Welcome to the Member Area of Elvanto - the hub where your church community comes together digitally. The Member Area is not just a tool; it’s a virtual extension of your church, where information flows seamlessly, and your congregation connects beyond physical boundaries. This guide will walk you through setting up and optimizing the Member Area, ensuring it becomes a vital and enriching part of your church's life. Remember, the beauty of Elvanto lies in its flexibility – start simple, and expand as your community grows and evolves.
Access To Information
The Member Area is a central space for information for church members, volunteers, and staff. As an admin, you can control what information is visible to whom at any time. It's advisable to start with understanding and setting up Access Permissions to control access to both the Admin and Member areas.
Editing Access Permissions
To edit Access Permissions, go to 'Settings', select 'Access Permissions', and choose an existing permission set or create a new one. The permissions dictate what users can see and do both in the Admin and Member areas.
Learn more about Assign Access Permissions To A User.
Layout Editor
The Layout Editor allows you to customize what members see when they log into the Member Area. You can adjust the structure of the Member Area by selecting the 'Menu Editor' in the 'Layouts' section under 'Settings'. Remember, the visibility of certain menu items is dependent on the user's access permissions. Learn more about Customize Your Layout.
Calendar
The Calendar page lists upcoming church events. Provided the volunteer has the appropriate access permissions, events, services and groups you’ve decided to share on the Member Calendar will appear on this calendar.
Member Directory
The Member Directory is pretty self-explanatory. It allows people in your church to look up the details of other people in your church, and has a number of settings and configuration options.
Songs
Songs is most useful for your musicians. It allows them to look up songs, and any related files. For the sake of keeping your CCLI costs down (every copy counts!), we recommend restricting access to this feature.
Guest Users
By default, people can see some posts and pages without logging in. To change this, restrict their access in Settings.
Learn how to restrict guest access at this page.
Sidebar Widgets
Sidebar widgets give easy and instant access to things your volunteers might want to see on the home page – your Twitter updates, for example.
Learn how to insert sidebar widgets by visiting this page.
Posts and Pages
Posts and Pages are the main ways to communicate with people in your member area.
Some Posts and Pages are worth setting up before anyone else gets access to your system. For example, a welcome post to greet new users, or an ‘About’ page to give some quick info on how your user’s are expected to use your Elvanto.
How to Insert Files into Posts, Pages and Emails
The main difference between Posts and Pages is how urgent the information is. Posts are visible right away, whenever the user enters the member area. Pages, however, are fixed. This means that they aren’t always immediately visible, but people are able to find them whenever they need to.
For example, a cancelation of a meeting is best done by a Post; however, handy tips about evangelism are best delivered by a Page.