Relevant

Hibben's community  networking site, JomSocial, which is similar to Facebook, is only open to registered Hibben members. It is powered with the JomSocial application which  operates in conjunction with the Open Source Content Management System (CMS) software that we use on our Web site. You can register by clicking on the "Join Us Now" graphic on the JomSocial front page or on our Web site's Home page.  You will be asked to supply your name (please include your firstname and surname), a username (which can be anything you like!), email address and a password of your choosing. If you are already a registered member of hibbenumc.org, just skip the next paragraph. You only have to log-in to JomSocial using the same user name and password.

The website will send you an email to confirm your email address, once you acknowledge receipt of this email, your details will be passed to one of the website administrators who will check them against the church members list. When the administrator has validated your details against the members list, you will then be able to log in, thereby, providing access to the members only area and to the Community area. After your Hibben UMC membership is verified, you will be able to enjoy the following features. 

NOTE: Public viewing of Activity Streaming has been turned off. This prevents non-members from viewing the online activity of our members. You now must log-in to view member activity. Also, pay close attention to your privacy settings. JomSocial provides an array of privacy options. It is suggested that viewing of your profile be limited to members only. This allows you to provide more info in your profile.

Connect with other Hibben members/friends
Chatting with friends and making new ones is central to our JomSocial Community Network. Members can send private messages to anyone and connect amongst themselves at any time. Your actual email address is not shown in JomSocial.

How to Get Started

Once you have registered, ask other members to be your friend - To do this; 1) login; 2) Select View All Members; 3) Find the person(s) that you want to add as a friend, then click on Add as Friend. An email will be sent to this person requesting that they become your friend. If they accept, they will be added as a Friend; 4) If you don't find a particular person in the Member list, send them an invite to join the community. You can do this by clicking on the Friends tab and then select Invite Friends. Of course, you will have to know their email address. 

Once you have established your friends, you can easily communicate among yourselves by selecting the Inbox tab and then clicking on Write. You will then see the Compose form with all your friends' names listed on the right side. Just select which friend you want to communicate (chat) with and write your message. No email address is required.

After establishing your friends, you may want to create a Group and invite your friends to join. See info on Groups below. 

Create groups and manage them
Create unlimited special-interest groups with our JomSocial Community Network and manage them all easily. Add more members to your groups by inviting your Hibben friends and hide any group you wish with this application's unique Privacy Settings.  Our JomSocial Community GROUPS allow like-minded members within your community to build their own mini-communities, made up of members who share their same interests. JomSocial allows users to…

• Create and join groups.(e.g.-UMM, UMW, UMYF, Sunday School Classes, COM, etc)
• Create group discussion
• Post on group walls
• Group owner can publish news bulletin
• Admin can control group membership and access

Share photos
Creating photo albums to share with friends is as easy as 1-2-3! Get your friends to comment on your photos. The JomSocial Community Network administrator will delete the community photos deemed inappropriate. 

 Video Support
Jomsocial supports Youtube, Vimeo, and more videos.

Events Management
Easily manage your events with JomSocial's Event Manager. Set an event anywhere in the world and it'll display in the Google maps. Manage your members, set an invite number limit or even send out invitations so that they can RSVP to your event. Set your events with JomSocial so that your members are more engaged with each other. Nothing beats meeting your members face to face and having fun at doing that!

To get started, go to JomSocial Frontpage under Community on the top menu or Community in Quicklinks! For all you Facebook users, you shouldn't have any problems navigating JomSocial. There is also a User Guide available at http://www.jomsocial.com/docs/User_guide.