Value-added Local Section Web Sites—A Key to Improving Your Local Section and Serving Your Membership

Today’s lively pace—at work and at home—is constantly increasing the demands on both ACS and local section members. The local section must compete against multiple activities and pressures for the attention of its members. Also, with increased on-line connectivity, more ACS members and the general public are turning to the Web for information on and insight into local section activities and missions, as well as opportunities for interface. Is your local section traveling on the information superhighway with your membership?

Web content is one component that is critical to the future of our sections. The Web is highly useful for recruiting, retaining, motivating, and organizing the ACS on the local level. There are many critical questions for the local section, its executive committee, and the Web master to address regarding the operation of a local section Web site. For example, what is the structure and what type content should be on the site? How will the content be communicated from the committees and individuals to the Web master? What is the editorial calendar? In this time of declining membership and declining attendance at many events, the answers to these questions and the effectiveness of your local section Web site may be key to reversing these national trends.

Site content and design. The Web is a great, low-cost tool in which local sections may choose to invest resources. The tools and skills necessary to host and maintain a noteworthy site are now readily available to any moderately Web-savvy member. It’s a good bet your section has one. Once the local section has found a competent Web master, there is an almost unlimited amount of information that can be housed on the site—and at a low cost. Next comes the issue of content. Clearly, there are fundamental content issues that all local section Web sites must include, such as contact information for officers, calendar of upcoming events, and convenient feedback loops for volunteers and future volunteers. Other features might include meeting registration, event capsules with photos, press releases, outreach information, and historical information about this section. But this is only a beginning to building an effective, user-friendly Web site for your section.

The Web site must make an impression on both members and non-members at first glance. This is where your section can make its own statement in terms of color, design, graphics, etc. For the member, it must provide quick and meaningful information, whereas it needs to entice visitors to learn more about your organization and give them insight into your priorities and activities.

It must be informative for both members and non-members, and it must effectively present your goals to all visitors. Keep it clear and simple. Create pages that give a flavor of what your section is about by using photos from past events and relating successes of the section and its membership.

The navigation structure must be easy and responsive. All pages must be live and accurate, download sizes must be considered, and all pages need to be considered a home page (headed by your local section logo and name, as well as linked back to the home page of the section).

Information flow is critical in this age to make the job of the volunteer Web master as valuable to the section as possible. The Web master must be plugged in to the normal channels of communication among the officers, the executive committee, committees carrying out the operations of the section, and the membership. To achieve this, the Web master needs energy and the support of the officers and executive members of the section. Web masters should also be involved when discussions of section activities and communication are taking place to help facilitate their role in the information infrastructure of the organization.

Editorial Calendar. Finally, in order to be certain that information is timely and relevant, the section should adopt a formal editorial calendar. Both the Web master and the section should operate on a cycle that is meaningful to the membership. The Web site should be updated frequently with valuable information from the lead volunteers and committee chairs in the section. How often? That depends on your section, but the rule should be with enough frequency to reflect the event calendar for the section.

Will Lynch
Chair, Technology, Tools and Operations Subcommittee
Local Section Activities Committee

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