By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent

Web site keeps members informed

HUDSON -- The St. Patrick Knights of Columbus Council 1762 has established a Web page that is thorough even from an Internet geek's perspective -- and it saves the local council newsletter money, to boot.

For about five years the site has had as webmaster Dave Bogenhagen, an energetic Knight in his 40s who never has been one to do anything halfway. That is shown by the fact he used to be a world class player of disc sports.

There is even a Web site overview page that explains on one view everything you'll find if you simply start clicking. An icon called "annual events" gives details about those of the dozens of events that are most popular, although information about the others is also readily available. Knights can keep up to speed with activities such as the annual free throw contest, Relay For Life cancer fund-raiser and the yearly Christmas party. Flyers are posted online and go back about a year.

"I update it every couple or three months," Bogenhagen said. "It just depends on how many things are going on."

Old content that is removed is placed into an archive. Some items are archived back to 1995, or even 1992. There are 60 events listed, with additional links to many of them. Links also are provided to e-mail address for virtually all the council's officers.

There is a direct link to the the St. Patrick Parish site by clicking on a photo of the church. The history of the council, established in 1914, is included, as well as reports from the grand knights.

The St. Patrick council is part of an extensive adopt-a-highway program in the town of Hudson, east of the city in a busy almost-urban stretch where state Highway 12 meets county Highway A. The Web site allows members keep updated on cleanup activities -- and report favorite details, some tongue-in-cheek, such as Bogenhagen's doctored photograph of a trash heap.

"It shows how much garbage we pick up," he said with a laugh. "It was a sizable pile," but was made to appear two or three times bigger.

The council has more than 200 members. It would cost a lot of money to mail them all the council newsletter, so Bogenhagen uses a separate, automated program that requires only ten minutes of his time to post it to the site. He calls this the "heart" of the Web site, and points out that it saves the council operating expenses, which translates to greater support of charities.

Users need a password to access the newsletter, and it is protected with something termed "the vault." Also available at this location is an entire membership roster with phone numbers and addresses, and e-mail links to other things.

One of the items that's also a part of the effort is an online "calling tree" where council members are notified of things such as deaths of people close to them, given updates, and then can take the next step.

There is a worker information section, where people can choose their preferred forms of volunteerism -- say selecting service at a brunch No. 1, or at a fish fry No. 3. This is used to notify schedulers of their preference of time.

"We made a pretty strong leap into the Internet," Bogenhagen said, noting that other related links include the Knights of Columbus Web Ring, which features 500 councils, some of them with a Web presence. This allows local browsers to view sites of other Knights' councils.

Editor's note: The St. Patrick Knights of Columbus Web site is www.spacestar.com/users/hudsonkc/index.html.

Use the link "e-mail webmaster" to contact Bogenhagen if you have any Web site suggestions, questions, or to a request for a broadcast message.

< Local Archives

© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004