Diary of a Website Overhaul: 2 of 4

I know what I want, but how can we make it happen?
Prerequisites, Conversations, and tough decisions.

Based on an honest look in the mirror, I landed on 3 main issues that this website was going to tackle:

1. Connecting people to Sanctuary events
2. Connecting people at Sanctuary to each other
3. Streamline processes and eliminate paper

The process part is where I got hung up. We had internal process issues around:

• Communications
• Priorities
• Database infrastructure
• Team mentality

Communications, Priorities and Team issues are always in the hopper. We’ve been going through a year long staff development process that is helping us solidify a team mentality and opening up honest talking points around our goals and priorities as a church.

The database/church management system (CHMS) was another beast all together. For a few years we’ve been “using” a database that, in reality, nobody was “using.” It was complicated. It was clunky. It was hard for the average user to dive in and be comfortable without lots of training.

So, at the same time as I helped form a web team, I launched a database discovery team.
We started with a survey of several of the main players in the field.

We did a SWOT Analysis of our current tool. Then evaluated our options for these criteria:

1. Data Security
2. Data Capture
3. Vistior/Attendee/Member Management
4. Tracking Involvement
5. Network/Gifts/Skills/Strengths Tracking
6. Web/Database Integration
7. Event Management/Registration
8. Financial Tracking
9. Training and Facilitation
10. Education
11. Deployment

I’m happy to say we landed on Fellowship One as our CHMS.

The implementation of Fellowship One took precedence over the website. It didn’t put the website on the back burner, but I didn’t think there was much use in launching a website to connect people if we didn’t have processes in place to help keep them connected.

It took about 8 months to truly make the transition to F1 (8 months for us, more or less for you, this is a staff culture and timing thing). We’re not perfect. We make lots of mistakes, but as we increase our implementation of F1, we’re beginning to make the holes in the net a little smaller, so fewer people fall through. I highly recommend getting your CHMS in order before recreating your website.

We’re all about people, but processes help promote a healthy community.

Next up: Extending Sanctuary Online. Not just building a website. Design, Tools, & Teams.