One of the sessions I attended at the General Board Meeting in Tampa was chaired by the Chief Information Officer (CIO)Clement Fugh. Dr. Fugh unvieled the new official website for the AMEC. The URL is www.ame-church.com I have visited the site twice since last Monday and I can report that considerable work has been expended in improving this product over the current lameduck alternative. Dr. Fugh and his staff should be commended for creative content upgrades and incorporating record reporting features which hopefully will lead to a more reliable indcator about the membership total throughout our Connection.

Challenges, however, remain before the new website can deliver on its cornucopia of promises. First, all churches must be equipped with the basic computer hardware and software to benefit from the online membership and financial reporting forms. I asked Dr. Fugh does he or anyone know how many of our churches are online but no one knew the answer to this fundamental question. This is no easy task considering a significant digital divide exists throughout the 19 Episcopal Districts. Second, all Districts need a seperate website. Currently only about a half-dozen of our Districts are online and all are not from overseas. The absence of my District having a website remains an embarrassment (yet folks proudly proclaim we are the "electrifying eleventh"). Third, Bishops and P.E.'s must be trained in order to make this work. This means if any Bishop/PE and I mean ANY, are reluctant to comply with the digital objectives promulgated by Fugh's office he or she should respectfully resign from their position or if need be, terminated from thier position. This may appear on the surface somewhat stern but if we are serious and sincere about the work needed to promote efficiency such draconian measures are needed. We have reached a critical point in our history where it is simply too expensive to allow derelection to infiltrate the House of God. I strongly believe this requirement should be openly debated and presented as proposed legislation at the 2004 Gen Con. Fourth and finally, adequate resources must be appropriated to fund this initiative as a recurring expense. I recall Alton Paris once mentioning that NO funds were appropriated for website development in the budget adopted at the 2000 Gen Con. If no funds were appropriated how can Fugh's office fulfill its mission for 2002-2004?? Many of us "techies" and closet "geeks" on this BB know that the success of any website requires timely updates. If someone is not updating the site it becomes of little use, except for occassional visitor curiosity, to regular visitors.

Quite honestly, I am curious whether the new AME website will develop a partnership with Rev. John Fisher. It is no news that The AME Today is the undisputed leader in our Zion when it comes to content creativity, dissimenating information and allowing "airtime" for folks like me to yak and occasionally pontificate about topics. This interactive feature fosters inclusiveness and compliments the ideal about "Connection". I would recommend that Dr. Fugh and his staff look to Rev. Fisher, Alton Paris and Chuck Embry as allies in helping to reach the goal of AME digital inclusion. And, in case anyone is silently speculating, Rev. Fisher did not pay me to make this point (LOL) QED

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2002

Answers

Rev. Paris did not make any payments eitherr but I was glad to be included in such outstanding company.

Blessings, Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2002

Dear Professor Dickens Thank You for your report. Unable to be in that meeting I agree with you on the comments of delivery. I hope the electricfying eleventh will move forward as all of our Districts should. I agree Rev. Fisher should be included in any consensus type project to grow this important plank of the Church. God Bless You for your observations and insight. Thank You QED

Blessings to you all

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

I am thrilled that our new website is in partnership with the American Bible Society and it was great to read about our long history with the ABS. The American Bible Society hosts FORMINISTRY.COM a free online web site for churches in North America and Canada. Churches can obtain a free web site by going to www.forministry.com. My church has used them for almost a year and they offer free tech support. The AME official website looks great!!! I hope we will thank Dr. Fugh for his hard work and those who have assisted him. By the way the CME church official website is hosted by the American Bible Society. I know several years ago the CME church made getting computers into their churches a priority and actively seeked grants and computers from companies such as microsoft, etc. Nothing could ever take the place of AME-TODAY and Rev. Fisher's site gets stronger and stronger all the time. And in terms of learning about software that can be done at our district meetings. We will still have to be creative in finding ways that our church family in Africa can also participate. Using the computers at universities in the various countries might be one way to do this. This will also allow young people to feel a part of the church.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

It's me again. I just looked at the software requirements that are needed to file reports. One has to have office 2000 or XP. I do not know how many people have upgraded to those systems. They are still pretty expensive. I have XP and it is great for charts and powerpoint but I am not sure the majority of people have that system. I would bet the majority have 95 or windows 98. But God always makes a way and the good news is that we have an official website again.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

