Entry #2

Dates: 6/17/19 -- 6/20/19
Activities: Database Cleanup, Website Design, Survey-Making, Inventory
Technical Information: ACS, WordPress, Divi Builder, SurveyMonkey, Google Docs
Reflection: The work atmosphere at the church is very relaxed, collaborative, energetic, productive. There are always church families or even some of the employees kids in the office, and the environment is lively. Also, doors are almost always open and conversation is present. With that being said it is very cooperative. The decisions are normally made by the person doing the work, but for questions for example I go to my supervisor. Also, when the executives are in the office they normally make decisions, but the employees already know what they have to work on and do their daily activities. However one thing I found interesting was that there was no outlined dress code. When I got the internship however, I was told to dress business casual. Also, since this is a church environment it is understood to be modest but comfortable. The work ethic is productive more so in the morning than after lunch time, but it is very relaxed and cooperative. I feel like this work atmosphere is definitely one that I can see myself working in in the future.

Day-By-Day:
On June 17th, I made the homepage for the website on WordPress. It was pretty easy with the Divi Builder, because I could insert the modules I wanted where I wanted them. I had trouble creating a button on an image for the "I'm New" page, so we had to do some HTML for that. Then, we learned the run-down of ACS, which is a church database system that the church uses, and it houses over 14,000 records. We learned how to do a search of the records, and set criteria for it, which we can then turn into a Google spreadsheet of what does or does not meet that criteria. We used it to find who does not have a primary campus on ACS, which we could then go in and do what we need to do to determine their primary campus. Also we identified and merged duplicate records, and flagged odd names. This was tedious and sometimes time-consuming, but I actually enjoyed it.
On June 18th, there was a staff meeting in the morning, which I was not required to go to, so we worked on making the Worship Blog page perfect, so we can duplicate it for the other pages we need: Connect, Involve, and Invest. After we made these pages, we started customizing each one with its respective menus, and made all the pages look pretty with sliding images. It was really fun, and I like website designing more than I thought I would.
On June 19th, I went to a college essay writing class at SAS, so I was not in the office, but checked in with my co-workers to continue to be up to speed.
On June 20th, I worked with the other intern on creating a survey for the congregation about the church's communication techniques. We used a website called SurveyMonkey, and it was very easy to use. We came up with questions to ask them and created the survey for our supervisor. Then we merged duplicates on the ACS database, which lowered the number of records total. Now that we are getting more in depth into our two goals for the summer, I am getting more excited!

Entry #1

Dates: 6/10/19 -- 6/13/19

Activities: Website Re-Organization, Installing Software

Technical Information: WordPress, Divi Builder

Reflection: This summer, I am working as an intern at Apex United Methodist Church. This organization is a non-profit religious one, so the things I come in contact with won't be like many businesses. I am assigned two main tasks to help the employees of the church, and help those who are new to the church. I will be doing a lot of internal work on the website, which is visited most frequently by visitors or potential members of the church. I will be making the site easier and more concise so they get the information they need without the hassle. My other big task is database clean-up, and dealing with approximately 14,000 records. This will help all the employees of the church when trying to find the information they need, to make sure it's accurate and up-to-date. The church office is set up in a relatively flat structure, in a way that I will be reporting to the Communications Director, who reports to the Church Lead Pastor who is an executive. But, sometimes when certain people are out of the office or on vacation for instance, I report to the Youth Ministry Team. I am very excited for these tasks of website re-design and database clean-up, to help the church with their business-like but yet unique functions. 

Day-By-Day

June 10th was my first day, and I started with installing some software on my laptop; which I'll be using everyday. Then we started looking into the website and what we could change with it, until I ate lunch with my co-workers and supervisor. Then, we did inventory on bandanas we have, and what we need to order for a future mission trip. It was not as scary as the stereotypical first days are, in fact it made me excited for my progress and growth this summer. 

On June 11th, I got to sit in on a staff meeting, which was really interesting for finding out how a business meeting runs, and how important teamwork and communication is in every business. I then downloaded WordPress, which is the software we use to edit the website, and was given a campus tour. Then I got a basic run-down tutorial of the Divi Builder in WordPress, which we've used for our previous pages. We also set up sticky notes on the whiteboard, to organize our thoughts and get a basic plan for the new website in visual form. It was very fun and collaborative.

On June 12th, we really started getting in depth with the website redesigning and finding out how we can filter certain pages on the site by categories like gender, age, etc. We also started making blog posts for each group the church has in the ministry directory. This is so we can put all those posts on one Worship Blog to have the info all in one place. 

On June 13th, we finished making all the blog posts for the groups which took a big chunk of time, and designed a final plan for the "I'm New" page and Home Page. It was really interesting to work on the website that the whole church will visit, and I enjoy continuing next week (since we don't work on Friday's!)