SEOA website - help needed

[SeanC]

What do you think of the SEOA website? (http://www.seoa.org.uk)

Yes, it's about time it had a makeover. The current webmaster has offered to do one, including a wizzy content management system and some system to send email alerts to SEOA competitions regarding SEOA competitions (to improve their profile/interest and help competitors understand competition rules). The webmaster isn't an active orienteer anymore and would like someone from the orienteering community to help him with requirements and to answer any questions, maybe forwarding questions to the right person in SEOA.

If you wanted to do something to help the sport's development in the South East then this could be for you. You don't need to attend any meetings, be a super serious orienteer or be a techie, and everything can be done from a PC at home. Probably best if you're in an SEOA club or were in the past.

If you're interested please send me a private message, or via my email address (on the contacts page of the SEOA website).

Sean Cronin.

[Clive Coles]

As an adjunct to your revamped website you could also establish a Facebook closed group and invite your members to subscribe. The advantage if this is that it can be more immediate and topical than a conventional website as any group member can post. You don't therefore need to rely on the availability of the webmaster. Great therefore for keeping in contact with members ~ especially if something needs to be communicated quickly.

Some clubs seem to be making good use of Social media ~ others seem to regard Facebook as the devil incarnate. But, if you are trying to attract and retain younger participants I believe orienteers need to be visible in the Social network arena.

[Sunlit Forres]

I notice a few clubs are on Twitter. Can't be bothered with it personally but there's no denying the effectiveness of it for getting the message out short and sharp, especially to the younger audience. Have recently set an account up for MOR.

The comparison between running clubs and orienteering clubs on Facebook is interesting. The running clubs whose FB pages I've looked at seem to generate far more interaction than those of the O clubs. Personally, I think this ties in with my comment on the publicity thread about established club members not interacting with newcomers at events.

I expect a flood of outrage, but it's what I honestly believe. I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just part of the personality of many of the sort of people who are in to orienteering - educated people who can't be doing with life's banalities - erudite discussions on Nopesport excepted.

[Mrs H]

Didn't I just right a CompassSport article about very much the same thing? The phrase my young friends used was "stuck up"!

[Sunlit Forres]

Is the 'embarrassed' smiley anything to do with your spelling?

[Mrs H]

ha ha ha - I leave it so everyone else can have a laugh (so many people correct their mistakes but everyone knows they have because of the edit note)
But I did write about it all the same - had very little come back about it - be interesting to see if your post gets more reaction here. I obviously agree with you.

[AndyC]

Being pedantic it isn't a spelling mistake it is the wrong word spelled correctly (so even if Mrs H used a spellchecker it wouldn't have spotted it).
Anyway NATO have 2 Facebook pages set up; one for the main club and one handed over to the club juniors so the "old gadgies" don't interfere more than necessary.
We're also using other Facebook pages to promote our events - like Northumberland Sport, Tyne and Wear Sport, Jog on the Tyne and others.

[Mrs H]

re the spelling - it's an interesting short circuit which happens to me quite often (as you may have noticed) when I type something which I can't read (mainly because I've been too lazy to put on glasses) It's like I'm thinking in spoken words and my fingers are doing their best to translate to written words. but without a visual check they don't always get it write

From my recent excursion onto Facebook I would say that it is already old hat among the youngsters. How about a whatsapp group?

[roadrunner]

There seem to be two ways to do things on Facebook: my running club has a closed group, whereas my orienteering club has a page that you have to "like", then you can post to it and see postings by others (though I'm not sure that works all the time, looking at the page just now some postings seem to have missed me).

The former gets much more activity (even allowing for the size of the club), and out of about 500 club members (of all ages!), 228 have joined it.

The latter has 29 "likes", I'm not sure what the membership is but I doubt that's as high a percentage.

[SeanC]

I like the idea of juniors doing their own thing re social media rather than us oldies deciding what's best. Then they can bond by privately give us a hard time, calling us stuck up, boriententeers or much worse, and since we won't be invited to join we wont be offended. Then one day it will be their turn to be the establishment to receive a hard time, though that day could be a long time coming in a sport when even the early middle aged are whippersnappers.

Back to the topic of the post. The SEOA website, any volunteers to help please PM or email me (address on SEOA website), just a bit of help with communication and strategy... all the heavy lifting done by the webmaster. Anyone wanting to do a facebook page or twitter for SEOA would be welcome I'm sure. J

[andy]

As an adjunct to your revamped website you could also establish a Facebook closed group and invite your members to subscribe.

I tried to replace our forum with a closed facebook group. The pitchforks came out and angry words were directed my way... Try this at your own risk.

[Paul Frost]

It's interesting that with so many people regularly posting stuff up on facebook and twitter etc. that it's so hard to find someone to do it for a club website.

The SOA has been trying to find "Reporters", to contribute event reports and local news for the Scottish Orienteering website, for over 2 years now.

[smf]

As an adjunct to your revamped website you could also establish a Facebook closed group and invite your members to subscribe.

I tried to replace our forum with a closed facebook group. The pitchforks came out and angry words were directed my way... Try this at your own risk.

Just ignore him the rest of the committee agreed to go with a better facebook page. Also the facebook page should be more than the current twitter feed.

[SAL]

I tried to replace our forum with a closed facebook group.

I think the main objection was to replacing the forum. There's nothing wrong with having a facebook group, as well as the other communication mechanisms; people like to communicate in different ways.

[SeanC]

mmm, you guys from Scotland are not helping to sell the idea that helping redesign the SEOA website is a small pleasant volunteer task that wont end in a big row.