IT
IT
Building a club websiteInformation, Communication and Technology (I.C.T.) District Officer is Lion Steve Cooper
Building a club website The late Lion Howard Lloyd of Mexbrough Lions put together some excellent advice for newcomers. Read the articles below. Case studies A number of clubs already have web sites. The Case Studies page describes their aims and objectives in doing so, whether they were achieved plus the advantages or disadvantages of a club website. Recommended reading: Stephen King - IT New Year's Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels |
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Part onePut Your Club on the Internet! Why? Various reasons.
Many clubs complain of the poor press coverage they receive - here's an opportunity for whatever coverage you want, worded exactly as you want it, every day of the year, at negligible cost. Had a better offer? Part threeTools for the Job Writing Tools To create your web pages you need some sort of editor program to produce the Hyper-Text Mark-up Language (HTML) code. There are dozens available, but we're looking for the low-cost options. Part fiveMore Help There's a tremendous amount of help available on the Internet, to suit all levels of understanding. And you can ask your own questions in the thousands of newsgroups and forums, or often find the answer immediately by searching at A useful forum is .net magazine's Webtips. You can access it through their |
Part twoFinding a Home A number of clubs already on-line seem to be stuck in a corner of a site belonging to somebody else - a member's firm, a friend's site, whatever. They have a web address that may be very long to type in and/or bear no clues that it's anything to do with a locality or Lionism, such as "http://freewind.legend.co.uk/~abje1/shipley.html" or "http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/1716/" And changing the site content may involve the delay and hassle of going through a middle-man instead of a couple of minutes at your own computer. Why do it? Part fourBe Found! So, you've built your club site, launched it onto the Internet, it's packed with information on the work you do and should help attract funds, welfare requests and new members. How do people find you?
The first is up to you; it will kick-start the site but needs constant repetition. The second is free and permanent, and some pointers are covered here. Case studiesThis page features District 105C clubs which have established a website, describing their aims and objectives in doing so, whether these have been achieved and the advantages or disadvantages of a club website. Mexborough Lions What IT skills and software did you use? Very little skill initially. The site started as a single page and grew, skills were developed to solve requirements as they arose. All software used is free, I started with FrontPage Express but Microsoft no longer support this or include it in Windows, so beginners may find Serif's WebPlus 6 http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/wp/wp6/index.asp or NVu http://www.nvu.com/ useful. Once you've got some experience there are lots more programs to try, everybody has a different favourite. I mostly use Arachnophilia http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html as I can check pages in two or more different browsers. |