Denise's last post warrants additional comment. When I recieved the CD last Monday I too was somewhat concerned about the configuration requirements. As Denise correctly observes, most individuals and organizations have not upgraded to XP as a basic operating system. Migration to the new AMEC reporting features will be significantly hindered if this feature is not flexible to accomodate the "downstream versions" of Windows 95/98. Also, the software requirements appears to exclude Mac users. Most of us who are tech- savvy know that operating systems are not defined exclusively to Windows. Some of us work in Mac and Linnux platforms which are more than suitable alternatives to Windows. Again, migration will be hindered if different platforms can't be made malleable. Finally, the hardware requirements are generally "top-shelf". The preferred processor is a Pentium IV and a 20 Gig Hard Drive. I hope these hardware requirements are not etched in stone because like the software requirements mentioned earlier this may pose a problem since a significant number of pc users who made initial purchases in 1998- 2000 would not meet these standards. Lower-shelf versions ought not be discarded for generally expensive upgrades because this can represent a considerable financial burden for smaller congregations. Please understand that these observations are not intended to serve as subterfuge against Dr. Fugh's efforts. If I am to be a servant of Christ and a responsible public intellectual, to not make such comments would be evidence of dereliction of duty on my part. I am only interested in seeing a polished product which reaches the masses. I know from personal experience that successful platform migration must take into account the issues expressed above. QED

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

Hi, Bill I also wrote Dr. Fugh with my observations about the new system and I also congratulated him for his hard work. The american Bible society has just upgraded it's hosting system and I would not be surprised if the American Bible Society will come up with solutions for windows 95 and 98. I hope they will also be able to include mac and linux. Actually linux would be better for denominational record keeping for it is a far better system. I have the professional XP and it retails for about ($249.00)the software was given to me for our church. God is so good!! But again unless churches are networking a lot of computers some pastors and churches may wait on XP. By the way it still has some bugs;-) It is apparent that Dr. Fugh and his staff have made our website a priority and I am confident that in the upcoming months things will be worked out. It is so awesome that we have a professional web site. And brother Bill and my friends I am not a techie!!! I have a wonderful friend who is a computer consultant who teaches me what i need to know so that I can effectively use the computer to do God's work. I do hope everyone will write Dr. Fugh and thank him and let's also offer him our help if he needs it.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

Professor Dickens:

Since it seems you have some much time on your hnad to do a website. I am sure Bishop and Dr. Dolly would love for you to do a site for the Eleventh District. Lets not talk about what the Eleventh does not have if you are not trying to make a difference in making it happen. Their are plenty of talented people right there in Tallahassee with you in Bethel church who would assist you in your endeavors. So lets stop talking about it and lets get the website up.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

Brother Forbes:

Many thanks for your candid observations. Suffice it to say, I am not a thinned-skinned person since critical comments directed at me are but a small price for public opinion. Unfortunately, your comments are devoid of important facts. I approached both Bishop Frank Cummins in 1998 and Bishop Adams in 2001 about establishing an Episcopal website for my District. I volunteered my time to help coordinate the effort but neither Prelate expressed any interest. I have held personal discussions with several prominent clergy in the 11th about our digital exclusion and ALL agree with my assessment but realize that the effort must come from the Office of the Bishop. I helped form the website at my local church along with other Bethel members in 1997. The Florida Conference Lay, which I am a member, launced its website TWO years ago. It is functional and provides a model for what the Episcopal Office can do. My work at thel local level speaks for itself as it pertains to this issue. I would encourage you to contact the Conference and District Lay Presidents where I live to get additional insight. Developing a website is not exactly the intellectual equivalent of comprehending the Hisenberg Principle, but many of us who are technically-challenged resist out of sheer fear and complacency. Failure to adapt to change will result in either extinction or irrelevance or both. In the meantime, I will continue to do my part, even while time-constrained. QED

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

This question is for Bill or anyone else who has the answer or some thoughts. I know there are Christian Education Superintendents who read this board, I was wondering if any churches are incorporating computer classes, web design etc in their Christian Education offerings? Our church will be starting an on line mentoring program with Paul Quinn college for our black athletes at Montana State University and that program will be under the auspices of our Christian Education Department and my daughter who is our superintendent will over see this endeavor. So I was wondering what christian education Superintendents or sunday school teachers were doing to include computer education as a resource for biblical scholarship, studies etc. Thanks

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

For those who are concerned about the software/hardware mecessary to access the new AME Website, have no fear: The advantage of Internet Based applications is that they are pretty much indepedent of the Operating System, that is Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP or Linux/Unix/Etc. Some applications are Browser-specific, that is Netscape/Internet Explorer/Opera/etc. It would be incredible for one to design an interactive web site that did not consider all of the popular Operating Systems and Browser combinations. Some older machines may not be able to run the JAVA/etc. bells and whistles but still be able to utilize the site. Basically, you, the customer will determine the compatibility issues. If the customer can't access and use the site, it will have to adapt. Blessings, Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002