Local Unit Website

I stumbled across this link referring to a local unit website, and I found some examples of units that have them. I am in the bishopric in my ward and have never heard of this and don't seem to have access to set one up. The link I attached refers to a beta program, but it also references stuff from 2020, so I'm wondering if there is an update on this program? And is there any way my ward can get involved?
This is the link for reference: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/sha ... t?lang=eng
Thank you!

Interesting. It's the first I've heard of this program. Interestingly, "local unit website" is a phrase from the first attempt to put units on the web over a decade ago.

Since this seems to be years old, I suspect the results of the pilot were not encouraging and the program was dropped. I've noticed before that the church website can have outdated pages.

I see two potential problems with the Local Unit Website. First, just putting up a webpage isn't enough. There needs to be a way of getting noticed and rated so the search engines will direct people to it.

Secondly, it's relying on the local units to come up with content. That's not trivial. A half-hearted effort will come off as such and can be a detrimental to the community's perception.

A couple of resources worth pointing out. In a letter dated January 12, 2023, titled "Local Search Listings for Meetinghouses", the church announced that they'd hired Yext to have stakes make sure the ward buildings were properly set up in places like Google maps. That will make the church come up when someone searches for "churches near me".

General Handbook 38.8.20 outlines what units can do on the web. This might include making a Facebook account. I'd think that would be a lot less effort to maintain then the webpage as well as being more "findable".

russellhltn wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 12:32 am A couple of resources worth pointing out. In a letter dated January 12, 2023, titled "Local Search Listings for Meetinghouses", the church announced that they'd hired Yext to have stakes make sure the ward buildings were properly set up in places like Google maps. That will make the church come up when someone searches for "churches near me".

Yext also pushes data to https://local.churchofjesuschrist.org/ which is a meetinghouse level thing, but fairly standardised. I'm wondering this new "local unit website" was part of what they were considering at the time.

Back in June I found that page and sent an email to webfeedback@ChurchofJesusChrist.org. I asked if they were happening. Here is the reply I received.
"Thank you for your feedback,
https://localunits.churchofjesuschrist.org
That is the link for the Local Unit Webpages."

So exploring that site is not easy, but you can login and then see that you haven't signed up for any events. That page has a link to sign up for some, and I end up seeing the "Sunday Worship Service Schedule" for a different ward in a nearby stake. I don't see any way to post anything.

I replied to the email asking if the focus was for public events people could come to, and never got a reply.

You might want to speak with your Stake Communications Director.

The church is rolling out web sites for every unit, one stake at a time. It will be managed by your Stake Communications Director and those called to assist.

trudielynn wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2024 11:39 am You might want to speak with your Stake Communications Director.

The church is rolling out web sites for every unit, one stake at a time. It will be managed by your Stake Communications Director and those called to assist.

Do you have anything "official" that this is a Church-wide effort? Over the years there have been different types of Church efforts to test out various things, and sometimes local leaders (even Area Leaders) have created instructional materials for an effort, that never ended up going beyond that. So it would be informative to know what you're basing your statement on, and if there's any general information that interested Forum members might be pointed to.

The page from the first post provides a FAQ and a video discussing the program (and the video has a bad URL at the end of it). It looks like it's something they're rolling out. I logged in and found the nearest activities to me were a few hundred miles away.

Several years ago the church got rid of local sites and seemed to give some units loose guidelines on setting things up for themselves outside of the church's URL. Based on the content units posted there, I don't think many people realized the home page was public and when anyone went to the meetinghouse search, they could click on a link and see the public home page for the unit.

It will be interesting to see what the church comes up with this time and what information will be there. It would be helpful just to know if a unit is having a stake conference. There have been several times when we were out of town and tried to go to church, only to find out that it was stake conference where we were visiting. I wonder if the events could creatively be used to help people be aware of language "groups" that don't appear on the map search.

Just note that some of the documents have a copyright date of 2021. The legal stuff at the bottom of the main page is dated September 2021.

That would make this a really slow roll-out even by church standards.

russellhltn wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:42 pm Just note that some of the documents have a copyright date of 2021. The legal stuff at the bottom of the main page is dated September 2021.

That would make this a really slow roll-out even by church standards.

Those are the latest dates for the Terms of Use and the Privacy Notice on the main Church website pages. Which makes them the "latest and greatest" as Internet standards go.

The PDF file love_share_invite was created February 2022.

So after two years I only see two units that are thousands of miles away.

The October 2024 Leadership training has posted this video about using the ward websites to share and invite https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... s?lang=eng I am not seeing any instruction on how we add items to the ward website. I can find our website for my ward, but I don't see any way to post events and activities that our youth are engaged in. I am a member of the Bishopric and not finding anything that provides me with information on this.

The screen shown at 0:29 is the calendar. A search turned up Activity Sharing on the Local Unit Web Page.

Roll out timelines:
Wards will receive information about when these features will be available in your area through your stake leaders. Stake leaders can contact area leadership to request access to Activity Sharing.

On the same page is links for training.

This underscores what I've been saying about the church calendar: it's primary function is for leaders to communicate events to the members. Yes, it does building scheduling too, but that's secondary. If one keeps that in mind, many of the questions about the calendar goes away. This takes it one step further and allows communicating events to the public.

How is a public member supposed to find the local unit website without having a direct link to it? The meetinghouse locator doesn't give you a link to it. (And if you remember the previous local unit website system of many years ago, the meetinghouse locator did take you to a link to the site.)

mevans wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:38 am How is a public member supposed to find the local unit website without having a direct link to it? The meetinghouse locator doesn't give you a link to it. (And if you remember the previous local unit website system of many years ago, the meetinghouse locator did take you to a link to the site.)

The real "customer" is the search engines. That way when someone searches for a specific activity near them, this will be one of the options presented.

Perhaps in time it will be added. It appears the various products go though a development cycle rather than immediate change. They may also be waiting to see if wards start using this or if it dies on the vine.

mevans wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:38 am How is a public member supposed to find the local unit website without having a direct link to it? The meetinghouse locator doesn't give you a link to it. (And if you remember the previous local unit website system of many years ago, the meetinghouse locator did take you to a link to the site.)

I found mine by searching my ward name in Google. It came in as the second result (but how high it's ranked in results will probably vary based on how unique your ward name is compared to other nearby businesses, neighborhoods, cities, etc.).