What a council website is for
Two audiences, and they want different things:
- The parish and the public — men thinking of joining and families looking for an event. They need: when and where you meet, upcoming events, what the council does, who the officers are, and how to join or get in touch. On a phone, on the first screen.
- Your members — they need the things that are nobody else's business: the roster, minutes, documents, birthdays, announcements. Those belong behind a sign-in.
The three ways to get one
1. A general website builder
Quick to start and fine for a few public pages. What it will not do is the council's actual work: there is no members area worth the name, no service-hours tally, no idea of a fraternal year. It also tends to belong to whichever member set it up.
2. A page on the parish website
Free, and the parish already has the visitors. But the council rarely controls the page, updates wait on the parish office, and there is nowhere private for members.
3. A site built for councils
Made for the job: public pages and a members area, with the council's own structure built in. Compare on price per year, whether there is a per-member charge, who can edit it, and what happens to your records if you stop.
Whichever you choose
- Own the accounts as a council. Register the site and the domain to an office email that passes with the role, with at least two officers able to sign in.
- Keep the roster off the public internet. Names, phone numbers and addresses go behind a sign-in, or nowhere online at all.
- Put the meeting time on the front page. It is the first thing a prospective member looks for.
- Make it secure and phone-friendly. An https address and a page that fits a phone screen are the minimum now.
- Mind the Order's marks. The name and emblem belong to the Knights of Columbus; follow the Order's current guidance on using them.
- Decide who updates it. A site that only one man can edit stops being updated the year he steps down.
Have a site already? The site check-up tells you, in a minute, which of these it gets right.
Or let the site keep it for you
Knightly Sites is the third kind: a council site built for the job, with the public pages, a members area, service hours that feed Form 1728A and minutes drafted from a recording, for one price with no per-member charge. It is an independent product, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Order.
What a Knightly Sites council site does · Check the site you have now