Rotary Wheel

The Rotary Club of Windsor (1918)
Website Group Page

Our Club is Located in Windsor Ontario Canada
The Website group normally meets every 2nd Thursday of the month, and takes a summer recess from June through September. Thanks to our group members who have contributed to the development of our site over the past decade.
Our Group welcomes any club members who may care to meet with us to either share their computing skills or just take part in our web site related discussions.

The Next Meeting is scheduled as a breakfast gathering on

Thursday, November 13, 2008, 8:00 am,
at the Cadillac Motel lunch room

AGENDA


DISCUSSION ITEMS

  1. Our web site design has maintained a simple format over the past decade using basic HTML code with appropriate insertions of more complex code where situations warrant. The hope has always been that individual Rotarians might take over specific pages while confining their design to conform to an overall pattern as described by the Web Site Committee. This objective has proven to be hard to control as our newer members have expressed a wish to go their own way. Problems inevitably result when these newer members move on and leave a vacuum in the sector of the overall web that must be quickly addressed. We need to talk about the whole matter of how, in the future, new club web sites should be authorized and the difficulties that can arise if the continuity provided by a committee such as ours is not available.
    Our President Nominee, Bill MacArthur. has been made aware of this difficulty and suggested that our committee appear before the Rotary (1918) board and explain our position. We need to be certain that we are all of the same mind on this issue so I will present this item as our main agenda subject at this November meeting of our group.

  2. Rotarian Hasu Naik has been very active with our overseas projects in India and Africa. Your webmaster is currently designing a page which will provide a record of his past and ongoing Rotary work complete with photographs. I met with Hasu recently and we exchanged thoughts on how we might best present a description of his activities both for our club members and those other people who Hassu relies upon for sponsorship.

  3. During this next year we can look forward to a complete redesign of the structure of our club in line with suggestions from Rotary International. Since our web site reflects the club structure, it follows that our pages will require considerable rewriting. President Elect, Rotarian Bill MacArthur, who is a member of our web site group, will be our point man in this effort. I have also spoke to President Nominee, Rotarian Richard Caron who has offered to supply me with an outline of the projected club structure.

  4. The Children's Fest committee has designed a new Web Page for 2008. I am not certain who will continue on with the design work for 2009.

  5. Our role as de facto historians has placed an increasing workload on your webmaster as members turn to him to seek out past pictures in support of their projects. I ask the committee to consider what means there might be available to share that workload.

  6. A factor that has placed pressure on your webmaster is the increased expectation for instant response in regard to web site information changes. Further down in these pages you will see the web site work priority list that I currently live by.

  7. We now have a "New Members" page which keeps a picture record of new members as they are inducted. This should help members identify those new faces they see at meetings
  8. Matt Dunlop assumed the role of Art in the Park webmaster for the 2008 show but has told the Board that he will shift that load to yours truly and Brenda after a teaching period concerning his web site development tools. I am not sure that I am willing to enter into a new approach to web site development given the considerable learning and re-writing work I envision if we use new techniques for developing our whole site.

  9. The Rotary (1918) Website Committee was born during the Summer of 1997 and it launched the first version of a Rotary (1918) home page in early Fall of 1997. Our Rotary club has changed its' committee structure many times over the past decade and in the wake of these changes we have developed many site pages that are now need revamping or archiving in order to reflect the reality of our present administrative configuration. Our Website committee should do a page by page examination of our complete site.
    Just how big should our web site be?
    Does our web site committee mandate continue to meet the expectations of the club executive and those who regularly view our output?
    Any work we do needs some thoughtful input from our new executive - we want to move in the same direction as our club leaders and they must listen to our observations on the reality of meeting their expectations.
    All committee members should have received periodic Email on various aspects of this subject in which I expressed views on our club's recent administrative handling of committees.

  10. I have recently purchased a new laptop which I intend to bring to future meetings so that we may continue to participate in a review of our web site.
    A recent Rotary International periodical devoted its' entire issue to the impact that technology is having on Rotarians throughout the world. Committee members should read the articles in the magazine in order to put what we are doing in our club in proper perspective.

  11. The Rotary (1918) Roster is now being regularly updated and released in a timely fashion to all of our members who have Internet access.
    I asked at a recent meeting if the online Roster should appear as a link in our Web Pages. It seems that the prevailing opinion was that we should not include that information on our site even if we were to apply a password to its' recovery.


  12. The Roster maintenance and the preparation of an online version of our weekly news bulletin, The WHEEL, require dedicated attention from knowledgeable Rotarians. The Club should properly recognize the people who are performing this service for us.

  13. Our committee needs to discuss matters surrounding the use of domain names, what they are, their advantages and the costs and dangers involved in their improper use. This discussion is made more relevant given the recent blackout of our site due to misunderstandings about how the domain names are to be renewed each year.

  14. Your webmaster has completed the design of a Kenya Projects Page. You may view the page at http://www.rotary1918.com/kenyapg.htm
    Any suggestions for further development would be appreciated. Rotarian Kay Curtis, leader of the Kenya projects, is an active Rotarian and a valuable source of input for the page.


Other Updates:

Our Site Index page has been redesigned to conform to the club's current administrative structure.
Our Visitors Page has been updated to remove dead links and add new links.
Canada-India Diabetes Program Page has been updated. The Links page has been edited to remove dead links and add new ones.
The History section in the Links Page now includes references to:
Past meetings Photo Galleries
Past meetings reports
as well as past "Wheel" copies


















Comprehensive and "up-to-date ness"

It has been our practice to distribute our weekly web site workload according to our sense of the value of individual pages at certain time periods. Our priority at this time is assigned thusly:
  1. Home Page
  2. Upcoming Meetings Page
  3. Past Meeting Report Pages
  4. Wheel Page
  5. Photography Activity Pages
  6. The Website Committee Page
  7. Current Fund Raising Pages
  8. Site Index Page
  9. Rotary Information Pages
  10. Development of new Web pages
  11. General Updating of Committee Pages
  12. Searching for broken links
  13. Using search engines on our site to see what turns up. If the search uncovers old, antiquated Web pages, we remove them.

Rotary International Web Site Tour

Our Rotary International web site is an invaluable resource for all Rotarians


Webmaster at work

Welcome to the Website Committee Page

The information below describes the mandate and activities of this committee and lists the current year's members.
We have prepared a series of links for new Webmasters or others interested in discovering how web pages may be constructed.
Please Email us at ghp@uwindsor.ca if you run across web related links that you would like to share with us.


Website Committee Mandate


The Website Committee shall:

Web Site Realities

  1. The Internet has increased the speed and efficiency of communication to other Rotarians. Our web site has made possible the reduction in size of our office staff by becoming a 24 hour, 7 day a week source of Rotary (1918) information thereby reducing the necessity of contact with office staff.
  2. We provide an Internet link to the Club for our travelling or incapacitated members and past members who have relocated or retired from service club activity.
  3. We are now the de facto historians for our club through our continuously expanding past meeting reports, Wheel history links and weekly picture album pages. In exercising this function, we continuously keep information about past accomplishments before club members as a source of pride in past service and stimulation for further activities.
  4. We are the club librarians, picture takers, and a contact source through Email.
  5. We provide the pictures for the on line rosters that our Internet connected members now receive on a regular basis. We have a special page for recording pictures of our newest members so that members can properly recognize them and make an effort to include them in club activities.
  6. We provide a long range schedule for upcoming meeting plans and research information links for each of the speakers so that members can come to meetings better prepared to understand topics and ask questions of the presenters
  7. We have become a ready source of information for publicity purposes - providing pictures to magazines and information about our activities and past endeavours. Our speakers often visit our site to get a feeling about the audience they will face.
  8. We construct individual pages for each Rotary committee and event describing their mandate and activities. This allows a sense of continuity as committees add new members.
  9. We provide online information on the club organizational structure so that members will know who does what
  10. We show pictures on our index page of new members as they are introduced so that they feel recognized and welcome to the club.
  11. We support our fundraising activities by first publicizing their efforts and then reporting on their financial results as is often required by local regulations.
  12. New and potential Rotarians can find out about Rotary and what our club does through our pages
  13. Exchange students keep their families aware of their Rotary connections through the online picture albums we produce for every Rotary meeting and event.
  14. Your webmaster receives many Emails throughout the year from people who participate in or wish to attend our fund raising events. Our Office cooperates with us to assure that all questions are properly answered.
  15. We provide maps, information links and search tools for visiting Rotarians
  16. We have developed a "links" page which assists Rotarians and other interested parties in their searches for information.
  17. We encourage the effective use of the Internet and Email as a resource for information and communication for the club and Rotarians.
  18. We encourage the club and Rotarians to frequently access select Internet web sites and Rotary publications in order for them to stay updated about Rotary.
  19. We often publicise the fund raising events of our other district clubs in order to entice our web site audience to attend their activities.
  20. We track the readership of the pages on our site in order to ascertain the effectiveness of our web presentations. We also collect statistics on who is visiting our site from other nations.
  21. Rotary International now insists that every District Governor must connect via the Internet to their home office and that every district must have its own web site to improve communications between clubs, DGs, DG staff and Rotary International. ROTI members world wide have contributed to this over the past 5 years.
    Email linkage has now become the standard procedure used for 90% of the establishment of projects, matching grants, GSE planning, ISE planning and final reporting including accounting to Rotary International.

