Dear Friends,
How are you doing? There have been a lot of changes around here recently, and there are (hopefully) more on the horizon this year. How would you feel about one more change? Well, better make it two.
When I started working for St. Paul’s in late August 2024, we were already in the process of transitioning the website from a fully proprietary platform (called “Membership Vision”) to a white-labeled version of the popular website platform “WordPress.” Being built on the WordPress framework would give a new website more stability and flexibility.
Understanding that this website transition also gives us an opportunity to improve digital communications, we thought it was time to get an easier to spell website address.
A few weeks ago, a near duplicate of St. Paul’s existing website was brought “live” on a new, easier to spell domain name, StPaulsCLE.org. Those with an eye towards cybersecurity might have noticed that staff emails had started arriving from addresses like StaffMember@StPaulsCLE.org a few months ago.
In the interim, staff has been testing the functions and features of the website and ensuring all the podcast episodes, articles, and content were transferred correctly.
On Tuesday evening, our website vendor flipped a switch that redirected our old website (StPauls-Church.org) to the near-duplicate website, albeit on a new, secure, stable platform. While that old website is gone, you can still visit your favorite StPauls-Church.org webpages on the new website- everything should automatically redirect you! Give it a try with stpauls-church.org/live or stpauls-church.org/blog/parish-notes-may-2025/.
“So, we’re done?” Well, not quite.
As some might know, St. Paul’s website needs a refresh. These two changes made our website more accessible to new folks (with an easier to say/spell web address) and gave us an adaptable platform to continue to build on. But the “look and feel” of the website is largely unchanged. Luckily, that’s the fun part!
Over the summer months, St. Paul’s Staff and parishioners who are interested will be reviewing the content of the website, updating the pictures, and making it easier for folks to find what they’re looking for. Whether it’s someone planning their first Sunday worshipping at St. Paul’s, a busy parent looking for youth group information, or someone considering how to remember St. Paul’s in their estate, we want our website to be a catalyst for connection, not a speed bump.
Any website developer will tell you that website transitions are never perfect. By moving from one platform to a newer platform, there will always be some weirdness with how articles or files are named. There might be some broken links or pages that aren’t redirecting correctly. If you find those, you’re welcome to report them either by filling out this form or emailing me. Anything urgent will be taken care of as soon as possible.
Staff and Vestry will be taking the first part of the summer to update various ministry areas of the website and make sure the content is accurate. After that, we will form a small group of staff and parishioners to plan and prioritize “wish list” updates for the website.
Now that the boring, technical part is done, we hope the process of improving our website will be a positive experience for those who enjoy this kind of thing and will be largely unnoticed by almost everyone else.
Yours in nerdery,
~Laurel Steinetz
PS: in Binary (aka computer language), the way you note “two” is a 1 (one) and a 0 (zero) or “10.”