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Brian
Miller and his company continue to
provide hosting and technical support for this site and many others,
including more than a few Reconstructionist congregations
and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Brian also does the "heavy
lifting" such as installing our Forum feature and our new online
payments system.
Late in
1998, an almost new member, I became "webkeeper". I have since created more than
20 other sites:
one for a hard
money lender, but mainly for not-for-profit organizations and on Jewish
themes such as the remembrance of a
vanished shtetl and
on Cleveland's renowned
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver.
In 1999 I had the pleasure of building a new website for JRF and then
maintained and grew it for nearly four years.
Now
named Kol
HaLev, in those eight years we have grown to 120 member
families. This site has also grown and now has about 200 pages and
nearly 800 images and documents. We are one of Northern Ohio's smaller
congregations, but our web site is
perhaps the largest.
You may
ask "How did such a small shul come to have such a large website?"
Yes, maintaining these pages has been a pleasure and a high
personal priority. And our membership has always been web-savvy
—
98
percent now use the web. But in my view, its growth is the result of two
unwritten, long-held community-building policies:
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Our site should be a resource for
participation and governance.
Because we value sharing information, our site
makes available important documents such as our Bylaws,
policies such as Bar/Bat Mitzvah and the Role of the Non-Jew, lists of officers and committees, "How to Host a Kiddush", the structure of Shabbat services
and much more. These pages are kept current, especially our calendar.
To help prospective members learn about us, more than 90 percent of our
pages are public (open to all visitors).
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These pages should be a way to share our history.
Our site does this
through a visual record of community events and personal celebrations.
As an example, see the section which celebrates the dedication of
our Sefer Torah and helps members
old and new experience that wonderful time. These image-rich pages are
our "electronic
refrigerator." If looking at some of them gives you a warm feeling,
like seeing a friend's refrigerator covered with family photos, then they
have served their purpose.
Does anyone visit
these pages? We receive more than 1,000 visitors a week! Many of them
are attracted to our Gems pages, some to
our Links and What is Reconstructionism pages that are linked to from
other Reconstructionist websites.
Thank you for
visiting www.kolhalev.net.
Arnie Berger,
webkeeper
December 29, 2006 Arnie AT shakersquare DOT net
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