The member area is the face of Elvanto that most people in your church will see. Setting up the member area well will ensure your volunteers get the most out of Elvanto.
The great thing about Elvanto is you do not have to release it to everyone all at once. Keep that in mind when it comes to setting up the member area. You can start off simple and always add more later.
Access To Information
Your volunteers access information non-admin related information through the member area. What and how much they see is up to you!
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.
Limiting Access
You restrict access to each of these areas by changing a person’s Access Permissions.
Refresh yourself on how to manage Access Permissions at this page.
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.
Customization
You can tailor the member area to better match the needs and personality of your system’s users. Here’s how:
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.
Aesthetics
You can change the looks of your member area for both the mobile and desktop sites.
Learn how to do so at this link.
Still want more?
There’s still tons more stuff to change and play around with. See all the ways you can customize Elvanto at this link.
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.
Posts vs Pages
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.