GETTING STARTED: WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO – ON-GOING AND LONG-TERM?The City, our electronic Sharing-Christ tool, is being discontinued at the end of February and we are transitioning to its

improved mobile-friendly version called Realm. Currently we have 1,300 people on The City in sixty Ministry Groups

(aka small Christian communities). We need to effectively communicate with them AND engage our parishioners to

“Meet all as Christ”, our Parish Mission Statement. As we become a more welcoming and loving community, effective

communications help us foster a hospitable culture where people feel they belong.

WHAT IS REALM? Realm is our online ministry tool – our communication platform – designed to help our Parish serve you better and

effectively engage individuals between Sundays. Realm will help us be the hands and feet of Jesus. This tool includes

only our Parishioners, it’s not an open social network. With Internet access, everyone can be connected from

anywhere at any time. Having our fellow Parishioners – in our pocket all the time!

Realm engages people in the life of our church by supporting the healthy relationships essential to our Parish’s

mission. Real Life … Together Realm will make it easier for our Parish family to connect with each other. Our

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ), documents and videos address Realm capabilities on our church website .

WHY REALM?

TO HELP STRENGTHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST

ENABLE & PROMOTE COMMUNICATION

COLLABORATE ON PROJECTS & EVENTS AND NEEDS

HELP MINISTRY GROUPS ACCOMPLISH THEIR MISSION

REQUEST AND OFFER PRAYERS

MANAGE EVENT REGISTRATIONS, DETAILS & RSVPS

STAY INFORMED – KEEP IN TOUCH – GET INVOLVED

WE ARE MOVING FROM THE CITY TO ITS IMPROVED VERSION:

“We need a community to help us reach our goals. Faith is not an individual journey; it’s a team sport. We need each other. We are on this journey together.

Allen Hunt taken from Dreams for Your Grandchild

Realm does NOT work with the Internet Explorer browser. Please use Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.

CURRENT CITY USERS: Most of your personal City profile including your picture and Ministry Group involvement will convert from The City to Realm. However, you will LOSE any posts, messages, Marketplace ads and files that have been shared and stored in The City. Save these files elsewhere if you want to keep them!

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IF YOU’RE ALREADY ON THE CITY …FROM YOUR COMPUTER

In February, you will receive an invitation to join Realm. You will need to establish a secure password (PW)

PLEASE bookmark site & write / save your password where you can locate it; see our FAQ on the SBA website.

IF YOU’RE NEW TO THE CITY OR REALM …On your browser, type “https://onrealm.org/StBenedictAbbot” in the address box at the top of your screen.

At the ‘Don’t have an account yet?’ prompt, click Register. Then enter your email address and create and SAVE yourpassword using the PW requirements listed above. After clicking ‘I am not a robot’, click Register then bookmark site.

DOWNLOAD THE MOBILE APP FOR YOUR APPLE OR ANDROID DEVICESThe ACS Technologies App is Connect-Our Church Community. Use your mobile device browser and the links below:

For iPhone devices go to the Apple Store using this address https://apple.co/2rwgyCj Click Get & then Install

For Android devices go to the Google Store using this address Bit.ly/2PhLpCu Click Install

You can then sign into this App using your ID (your email address) and your Password used to enter REALM

Go to the upper right-hand corner of the page. Click on the down arrow adjacent to your name and click

“Manage Account”. For your security, your password must have 8 or more characters; there is no maximum

length. Other PW requirements are: Your PW needs to include three (3) of these: 1) At least one uppercase

letter 2) At least one lowercase letter 3) At least one number 4) At least one symbol (!,@,#,$,%,^, etc.) OR 5)

Contain 15 or more characters. For example, a password could be Michael1, however, for security …

Your password cannot: contain any 3-or-more character sequence from your username or email Or include

3- or-more repeating characters (222, etc.) Or Include 3 or more characters in sequence (123, 321, abc, etc.)

GETTING STARTED

WHEN FIRST GETTING ONTO THE REALM PLATFORM, YOU SHOULD

• Go to the top right side of your screen and click on your silhouette, name or picture (to add see FAQ)

— Select ‘My Profile’ & ensure your unique information is correct; PLEASE update your skills & abilities.

