Internet Presence Guidelines [September 17, 2003]
Purpose
The Parish Community shall have a presence on the World Wide Web for the benefit of parishioners, visitors, and interested persons. It shall contain basic information such as the location of the church, the Mass times, the clergy and staff of the parish, and the parish ministries. It may also have information such as schedules for Eucharistic Ministers, Altar Servers, Readers and Ushers. It may also have articles from the Sunday bulletin, a copy of the Monthly schedule of events and the Announcements at Sunday Masses. Each ministry is encouraged to opt into our parish web presence.
Privacy Policy
Parishioner's names and contact information may appear in the parish bulletins, meeting minutes, or other documentation posted on the parish web site. Persons who wish their name or contact information to be excluded from the web site shall contact the Webmaster. The Webmaster will scan all information and delete any references to these names before posting new information.
Security
The parish owns the Holy Redeemer web site. The Pastoral Council appoints the person responsible for posting information to the Web (the Webmaster) on an annual basis. This person shall maintain a password for access to the web site and a copy of the password shall be provided to the pastor and kept in the parish safe for security. The Webmaster shall maintain a backup for the web site using alternate storage media such as hard drives, CD or floppy disk.
The Webmaster shall create and maintain a document describing how to maintain the web site. The email address of contact persons shall not appear on the web page, in order to reduce the incidence of Spam emails. Contact can be made using an email form and a forwarding service which directs the inquiry to the appropriate person's email address.
Content
The Webmaster maintains the parish web site, augmenting and extending it as required, subject to the guidelines in this document and the parish Web site committee. The pastor has ultimate authority for what information can appear on the web site.
The web site shall be updated frequently with updated information from its sources. The date when the page was last updated shall appear to inform viewers of the currency of the information. Extra pages can announce annual or special events. Statistics for determining how often pages were accessed shall be available to the Pastoral Council.
Information which should not appear includes topics which are not Roman Catholic, not faithful to the Magisterium, or have no connection with the parish.
The design of the Web pages shall be congruent with its content, avoiding flashing or gimmicky images.
Each Parish Ministry may have its own web page, for use by its members and/or others. Examples of information which may be useful are: new guidelines for lectors, explanations of changes to the liturgy, etc.
A short biography and photo of clergy, including those who are studying at St. Paul's University, and staff is encouraged.