Suggestions for the Veritas website

Ok. Here are my suggestions for the Veritas website.

The Veritas website currently:

Pros:

• The website provides a comprehensive list of parishes, communities, and organizations (etc.)
• The search engine is working well
• Most of the links are usable

Cons:

• Nothing more that an online church directory.
• Some information is outdated.
• The presentation is staid and does not give a good impression.
• There is no central direction by the archdiocese.

Suggestions:

Step 1: Decide if you want Veritas to be the Official Website of the Catholic church here, or if it should just be the Official Online Church Directory of the Catholic church.

1) If you decide that the website should be an official website, then some money should be raised privately (if the church is not willing to invest in it) to hire a professional web design company, or some relevantly experienced person, to redesign the look of the website.

2) In this website, include some general information about the Catholic church in Singapore.

E.g.
- General information about the Catholic faith and Christianity in general.
- Information about the Catholic Church in Singapore, such as its structure, organisation, mission, activities, agencies, history, etc.
- Information about the RCIA programme, and more direct information about how and where to join.

-or-

3) It could be a simple front page that links to all the various websites of the Catholic church in Singapore.

In other words, if you want it to be a website , then make it a website that caters to the people who might want to view it - people interested in the Catholic Faith, non-Catholics and Catholics who are searching alike. This is a one-time process as it does not require major updating or maintenance subsequently.

The Church Directory function of the current Veritas can still be part of this website. If you decide that it should not be a website but only a Church Directory, then rename the website as an Official Church Directory.

Suggestions for the Church Directory part:

3) Coordinate with the team that publishes the church directory. Information from the publication can be updated to the website . Information will thus be at most one-year old. (This can be done by setting up a computer database)

4) Send out an annual or bi-annual email to all the emails on the database kindly asking for their cooperation in keeping the Online Church Directory up-to-date. Emails that are not replied to can then be considered unusable and should be removed.

These are just a few simple suggestions that I believe quite feasible and helpful. I don't see why they cannot be done if people believe in the usefulness and function of the Veritas website. Please share you comments and thoughts on the matter.

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Here are the previous posts related to the Veritas Website:

Websites of the Catholic Church in Singapore:

http://thresholdofhope.blogspot.com/2006/08/websites-of-catholic-church.html

Comparing the Veritas website:

http://thresholdofhope.blogspot.com/2006/07/comparethe-veritas-website.html

Some background:

I've been using the Veritas website every once in a while to check on addresses and contacts of churches and priests. More than once, the email or contact number of the priest I tried to contact was inaccurate. I also felt a lingering sense of embarrassment each time I visited. It's like walking past a very badly designed poster advertising the Catholic Church and wondering what kind of impression others would have when they walked by and saw it. (*Note: I really appreciate and honour the work the volunteers have put into the website, but this is a real and honest opinion). When Nicholas one day complained to me about the website, and I happened to see the St Mary's website, I decided to ask others to compare the websites and to garner their opinions.

I wanted to know if others were similarly embarrased as Nick and me, and to figure out what can be done about it. We felt that the fundamental problem was the inability of the church administration to see that there was a need to project a good "corporate image" to the general public. If other churches and other organisations could maintain a professional and informative website, why couldn't we? Part of the issue here was that the website was maintained by volunteers, and received no funding. This led to a discussion on why the church needs sometimes to pay for professional services. Volunteers ultimately cannot produce the same results that a dedicated professional can.

The Veritas discussion led to many lessons for me:

1. The local archdiocese does not believe that a professional "corporate image" is important. We should work to change this.
2. The local archdiocese does not want to invest in professional services as it still believes in the spirit of volunteerism. Laypeople should provide the willpower, direction, and funding to move in this direction if they believe in it.
   
3. It is not enough to complain on this blog. We need to make real changes by contacting people and doing something about it.
4. This blog has limited function and appeal. We should do something about it

Perhaps you may wish to reflect on these points as well.

Sincerely,
Chris