— Select ‘Email Settings’ to choose your desired frequency of receiving emails for each Ministry Group

You can choose everything, new things, nothing or Daily Digest

With Daily Digest you get only one email (message) per day for ALL of your Ministry Groups

— Select ‘Manage Privacy’ to control what information you want to share with other Realm users

• News – Keeps everyone up-to-date with latest posts, photos, & events from your Group(s) & the whole church

• Posts – Send a communication that all members of your Ministry Group can read and comment on

• Messages – Send a private communication to selected individual(s) – an email OR a live chat conversation

YOU CAN GET THE RIGHT INFORMATION TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIME!

• Events – See event details (date, time, location, etc.), submit your RSVP and sign up to bring something

• Photos – Capture your moments together and share them with your Ministry Group(s)

• Directory – Shows name & pictures of those who have Realm login & others who have opted into the directory

• Files – View your Ministry’s shared files in the Files tab of your Group(s); these may not exceed 20 MB

Ministry Group Leaders can easily add or remove members to or from their Groups. HUGE! An effective way to

access Realm is with a mobile device App – we encourage downloading Realm Connect–Our Church Community.

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STRENGTHENING OUR

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

Welcoming All as Christ …

Engaging Us As We Do Ministry

Stay Informed – Keep in Touch – Get Involved

GETTING STARTED

FOR USERS NEW TO

THE CITY OR REALM

Our Parish Grouping with three churches has more than fifty

Ministries and more than 10,000 registered parishioners. How

can we best communicate and connect with people while

engaging parishioners to actively practice their faith? Realm, the

upgraded version of The City, can help us do that.

Realm will help us be the hands and feet of Jesus by connecting

our Parish community using current technology. A sobering fact: we will definitely lose our youth if we do not utilize

technology and engaging content! We should introduce Christ to

others via our loving actions to help one another through this life

to get to heaven.

We need to communicate with AND engage parishioners as we

“Welcome All as Christ”, our Parish Mission Statement. When

we become a more welcoming and loving community, we foster

a hospitable culture where people feel they belong.

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION IS SHARED ELECTRONICALLY?

a) Weekly bulletins

b) Parishioner funeral information

c) Faith Formation weather cancellations

d) Promoting Ministry events & Adoration

e) Parish-wide announcements

f) Prayer and service requests

g) Ministry descriptions, collaborations & project updates

h) Monthly VIEWS FROM THE PEWS: intriguing articleswritten by laity Guest Authors.

REALM: THE POWER TO COLLABORATE

FIRST TIME USERS OF REALM, YOU SHOULD

• Realm does NOT work with the Internet Explorer browser. Please use Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge

• Follow the “IF YOU’RE NEW TO THE CITY OR REALM …” instructions on Page 2 to invite yourself to join Realm

• Follow the “DOWNLOAD THE MOBILE APP FOR YOUR APPLE OR ANDROID DEVICES” instructions on page 2 to get the App

• Follow “WHEN FIRST GETTING ONTO THE REALM PLATFORM, YOU SHOULD” instructions on the lower half of Page 2

• Familiarize yourself with Realm site navigation by reading the bolded bullets at the bottom of Page 2

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Currently we have 1,300 St. Benedict parishioners on The City in sixty Groups.

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GETTING STARTED

FOR MINISTRY LEADERS

LEADERS OF EXISTING MINISTRY/GROUPS:

• Go to the Realm platform that you bookmarked on your computer

• Go to Messages on the left side of your screen & send a message for assistance to a Realm Core Team member:

Carol Dolinar, Mike D’Onofrio, Keith Ross, Bill Rousis, Beth Ruth, Stan Solak OR Debbie Starr

• Set up a mutually agreeable time for the Core Team member to walk you through the set up of your Ministry

• Establish your Ministry Group electronically in Realm following the Leader’s Checklist found on the SBA website

• Discuss with Core Team member how specifically Realm can help your Ministry accomplish its Mission!

• Can then select people on Realm to be members of your Ministry Group; no invitations are needed

• Can designate 1-2 people as Manager(s) to help Ministry members with Team leadership & capable Realm usage

• Send an informative post to your members to establish an on-going dialogue with them

• Consider starting a project or conversation (Message or Post) that requires collaboration using engaging content

CONTINUE CONNECTING, COMMUNICATING, ENGAGING, GIVING, LOVING AND SHARING CHRIST VIA REALM

STRENGTHENING OUR

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY