Thread: What's with the our website?

I think it should be improved, I'm assuming the members would want it, maybe the new webmaster could see what could be done.

I'm pretty sure that the committy would need to approve it though, which is usually a slow process

Baz.

The primary purpose of the website is as a public relations tool for the club to advertise itself to the general public.
it's secondary use is to provide a service for the members.
as far as the website falling behind goes, Ben, our webmaster had a bit of a major computer problem over the christmas break and now that he has everything up and going, he has found that we have issues with the service provider.
Glen, Ben and myself are working to get it sorted out a.s.a.p.
if you recall back in the late nineties through to about 2003, the website did not change at all. not from month to month or year to year.
the last few years has seen it develop into a regularly updated entity but in Ben's capacity as a professional in this field, he has recommended a better way to do things that will make the website easier to update and cheaper for the club to maintain.
in the meantime, we are trying to get things back on track, so please be patient.
any questions you have regarding this matter or any other, can be directed to Glen, our president who is more than happy to answer them himself or direct them to someone who can answer them.
regards
Matt

Thanks, Matt.

I have only been a member for about 5 or 6 years so don't know about the website of the 90s. What I do know from talking to friends is that many or most clubs use their websites as not just an advertising point for the public but also as an opportunity for greater engagement of their members, particularly those who can't get to all the meetings. Personally, whilst I am a great fan of the Aulro website, I don't believe it should be the main conversational forum for LROC(S) members. It should be our website. Technology and people's computer habits have changed over the past 20years. We should get up with the times.

Malcolm

maybe we will have our own forum no the website one day, but that means we need someone to develop it and administer it, then we need people to moderate it.
at the moment AULRO costs our club nothing, only a little of my time and Max's time to keep an eye on people's on-line behaviour.

the website, by definition is a world wide entity and that is why it is primarily to promote the club to outsiders.

the main conversational forum for members is the monthly general meeting and it's because most members don't or can't attend those, that i got the forum up and running.
while the website can inform members of the upcoming events in the club and give them information about services and contacts,(so does the magazine) it is pretty-much a one way street and relies on the webmaster to maintain it and keep it current. in time, with Ben's input, this will change. but in the meantime, the forum allows members to post upcoming events, request info or contact with other members, see what the club is doing, vent their spleen or whatever. it also allows the committee to advise members of urgent news or requests in a timely fashion.
as with the website, the forum is no good if you don't visit it regularly, but one advantage the forum has is that you can get it to notify you of new threads and posts within the club forum, so you don't have to actually visit it if you don't wish to.
there is also a benefit from the committee's point in that info can be sent out, it only has to be sent once and the onus is on the member to keep their email details current to get info from AULRO, where they usually don't notify the club when their email address changes, which leads us to a database full of obsolete email addresses.
don't think for one minute that making the website more accessible will get everyone in. for example, over the whole of 4wd act and nsw, out of all of the members of all of the clubs, only about 50 members have bothered to apply for access to the site and/or the forum. this seems to be a typical proportion across the board.

Originally Posted by Mundy

Thanks, Matt.

I have only been a member for about 5 or 6 years so don't know about the website of the 90s. What I do know from talking to friends is that many or most clubs use their websites as not just an advertising point for the public but also as an opportunity for greater engagement of their members, particularly those who can't get to all the meetings. Personally, whilst I am a great fan of the Aulro website, I don't believe it should be the main conversational forum for LROC(S) members. It should be our website. Technology and people's computer habits have changed over the past 20years. We should get up with the times.

Malcolm

Malcolm,

Sounds like your just the man for the job!

Come along to this year's AGM, nominate and you've got my vote for being the answer!

Regards,
Greg