History of the Website

First we need to acknowledge Dave Seymour who maybe should be called the "Founding Father of the Horseheads United Methodist Website".

A little history of how our church website was born might be in order. Brad Smith had an idea years ago that it would be cool for some young people to help with a class room website for the 7Th and 8Th graders. Jake M. son of Wanda M. and Wayne M. was the inspiration as it is remembered. The student had his own site at the time and was able to give the advise to Brad.

The kick-off of the new church site was kind of cool. As time went on, it expanded and was approaching a respectable website. As it grew it became hard to manage and after a year or so it was shut down.

The idea of a church website died.... or did it?

A couple years later, Dave Seymour was encouraged by a committee to help bring it to life. Dave took on the task and formulated his ideas and made a written proposal back to the commitee. To do this, he listened to what went wrong the first time and put in place the necessary corrections. Then he added much more to bring about the good organized website that we have now. I think Dave would say that it was interesting and rewarding, but I can assure you it wasn't easy.

He pulled together what had to be done with equipment, connections, and a website host. He worked with a local consultant, Dave G., who was helping on a volunteer basis. They put the physical system together, much as it is today. Dave developed his vision and worked with a consultant on the "look" of the web page. Specifically the masthead, the menus, and the stain glass windows pick buttons that you see is that initial work.

Once the preliminary plan was in place he recruited 2 people to assist him in the site development and performing the weekly updates. That was another piece that was missing in the beginning and why the site closed down the first time. I can assure you that wasn't always easy either. The three had different ideas during the time of a new creation being developed from the ground up. Dave kept the development steady and balanced the energy and ideas of the others very effectively as the site came up into its own.

Back in the summer of 2006 the dedicated Laurna S. moved from the area. Many times David S. stepped forward to take an extra week or to take the heavier week so not to put more burden on the person left. A sign of a true leader.

Recently, Dave S. was reminded that he had lead the team for nearly 4 years and it is customary that a United Methodist leader leads for a 3 year term. Dave has now stepped down as leader in title, and continued to serve on the committee. Dave nominated Brad S. as the leader and within a week of thought, he accepted.

Brad was leader in title and Dave was the assistant. Both shared the work load keeping the webpage up to date with information. In 2008-2009 we experienced serious problems with the connection, equipment, and software. We were able to keep the webpage up and running with minor lapses of service. Eventually, with help of Larry C. stability of the system was maintained.

In November 2009 Dave S. gave notice that he would need to part ways because of a new church position that he is taking. He agreed to stay on through December of 2009.

Also in November Rev. Dorothy-Yorke requested that a section for "Small Groups" be developed for the site. A plan was hatched for Brad to develop this section, while Dave kept the normal updating progressing properly. With the "Dream Weaver for Dumbies" book going home often, Brad was able to develop the "Small Groups" area. Armed with new knowledge, Brad made a church bulletin board and other enhancemence of the website. We can call it the first major enhancement of the site from the original design.