many computers under their supervision which will cost us $40/h. Of course, even when Communiweb is fully raised, our work will not be done; there are still new webpages to make and the communigram and past sermons to be put onto the web.