Speakers: Kok-Heong McNaughton, Margy Levine Young

The Internet is a very powerful tool for building and maintaining community. Electronic media helps you get the word out quickly and cheaply while building connection and involvement.

E-Mail

• Why your congregation needs an e-mail address: fast, cheap communications
• Type of account: AOL, Internet account, free (www.juno.com, www.hotmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, www.geocities.com), mail.altavista.com, www.mail.com, www.freeweb.com
• Choosing an account: stable, longevity, features (avoid AOL)
• Forwarding services (like www.pobox.com, www.iname.com, www.bigfoot.com, some university alumni accounts) let you change accounts without changing your e-mail address
• Multiple addresses for church office, minister, RE, etc.: some Internet accounts include up to five addreses. Use titles or names. Who should handle e-mail

Web Site

• Why your congregation needs a web site: 200 hits/Sunday looking for a local congregation, 100,000+ new "surfers" per year.
• UUA hosts static sites (sites that change about once a year). To create a free, unchanging page: go to www.uc.summit.nj.uua.org/UUA/homepage.html
• Your ISP or web hosting company can host your site (not the UUA): ask your ISP, since most Internet accounts come with 1MB to 5MB of Web space
• Free or cheap sites include www.geocities.com, www.freeservers.com, and www.crosswinds.net. For a list of other free sites, go to Yahoo. Some free sites add advertising banners to your pages.
• Creating and maintaining a site: update regularly with info from the newsletter. Use a word processor (worst), or Web page editor (like HomeSite, Netscape Composer, Microsoft FrontPage, or others -- see TUCOWS at www.tucows.com for more)
• Publicizing the site: submit to Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, Googol, Northern Light, etc. so people will find you
• Add a UUA banner: Banner changes to relevant UUA graphic, links to UUA Web site www.uua.org/banner.html
• Ownership of the address and of the content: make sure your church owns both! Put a copyright line on the home page
• Forms, bulletin boards, streaming audio and video, and other options. For bulletin boards: www.BeSeen.com, www.Boardhost.com, www.CasualForums.com, www.EZBoard.com
• Privacy, confidentiality, copyright, inclusivity, and other issues

E-Mail Mailing Lists

• Allow ongoing conversations or announcements via e-mail
• Open, one-way list for church announcements
• Open discussion list for general church-related discussion
• Closed lists for board, staff, committees, etc.
• UUA hosts lists for UUA affiliates and up to five lists for each district, but not for congregations (www.uua.org/lists)
• Be sure to join UUA-L, uu-leaders, memb-L, uu-editors, church-admin-uu, and UUMA lists at www.uua.org/lists -- subscribe from www.uua.org/lists/subscribe.html
• For your congregation, get free or cheap mailing lists from www.topica.com, www.listbot.com, or www.egroups.com
• Concerns about inclusivity, mail volume, and individuals dominating discussions
• Concerns about list etiquette and privacy issues (www.uua.org/lists/listpolicies.html)

Sample list policy:

For members and friends of the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos to share news, announcements of church activities, and discussion of church-related business.

Provides a fast and friendly atmosphere for subscribers to communicate with one another. Although this list provides an ADDITIONAL means of communication, it should not be treated as a SUBSTITUTE for all other kinds of communication in due consideration to those who may not have the means or the wishes to subscribe.

Please refrain from posting chain letters, jokes, and virus warnings on this list. Opinions expressed on this list are those of the individuals and are not sanctioned by the Board of Directors of the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos.

Contact the list manager, Kok Heong McNaughton (kokheong@uua.org) directly with complaints.

More Information

• UUs Online: www.gurus.com/uu
• UUA UUs Online: www.uua.org/CONG/websters.html
• Creating a Congregation Website: www.uua.org/CONG/congsites.html
• Mailing List Gurus page: lists.gurus.com