Mavis Moon
I live in San Jose, California, and attend San Jose Christian Reformed Church. I work as the IT Director of Pivot Interiors, a Herman Miller office furniture company.
I grew up in the Air Force, where my dad was a chaplain, so I lived in several places during my childhood, including Michigan, Alaska, Washington, Texas, Florida and Arizona. I went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I met my husband Randy.
We have lived in San Jose for over 30 years now. I have 3 adult children and 3 grandchildren who are, of course, the cutest things ever.
Posted in: How to Start a Church Website
When we decided to re-do our website we looked for this type of solution, one that was all on the web and did not involve any installation of software. We also wanted this setup so that a member who is more technical and knows web design could login to do more advanced things, while I, knowing less about web design, could do the bulk of the work.
We narrowed it down to either Squarespace (http://www.squarespace.com/) or Gutensite (http://www.gutensite.com/), both of which we'd seen used by other churches whose websites we liked. We ended up going with Squarespace because it seemed to offer a little more flexibility. It's worked really well for us.
Mavis Moon
San Jose Christian Reformed Church
Posted in: Wi-Fi — Make it Secure
Hmm, I might just have to use that Teamviewer info for a blog and resource. Thanks, Sherick! I didn't know it was free for non-profits.
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
I would agree with others' comments in regards to this. We do not use Google Apps (Sites, Docs, etc.) as a public portal; it's our internal collaboration tool. It's working well for us and getting better as more people start using it.
Our pastor and the worship leader have become very regular users of Google Docs, sharing a document for planning worship together. They even use Google Talk within that so they can chat as they work together.
Our deacons and elders are using it to share some documents. And I am the chair of our worship team and have shared a folder with the team so that as I create meeting notes or run across articles to share or whatever, all I have to do is put it in that folder and the team has access.
Gmail's been useful, too. I've created some groups such as Council, Deacons, Elders and some other teams, plus an "all church" group we use for important communication to everyone.
As someone else mentioned, the calendar is great and I have made that public and show it on our website. I also have all our various volunteer schedules on Google Docs, as public web pages (no last names, emails, phone #s or anything are used), with links to those from our church website. I've also got a link to the home page on the public website so everyone has just one thing to remember -- www.sjcrc.org -- to get to anything they need.
We use Squarespace for our website and it's been a great tool, easy to use and yet full of features and very customizable. You don't have to install any software, and their support is excellent.
Hope this helps!
Mavis
Posted in: Why Give a Tweet?
Thank you, Allen and Martin, for your comments. It's great to hear actual experiences from those of you active in Twitter. What a powerful story, Martin, of your use of prayer during the manhunt in your community. Isn't it amazing God can be present in the virtual world, too?
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
Hi Thomas,
If I understand your question correctly, the answer is yes.
Do you mean that you'd like to host your church website with another provider and still use Google Apps and GMail? That actually is what we do. When people go to www.sjcrc.org they see our public website. People wanting to log in to their Gmail or Google Apps go to a different address, or use the link I put on that public website.
For both things the domain name can be the same, so your Gmail addresses would have the same domain name as your church's website. When you set up Google Apps, if you already own a domain it will prompt you to do some steps that prove you own and have access to that domain, and then you can use that domain name for your Google Apps and Gmail.
Hope this helps.
Mavis
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
Nate,
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I found this page comparing the free vs. "busines" Apps: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html. The nice thing for churches is that we get the "Education version" for free. This Wikipedia page also compares the different versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Apps.
Hope that helps.
Mavis
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
You're right, Picasa is a great program. I am thinking of doing an article on photo sharing and Picasa is right up there. I especially love the way it quickly and easily corrects red-eye. Thanks for bringing it up!
Posted in: Art & Design — Solving Problems, Looking Good for God
Great input, Robert. It sounds like you've got a lot of expertise and insight on this topic - thank you!
What a good point that there is a different "problem" than just clear words. I love the idea that we can use our visuals, as we try to use all our gifts, to help us -- and others -- experience God more fully.
Thanks a million for those $.02. :)
Posted in: Wi-Fi — Make it Secure
Thanks, Kyle. Good points and excellent information! (And I love the word "shennanigans". :) )
Posted in: Can You Spare a Little Grace?
I clicked on the link to this article specifically because I lead a small group and thought it would be good for me to learn how to encourage and help any of the members who might be "E.G.R" types. I agree that we can't label and classify everyone, but I find it helpful to learn different strategies and methods of dealing with different types of behavior.
As I clicked the link, I was hoping that the article would go beyond naming types of people and actually contain practical advice. This article definitely has some good, practical advice that I will find helpful as I lead my group.
Posted in: Easiest Prayer Chain Ever
Hi Allen,
One Call Now looks like a great option. Using the phone rather than email might make a lot of sense, depending on the community, as you wrote.
Thanks for sharing the idea!
Mavis
Posted in: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Backup
Thank you, Anko! It's really valuable to get personal experience testimonies like yours.