Observations from your webmaster

One of our group's objectives has always been to keep web site costs to a minimum. I would hate to see our web site efforts criticized by members because of the cost of producing pages and using Internet Provider services.
It is my belief that our site has enabled our club to reduce the cost of our office by providing a 7 day a week, 24 hour a day web site information facility. Brenda has worked closely and successfully with us over the years as have earlier office managers. Our members have, albeit somewhat slowly, gradually come to adapt to this new information age. In Wheel mailing costs alone we have saved many dollars. For most members, Email is now our standard method of communication. Members are now regularly using the on-line make-up tool. We have become the club history facility. We help keep the phone traffic down in our office through our information services. We are a cheap source of publicity for the club. You may have noted that many of our speakers refer to our web site as the source they used in framing their talks. The latest Wheel and its' back issues are available on our site. We provide useful links for Rotarians and other interested parties. There is a rich resource of Rotary related pictures for members who are preparing PowerPoint presentations (eg. The President's Parties). Individual Rotary projects have been given their own pages. Our upcoming speakers' list is researched so that members are able to come to meetings with a better understanding of the topics being discussed. Our recent and long past meetings are indexed on our site. Our travelling or sick members can stay in contact with us through meeting pictures and talk summaries. On-line audio and visual talks by members can be made available in a timely fashion. Our Exchange students' pictures regularly appear so that their parents can be reassured that they are being properly taken care of. What better way to understand the projects we support than through a posted on-line PowerPoint presentation. Potential visitors to our club or a nearby one have their own reference page on our site. If you want to see how many visits our site receives each week and just where our visitors come from, just look at the bottom of our pages and go through the viewing statistics.

Your Webmaster has been appointed the Club's CLUB INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER. This position carries a responsibility for keeping the Club up to date on Internet developments.



The Website Committee was born during the Summer of 1997 and it launched the first version of a Rotary (1918) home page in early Fall of 1997. There was a six month period of Internet research and wide ranging discussions among an interested group of club members that preceded the presentation of the idea of a Website to the Board.
After listening to reasons about why a Website should be considered, who the audience would be and how they would use the site, the Board tentatively approved the project asking the development team for a sample mandate for a Website Committee and a suggested budget for the project.
After an online viewing of a proposed set of Rotary (1918) pages and a live demonstration before a meeting of Committee Chairpersons, formal approval to proceed with the project was given.

Every web site tells a story and has a mission.
The web is an ever changing field of information.
Development of a Rotary web site needs thoughtful planning, continuous formal Club approval of content direction and careful consideration as to who will oversee and maintain the site and how the site is to be integrated into the regular Club activity stream. Fortunately, there are many sources of advice, support and inspiration available through the Net.

Website Committee Activities

The Website committee meets on a regular basis on every 2nd Thursday of the month, excepting August and September, at 8:00am in the lunch room of the Cadillac Motel on Dougal Road.
New members or visitors are welcome to attend the meetings. You don't need to be a computer nerd, just have some enthusiasm for the Internet. The Committee is looking for volunteers who would like to assist us in developing the site, or visitors who would just like to participate in discussions. It is a great place to learn a little about computers or web page design.

Use of digital photographs

We have close to 10,000 digital photos on our site. These photos provide an historical record of club activities.

Reference Material



WEBSITE GROUP MEMBERS


The Group now operates under the Communications Committee

CHAIR: Gary Champ (Website Administrator) ICO)


VICE CHAIR: Mike Serafimovski(Assistant Webmaster)



Website Committee Photography Page Back Arrow Home Page Back Arrow Communications Committee




Last Revised: October 20, 2008