4050 Theme 1: Letting Our Light Shine: What's New on uua.org

Deborah Weiner, UUA Director of Electronic Communications, and Dwight Ernest, UUA IT Consultant

Deborah Weiner runs the UUA office that manages the UUA's web site at uua.org, as well as the 150+ e-mail mailing lists hosted at lists.uua.org. Dwight Ernest is a software professional who consults for the UUA's Information Technology department. Together, they provided an overview of the improvements to the UUA's web site that have occurred over the last year, as well as changes that are expected this year. The UUA's web site contains over 10,000 pages and is becoming central to the UUA's mission of supporting UU congregations.

The changes that Weiner and Ernest described include:

• The Uncommon Denomination marketing program for UUism at uua.org/programs/congservices/uncommon
• Election 2004 Voter Registration at uua.org/news/2004/voting
• Freedom to Marry coverage and resources at uua.org/news/2004/freedomtomarry
• Online Certification for Congregations at uua.org/congregation
• Online DRE Settlement System at uua.org/programs/ministry/reco/settlement
• InterConnections Resources for lay leaders of UU congregations at uua.org/programs/layleader
• Adding Worship Services manual at uua.org/cde/education/addingworshipservices.pdf
• Your Congregation’s Bylaws at uua.org/cde/education/congbylaws.html
• UUA 101 at uua.org/giving/apf/uua101/
• Streaming video coverage of GA 2004, both during events and later (on-demand) at uua.org/ga/ga04/streaming.html

For those with a technical bent, Weiner and Ernest mentioned that the UUA upgraded their Internet servers this year, with new hardware for the Web server, mail server, and mailing list server. Two servers run Linux and one runs Windows. They also installed SpamAssassin, a spam-blocking filter.

During the next year, the UUA hopes to install a content management system, a more sophisticated system for maintaining the web site. Other upcoming projects include:

• Online updates of member names and addresses for UU World subscriptions
• Online updates of congregational leaders for InterConnections subscriptions
• A web-based database of articles about UUism, the UUA, and UU congregations for use by the press
• Redesign of the lifespan religious education section of uua.org, with more information about curricula and better access to REACH and FaithWorks materials
• Searchable mailing list archives that will enable subscribers to search list archives by topic

Weiner and Ernest encouraged UUs to write to oec@uua.org with ideas for the UUA web site.

PowerPoint presentation (requires Microsoft PowerPoint)

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