InSite Facilitation

St. Michael's Parish in Litchfield, CT

 

Business proposition: Originally, St. Michael's had an old, out of date website which they wanted modernized by a designer and the brief was for them to be able update the site themselves. They then ended up with a blog (web log), which, while it allowed them to update regularly (which they were actually unable to do), but the blog format did not work for the complex structure of a church community.  Also, we found out that the original domain name was owned by a company (not by St. Michael's) which was now out of business, with two years still on the domain's lifespan at the time, so St. Michael's would have a hard time ever owning that domain.

What we did: First, we secured a new domain name, very close to the old domain.  Second, we develeped a new web design which would  reflect the multiple dimensions of a "church" ~ the individuals, groups, history, and the building itself.  We focused on how to bring new people to the parish, including adding a calendar that the church staff can quickly and easily update themselves. 

We put up a page on the old domain to direct people to the new domain, and we set up the folks at St. Michael's with email accounts that are based on the new domain.

More recently, we set up a blog which compliments and enhances the main website. Multiple users are set up to post information and announcements when they wish, while visitors may sign up to have new blog posts sent to their email.

The result: This site launched December 1, 2009, with wows coming from the members of the Vestry and (more importantly) renewed interest from the church members in adding interesting content from a variety of aspects about the parish. The new blog allows for more informal, chatty, and spontaneous content than is on the site, and because people can sign up for the blog "feeds", we hope they are kept better more up to date.