Each Thrivent Financial for Lutherans chapter has a customizable Web site in Lutherans Online (www.lutheransonline.com), which can be viewed by anyone with Internet access. Chapters must have their Web sites on Lutherans Online, and leaders can update the site any time at no cost.

Read more details about the Web site below, including benefits, guidelines, procedures, hints, tips and more:

• Benefits of chapter Web sites.
• Why chapter Web sites must be on Lutherans Online.
• Finding your chapter Web site.
• Selecting a primary administrator.
• Selecting a contact person.
• Adding/removing administrative privileges.
• Web site content/design tips.
• Removing outdated chapter mailings.
• Adding content feeds.
• Adding Chapter Leaders Display content feed.
• Developing online forms.
• Chat function.
• Promoting your chapter Web site.
• Getting help with technical questions and editing.

IMPORTANT: Respect member privacy
There are privacy guidelines in CHIP that you need to follow as you customize and update your chapter Web site. Please read these guidelines carefully.

For Chapter Web site guidelines, getting started information and additional information on setting up your chapter Web site, log on to Lutherans Online and click on Online Help, which is located on the left navigation bar, then click on Web Site Publishing. Review the Chapter Web site guidelines very carefully before working on your site (e.g., to find guidelines about using photos, getting consent to use photos, etc.).

Top Of Page

Benefits of chapter Web sites
Chapter leaders can:

• Publicize upcoming chapter activities including chapter meetings. (If cohosting an activity with another organization, link to its site and vice versa.)
• Recognize volunteers who have gone the extra mile.
• Share what the chapter has been up to by posting photos and stories from past activities.
• Keep members informed of chapter activities, such as meetings, Care program activities and any locally supported activities, by posting dates, times and other details on your Web site.
• Communicate the names of chapter leaders and how to contact them. (Tips for doing this)
• Learn what’s on members’ minds by holding online chat sessions.
• Hold online meetings of the chapter leadership board.

Chapters don't have to create a site from scratch—a basic shell of each chapter's Web site already is available. Chapter leaders need to enhance and build on it. The shell includes basic and proper information about Thrivent Financial and its chapters, the correct representation and appearance of our logo, and suggested categories that chapters can customize such as "Meet our Chapter Leaders," "Upcoming Important Dates" and "About Our Chapter."

In addition, content feeds are available that allow you to post information that automatically gets updated, such as content for the "Meet our Chapter Leaders" page.

Top Of Page

Why chapter Web sites must be on Lutherans Online
Chapters need to use Lutherans Online to create and host their Web sites because:

• It's free and there's space for chapters to expand their Web sites if needed.
• It includes a template that follows legal and brand compliance guidelines.
• Assistance is available through the Lutherans Online Help Desk.
• Chapter sites are within a community of other chapter Web sites and receive equal exposure.
• Web sites are consistent.
• Services are continually added and improvements made to the template, interfaces and processes.
• Thrivent Financial regional financial offices (RFOs) have Web sites that provide links to chapter or other sites within Lutherans Online.
• Lutherans Online has no outside advertisers. Other Web sites are at the mercy of the hosting company and what they want to advertise, so there could be pop-up or banner ads for goods or services that may be offensive to our members, prospects, volunteers and others.

Top Of Page

Finding your chapter Web site
To see your chapter's Web site, go to www.lutheransonline.com/(official name of your chapter)chapter (e.g., hartfordcountychapter) OR follow the directions below:

1. Go to www.lutheransonline.com.
2. In the Channels navigation bar near the top of your screen, click Chapters/RFO. A map of the United States will appear on your screen.
3. Click on the area on the map where you live. Your Thrivent Financial regional financial office’s (RFO) Web site will appear on your screen. This site will include a list of chapter Web sites within your region.
4. Click on your chapter’s Web site.

Top Of Page

Selecting a primary administrator
While all chapter leaders are considered “administrators” of the site, which means they are authorized to make changes, one chapter leader should be responsible for adding content and updating the site on an ongoing basis. The time required of this person will depend on the amount of information and detail added to the site. If your chapter has an Internet advisor, he/she may be the logical choice for administrator. If not, decide as a group who on the chapter leadership board can take on this responsibility. See "Adding/removing administrative privileges" below for details on how to update your chapter's administrative privileges.

Top Of Page

Selecting a contact person
The records director automatically is the contact person for the site. This means he/she will receive e-mail messages from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans notifying the chapter of changes made to the site and other site-related communications. The contact person can be changed at any time. Again, your chapter may decide that your Internet advisor (if your chapter has one) is the logical contact person. Any chapter leader can change the contact person by following the steps provided in "Adding/removing administrative privileges" below.

Top Of Page

Adding/removing administrative privileges

• If your chapter leadership board has any new leaders this year, you will need to update the "Meet our Chapter Leaders" section.


• If any new chapter leaders need administrative privileges, authorizing them to make changes to the site, they should:

1. Complete the registration process for Lutherans Online if they haven’t already. However, if they are registered for Members/Chapters area on thrivent.com, their Members/Chapters User Name and Password also gives them access to Lutherans Online, which is where the chapter Web site is located.



2. Change their privacy preferences to allow the current chapter Web site administrator(s) to add them as an administrator to the site:
   
   
   1. Access www.lutheransonline.com.
   2. Click Login in the left navigation bar and login.
   3. Click Manage my Profile in the left navigation bar.
   4. Click Web Site Profile.
   5. Under Privacy Preferences, click Click to add name.
   6. Click Done at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
3. Send an e-mail to the current chapter Web site administrator to request access to the site. If they do not know who the current administrator is, they can click on the Feedback link on the chapter Web site, type their request on the form and click Submit.

1. Access lutheransonline.com.
2. Click Login in the left navigation bar and login.
3. Click My Site in the left navigation bar to bring up the chapter Web site.
4. Click the Web Site Manager button.
5. Click Manage Participants.
6. Type in the new user’s name in the first name and last name fields.
7. Click Search for Users.
8. In the section below that, find the person’s name and click Add to the left of it. This user now is a participant on the chapter Web site.
9. Click Done at the bottom of the screen.
10. Click Manage Administrative Roles to see a list of all current participants and administrators for the site. Administrative privileges can be added or removed from this page.
11. Click Done.

Top Of Page

Web site content/design tips

• When listing upcoming activities, include name and date of the activity, description of the activity, name of the recipient (if recipient provides permission), a contact person and phone number or e-mail, and a description of how members can help, including time commitment.
• Invite all members to chapter meetings and include the date, time and location of the meetings.
• Include an online activity request form.
• Use the whole page while leaving enough "white space" to make it easy for the eye to skim the page.
• In Lutherans Online, font sizes XS and S work well, which are similar to using font sizes 12 and 14 on your word processing software.
• Use black text on white or light color backgrounds. Consistent use of the color black for the font is preferred.
• Order of items/information should be logical (order of importance, frequency of use, alphabetical, etc.).
• Multiple levels of navigation are generally preferable to drop-down lists. However, drop-down lists can work in the overall design of your Web site.
• Font size and use should be consistent throughout the site.
• Italics are hard to read online.
• Use bold sparingly.
• Blinking text or elements are hard on the reader’s eyes.
• Use bulleted lists.
• Minimize scrolling.
• Because color is usually a cue for a label or link, avoid colored text for emphasis.
• Reading online is more difficult than on paper. Make sentences direct and short.
• Write in short chunks, using active writing style.
• Keep information current. Remove items that no longer are relevant.
• Get permission and provide credit when using another’s material or code.
• Align to the left. Do not center elements other than headings and titles.
• Eliminate unnecessary words and phrases.
• Spaces between letters (e.g., E X A M P L E) shouldn’t be used.
• When creating links to documents or forms found on another Web site, be sure to link to the original instead of copying the form to your site. Copied content is not updated when the original form changes, which could cause compliance issues.
• Avoid linking to unfinished pages or sites. Always get permission from the Web site administrator of the site where you wish to link.

Top Of Page

Removing outdated chapter mailings
When your chapter sends a newsletter to its members via the Chapter Mailing Service, the newsletter is automatically posted to your chapter's Web site. If you only want the current year's newsletters to display:

1. Go to www.lutheransonline.com and click Login on the left navigation bar.
2. Enter your login information and click Login.
3. Click My Site on the left navigation bar to go to your Web site.
4. Click on the Chapter Newsletters link to get to that page.
5. Click Edit Page.
6. Scroll down to the list of newsletters.
7. Click on the link titled Link to which Chapter Newsletters?
8. Click on All current year Chapter Newsletters to move this to the "Newsletters already selected:" column.
9. Click Done and your Web site will display this year's newsletters only.

Note: Any chapter leader can delete individual newsletters via the Chapter Mailing Service. From the Chapter Leadership Administration Menu page, click on Add/Update/View/Delete Chapter Newsletters to get to the Manage Chapter Newsletters page. Simply click on Delete for those newsletters you'd like to remove from your chapter Web site page.

Top Of Page

Adding content feeds
Content feeds are predeveloped postings (by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans) that you can add to your site. These postings are updated automatically as the information changes—no updating by you is necessary after you add it to the Web site.

We have a variety of content feeds to choose from, including a poll, mini-calendar, and daily Bible verses and prayers. Three content feeds you may find helpful to include on your chapter Web site are links to Chapter Leader Display, Member Activity Highlights, and Thrivent Financial news releases:

• Chapter Leader Display: This creates a list of all your chapter leaders, Thrivent Builds chapter specialists and advisor, as well as their phone number and e-mail address on record with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. We encourage chapters to use this content feed on the "Meet our Chapter Leaders" page of the chapter Web site. See "Adding a Chapter Leader Display content feed" below for complete details.
  
  
• Member Activity Highlights: This creates a new posting on your page where visitors can enter their ZIP code and get Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Member Activity Highlights statistics by region, state or chapter from the previous year. This content feed would be excellent addition to the "About Our Chapter" page on your Web site or to the home page.
  
  
• Thrivent Financial News: This displays links to the five most recent Thrivent Financial for Lutherans news releases posted on thrivent.com. This content feed would be excellent addition to the "About Our Chapter" page on your Web site or to the home page.

To add a content feed to your site:

1. Go to www.lutheransonline.com and click Login in the left navigation bar.
2. Enter your login information and click Login.
3. Click on My Site on the left navigation bar to go to your Web site.
4. Go to the page on your Web site where you'd like to add a content feed.
5. Click Edit Page.
6. Decide where you would like to insert a content feed, then click Click to Insert a New Posting Here!
7. Click Next Set in the lower-right corner.
8. Choose the single Content Feed posting type.
9. Add a posting name (this step is optional).
10. Click Continue.
11. Scroll to your newly-created posting and click Format Content Feed.
12. Choose a content feed from the list on the left (e.g., for chapter leader information, click "Chapter Leaders Display").
13. Click Done.

Top Of Page

Adding Chapter Leader Display content feed
Your chapter may add a "Chapter Leader Display" content feed to the "Meet our Chapter Leaders" page of your chapter Web site.

• This will automatically post all your chapter leaders, Thrivent Builds chapter specialists and advisors — providing each leader's name, phone number and e-mail address on record with Thrivent Financial.
• The contact information listed is pulled from the records we have on our online system. If information is incorrect, we ask chapter leaders to correct the information online or contact the Fraternal Service Center.
• After the posting (content feed) is added to your chapter Web site, it is updated nightly to agree with the records on our online system. Therefore, if a change in leadership or a change in a leader's contact information was made to our online system, this will be reflected on the chapter Web site by the next business day.
• The posting cannot be edited (e.g., to take a chapter leader's e-mail address off the list). If your chapter would like to customize this page, the content feed needs to be deleted and the Web site administrator can post the information the chapter wants on the page.

For easy instructions on how to add this content feed, click on the following link: Instructions for adding Chapter Leader Display content feed

It's important that chapter members can easily find who their chapter leaders are and how to contact them. Therefore, chapter Web sites need to have up-to-date information about the chapter leadership board. If contact information is missing or outdated, members may give up trying to contact the chapter, which could be a missed opportunity for the chapter, for the member, and more importantly for the volunteer activity that could benefit from Care Abounds in Communities® funding.

Because of this, please note that Thrivent Financial will manually add this content feed to chapter Web sites that have no information or outdated information in the "Meet our Chapter Leaders" page.

Top Of Page

Developing online forms
You may develop as many online forms (e.g., activity requests, "help wanted" or "volunteers needed" pages, surveys, sign-up forms for indicating interest in a leadership board position, etc.) as you'd like on your chapter Web site. To do this, create a new page and choose the "Online Form" option.

Help is available by clicking on Online Help > Web Site Publishing > Editing Your Site > Publishing Site > Online Forms. For an example of forms, visit www.lutheransonline.com/rfo270 and click on the bottom two links (registration form and survey).

Top Of Page

Chat function
Using the chat function, your chapter can conduct chapter leadership board meetings, communicate with congregational coordinators, and more. For details about using Chat, click Online Help on the left navigation bar.

Top Of Page

Promoting your chapter Web site
Do members know about your site? If not, consider promoting the site in your next chapter newsletter mailing and suggest they bookmark the site as a "favorite" in their Web browser. There are two ways members can access your chapter Web site:

• Enter url address, which is: www.lutheransonline.com/officialchapternamechapter (e.g., hartfordcountychapter).

OR
• Follow these steps:
1. Visit lutheransonline.com.
2. Click Chapters/RFO in the upper top navigation bar titled Channels. A United States map appears.
3. Click on the area of the map where you live. This brings up your Thrivent Financial Regional Financial Office’s Fraternal Web site.
4. Click Chapter Web Sites.
5. Choose the appropriate chapter Web site. (When communicating to your members, list the chapter they need to choose.)

Top Of Page

Getting help with technical questions and editing
The Lutherans Online Help Desk is a great resource to use when you have technical questions or need help editing your Web site (e.g., adding a photo). You can reach them at 1-866-201-1522 on Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time. Or you can send them an e-mail at LOHELP@thrivent.com.