Have you ever noticed that when you visit some sites (including this one!) you see a little icon next to the web address? You also see this icon if you save the address to your desktop or favorites.
Guess what - you can do that too!
The first thing you need is an image usually 16 pixels by 16 pixels that you want to become the shortcut icon. You can create one from an image you already have with any number of applications out there. There are even some online (free) services, such as http://www.graphicsguru.com/favicon.php.
Once you have this icon, you must name it "favicon.ico" and put it on your server, and note the URL of where it resides (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/images/favicon.ico). Generally, this will be your web address, then a "/", and then the file name. You'll have more folder names and "/"s if it's in a folder somewhere, like the images folder in the example URL.
Then you must add this line of code to your homepage, between the head tags*:
LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.yourdomain.org/favicon.ico" (to make the text show up, I removed the < > so put the whole line between those two symbols, and obviously change the URL to the URL of your image)
* If you're using Frontpage, Dreamweaver, etc. there should be a way to view the HTML code (if you don't edit your own site and you use Lutherans Online or something like that, you probably cannot do this). When viewing the HTML code, look for the two "tags" toward the top that read head and /head (each within a pair of < >). The above code needs to be between those somewhere, but not inside of another pair of tags (a pair is like the head tags sample with the two brackets and the end one has the "/").
Ok, so this may not be specifically about communication, but I know many of you either host or set up for meetings. The ELCA Board of Pensions provides the following tips to keep your meetings healthy to either fit in with participants' lifestyles or set a good example for healthy living.
Include a variety of food choices throughout the day. Ask that food be prepared with low-fat ingredients. Include fresh fruits and vegetables with each meal and snack.
Ask for smaller portion sizes of foods like bagels, cookies and muffins. Serve sauces, dressings and condiments on the side.
Provide water or 100 percent juice rather than soda.
Think about the environment - provide reusable water containers rather than bottled water.
Encourage participants to stretch and walk between sessions.
Provide stress-reduction activities, such as deep breathing or Bishop Murray Fink's Stretch & Pray exercises.
Provide ample time for rest and relaxation - be cognizant of the amount of information the mind can absorb at one time.
Challenge participants to listen to new ideas and ways of thinking.
Encourage participants to seek out new conversations and social interactions.
Provide time for prayer, thanksgiving and listening to God.
By now you've probably seen the tag line, "God's work, Our hands." in ELCA materials, including the new design of ELCA.org, at least I hope so! If you're looking for a new way to present your congregation, or even if you're not looking but are willing to think about it, consider using the redesigned emblem/tag line.
Kristi Bangert, Executive Director for Communication Services for the ELCA, says that some congregations question whether they can use this tag line or whether it "belongs" only to the churchwide expression of the ELCA. Her answer, "This is yours, you are the ELCA."
Materials will become available for more ways to integrate this into your congregation's identity. At this time there are standards in the ELCA graphics standards regarding use of the ELCA emblem and tag line. It is asked that you follow these guidelines for consistency. Note that in the entire manual is available at the bottom of www.ELCA.org/emblem and there is a portion that specifically addresses use for each expression of the ELCA, including congregations (click here for the PDF).
"God's work, our hands," is something that ELCA Communication Services is very excited about. They hope that this will be adopted throughout the ELCA and they tell us it is not expected to change in a few years and many fear it might.
I receive many congregational newsletters and, though I don't read them word-for-word, I do flip through them all. Usually I skip the pastor's page as they all tend to be fairly similar. The other day, though, I saw a great one. Rev. Cindy Fisher-Broin, Spring Garden Lutheran Church, Cannon Falls, Minn., had actually taken the time to interview a seminarian their congregation is supporting and that interview was her pastor's article.
At the 2007 Synod Assembly, a resolution was passed to encourage support of seminarians. If your congregation is currently supporting a seminarian, or generically supports seminarian education without a specific individual in mind, talking with a student is a great way to share with the congregation where their money is going. Asking things like what is seminary life like, what do you study, what happens during your time in seminary, what are joys/struggles for you during this time, etc. are all wonderful places to start.
If your congregation is not already supporting a seminarian, there are paths of support available that often begin by speaking with advocates for the seminarians. As a result of the resolution, an advocate from each of the synod's five conferences was identified and they are available to talk about support options and why support is important.
Your advocates or the synod office can help you get in touch with seminarians if needed.
This can also work well for students you may be supporting at ELCA colleges, children sponsored through a support program, missionaries, etc.
Unless you're new to your community, you probably barely notice the signs around your church. As a person still fairly new to southeastern Minnesota and even newer to the community in which I now live, I can guarantee that they are not unimportant to other people. Rev. Linda Gunderson, synod minister, wrote a River Crossings column on the subject of signage because of how important she feels it is.
I also came across a blog post from Church Relevance that might give you some useful tips. The most important one is location. One suggestion from the post is:
You’ve got to get up and walk around, asking yourself with every step: What will visitors be doing here? Where will their eyes be focused when they stand here? And what will they be thinking about over there?
Summarizing the rest of the tips is basically keeping it simple and visual so people get the idea quick. A full reading may only be 2-3 seconds - will they get the idea that quickly?
I've seen things online before about how people read online that I just CAN'T focus on.
How am I supposed to believe someone who can't follow their own advice?
I'll admit that writing for the web isn't my strong suit, which is why I might print this article by Michael Agger and read it over and over.
The article I'm talking about highlights the things we need to do to make our online information readable. This is essential to any of you working on your congregation's website. I would argue that it's also important for those writing for print. A few tips:
Bulleted lists
Bold print
Helpful headings
Short paragraphs
are some of the things that are also important for print. My belief is that print reading habits (at least in information-gathering reading, not pleasure reading) are moving in the direction of web reading.
The biggest problem with the article in reference is that it is rather long in screen space. If you can make it past the point where the author admits he probably is losing readers, you can make it through the whole thing and pick up some helpful tips.
This may step ahead of many of us technologically, but I found it very helpful to know. You may want to know it, save it, or pass it on to a person who might work with it.
In the first ever edition of Christian Video Magazine, Augstin Moore, president/owner of Streaming for Jesus, wrote an article praising the benefits of streaming video in flash.
As a proud new owner of not one, but TWO Mac computers (ok, I only OWN one, the other is my work computer), this rang true for me. To boil it down and highlight the parts that will make sense to the less tech savvy, basically flash is a fairly universal player. If you're used to using Windows, you have probably watched some kind of video in Windows Media Player. You can also get players like QuickTime and Real Player for your PC. Mac comes pre-installed with QuickTime. Then there's Linux, another operating system with it's own settings and capabilities. Flash can be used directly in a web browser on ALL of these.
Moore also explains how it saves time as the file only needs to be saved as one file type for all users.
His explanation is much more in depth, so I suggest if you are to the point of putting video online that this might be an important article to read.
