Shul Website

I am the webmaster (mistress?) of my shul's website (http://www.arzeidarom.org/). For the most part I simply place content given to me on the site. But, sometimes, I create some of the content, mostly out of frustration waiting to get content from various members, that is never forthcoming.

I designed the entire website, and it is my "baby". It is at this moment, sadly out of date -- due to the lack of content given me. Actually, truth be told, I had the content but it was handed to me in hard copy and I simply did not have the time to spend manually typing it all out. However, that is changing -- we now have a new person who is working with our communication committee and he is very gung ho and hopeful. I have already been given much content in electronic format, thus making my job much easier. However, I cannot upload said content until we get approval from the required parties. I anticipate that the site will be updated by mid-week next week. So watch..

In the meantime I have been having an ongoing "discussion" (for lack of a better word) with another member who is practically anti-website. This person finds reasons at every turn not to publish anything on the site. I find it to be maddening.

I created a rebuttal, below to this persons constant harping against the site.

Rebuttal:

We should not assume that we should be like that cozy little coffee shop with books and comfortable seating which one randomly encounters and then patronizes regularly, gets to know the regulars, and keeps the knowledge of our shul a secret because that would ruin the experience.

Our shul should be making an effort to stand out where it can be seen. Some of the people who might come to our shul will initially look online. That is the best reason to have a website, right there. (And to the person who says, “Oh, no one around here would do that,” the correct response is “By not making shul available and accessible online, you’ve actually guaranteed that no one will.” Online access has increased at a rate that indicates that the people we want to reach are very likely looking for our shul online.)

Not only that, but these are visitors who have already set out to find our shul in one way or another. They’re not just randomly surfing the ‘net, but they are looking for our shul. Many people who set about looking for a shul online come from a sector of people who are interested in joining a shul of young, upwardly mobile religious Jews in the Teaneck area.

So our taking the simple step of putting a web page in the World Wide Web, with directions, davening times, and a user-friendly design, our shul will significantly increase the likelihood of being available to a would-be visitor (who could be a potential future member) when that visitor comes looking.

Part of the value of a web page is that it is a public self-definition of our kehilla: “This is who we are, and what we stand for.” That definition serves not only to invite (or fend off) visitors and potential future members, but it also serves to help our own kehilla recognize its own reflection in the mirror of the culture.

The attention that an effective web site requires grows from, develops, nourishes, articulates, and extends the very energies that contribute to our vital community life. A web site should be all about communication, quite public communication. A good site helps a kehilla with an overview of what’s going on. It provides visitors with a sense of what kinds of people and interests they’re likely to meet. Through the website we can signal much that our visitor(s) may care about by how we characterize our shul culture and events.

An easily-constructed, frequently-updated web site expresses, generates, reflects, and encourages a conversational sense of what the kehilla is about. A living kehilla partakes of many of the characteristics of a good, long, satisfying conversation; why not permit those positive characteristics to show online?

Now, having said all that, I must add a warning: having a website designed chiefly to attract newcomers to our brick-and-mortar site is worse than having no Internet presence at all. Let me explain.

A website intended to serve two audiences should have features for members (newsletters, events calendar, event updates, committee updates, and contact information) and features for visitors (area map and directions, photo of the shul, "frequently asked questions" and youth committee contacts). Increasingly, our web page may be the only glimpse people ever have of our kehilla. We should at least spend as much time and energy on our website as we would on our shul building’s design

An online community cannot replace the power and richness of "real world" community interactions. However, using the Internet can promote the benefits of technologies—such as Instant Messaging, Skype, VOIP Phone calls, email, forums—between parties living vast distances from one another, providing opportunities for contact not otherwise practical or even possible. Furthermore, when operating within a moral framework, OUR moral framework, our online community can become a valuable and constructive tool, especially as a supplement to, or extension of our real world community.