Posted by zostay on August 15, 2006 at 2:49am
Okay, so I created this group partly because I'm interested in the topic and partly because I wanted to try out OG. I probably won't be back unless someone else also takes an interest in this group.
I am the volunteer web developer running the web site for New Hope Church. I've just updated to Drupal 4.7 and now am working hard on the site to make it nifty. Our church is in a college-town in Kansas and we've got a good group for using online collaboration to help facilitate our small-group Bible studies, called LIFE groups.
Anyway, Drupal has done very well for us and with Organic Groups and some of the other new 4.7 features, it will do very much better for us, I think.
Cheers.
Comments
Andrew: I'm building a site
Andrew: I'm building a site now for a church that's based on Drupal. You can see it at http://sojournhuntsville.org.
I am now trying to learn the OG module to setup small groups just as you mentioned.
I think having an online presence is very important and a great way to communicate.
@ericatkins
Collaboration is good
Sweet. I agree. I think that the web is a great tool to aid ministry and communication.
We've got a new look coming for our site (our current look is one of the standard themes) and we haven't yet implemented OG, but we're working toward that end. It might be cool to trade notes on how you plan to use it and after getting started the problems or successes we each have.
I have a meeting with our pastor of community tomorrow to start the process. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers.
Definitely, let's trade
Definitely, let's trade notes. I'm new to OG and really don't have a vision on how to lay it out. Use the contact form if you like to hit me up.
@ericatkins
Actually, let's keep this online
I was thinking we could keep the discussion online so others can join in or use the information as a resource later. What do you think? I'm going to go ahead and create a new story for the discussion.
Count me in too
I'm getting ready to launch Phase one of our Drupal site at http://news.stpaulcatholic.org. It's just a 4.7.3 install with bluemarine.
My Phase one concept was to get the staff and volunteers blogging and using the event calendar. Once I teach the staff how to add their own content, I'd like to move on to implementing Organic Groups and maybe CiviCRM.
Sean
I'd love to keep track as well
I'll be keeping track and an contribute answers to CiviCRM questions :)
CivicSpace is interested in creating a powerful church pre-configuration that can be delivered on CivicSpace On Demand and as a Drupal 5.0 install profile.
david
CivicCRM limitations
I've given some thought into integrating CivicCRM into drupal for our church, but decided against it, because there are a few features missing from the groups in CivicCRM
the interface is really kind of busy - I'm afraid I would need to spend more time training others how to use it.
we would like to also add features like conference registration in the future.
So for now I am writing my own Directory application and I will probably integrate it with Drupal/OG in the future.
Any possibility of these features making it into CivicCRM?
Thanks,
Steve Truesadale
www.gracecommunity.ws
Members with different
Members with different roles.
This is usually dealt with via Groups... create a group for each role.
So the leader of the parishoners group would be the only person who is a member of the leaders group AND the parishoners group.
You could also have a drop down custom field for the contact that identifies them as a leader, student, etc.
Group with rotating leaders.
I suppose I would do this in the same multiple group way.
Interface
True. You can use CiviCRM profiles for data entry or for specific editing. That way you only display the relevant fields to the user.
Conference Registration
Take a look at CiviEvents at wiki.civicrm.org please contribute to the requirements docs.
With the exception of events, I think everything is in there... you could use Groups, custom fields, or even custom activities to model the scenarios you lay out... perhaps there are more details here that I don't understand?
What about someone who can be a member and a leader
Like someone who is a member of group A and group C, but a leader of group B?
Using groups wouldn't they be part of leaders, members, and groups A-C?
Is it possible to make a custom-dropdown for a group membership, or only for a contact?
I haven't dived into the requirements gathering for the event registration yet - but when I do I will take a look at CiviEvents.
Thanks,
Steve T.
Tech Ministry Appreciation Dinner?
'Tech Ministry Appreciation Dinner'?????
What planet is your church on?
I think I'm going to convert! LOL.
Great job, Sean -- you all deserve it. I enjoyed visiting your site.
[And I too will hope to keep abreast of CiviCRM developments.]
Heh
I know, it almost looks like I added that as a test of the events module doesn't it? But believe it or not, it's a real event.
CivicCRM is pretty far down the priority list right now. I'm still 'evangelizing" to the staff to get them to look at what the site can do for them. Everyone gets very excited while I'm showing them, but getting them into the posting habbit is taking a while.
Right now my priorities are:
Anyway, Neil and David, thanks for the engouragement!
Sean
Also In
I would like to help out as I can. I put our church online recently at http://www.belviewumc.org using a modification of PunBB but it's really just a forum and not a true CMS. From what I've seen of Drupal recently I really like it and think it'd be great to help put together something for churches so just an enthusiast could get something going for their church if they wanted to.
Looking around a lot of church CMS products are so expensive they are not feasible for small churches, and those small churches shouldn't be excluded from the web!
small groups, etc.
I am also interested in using CiviCRM for my church alamedacofc.org. I am developing a Drupal site for them now, but it's not out on a server yet.
I played around with the CiviCRM demo and it appears the "relationships" would be good for assigning leaders to small groups.
The downside I saw was in tracking small group meeting attendance. You can create groups and assign members to groups and even schedule an "activity" (small group meeting) for all the member of a group at once. But, once that's done, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to report on the activities (group meetings) of all of the group of a certain type (all small groups, as opposed to members of Bible classes, committees, etc.).
I haven't checked out CiviEvent yet, so...
Great group
Thanks for creating this group. Its awesome there is something like this out there. Looking forward to being part of it and reading all about what ministries are doing with drupal.