SEOA website - help needed

[andy]

Sean - don't listen to the ESOC in-fighting

My original point was that facebook isn't a one-stop solution when it comes to discussion. There are other avenues.

You are right in that you need to find a local person. Get whoever is keen to look through other club/area sites and make a list of things they like/dislike and start the discussion from there. Some will be easier to implement than others.

[Paul Frost]

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.

With the experience of having built a few club websites, I can confirm that it's not necessarily a 'small pleasant volunteer task' and often ends up with some conflicting views on how people think it should look/work. In some ways it's easier when you are not a member of the club, as it's easier to suggest things/changes, as you are not part of any internal politics.

But the most important thing ongoing is for there to be at least one person that is actively managing the site and responsible for maintaining the content. Visit this link for an excellent write up about the Role of an Online Editor.

[SeanC]

Dave Moore is going to continue as SEOA webmaster and will be building the new site. Any volunteer could produce a small requirements document, then send it around a few in SEOA for comments, then pass it over to Dave to do his best. It shouldn't end in battle, but is a great opportunity to do something to help communcation in SEOA, especially to use some email push alerts about SEOA competitions for the many/majority who never visit the SEOA website. Small is relative, but should be pleasant.

[oo_wrong_way]

especially to use some email push alerts about SEOA competitions for the many/majority who never visit the SEOA website.

Sean - my small offering to the orienteering community - oevents.info - provides you with a zero effort way to provide the SEOA region with a weekly email showing relevant events culled from the BO listings. It does require individuals to subscribe but you could always provide a link to do that on your website. It could also mean that the SEOA mailer currently provided is decommissioned??

[SeanC]

The plan is to definately continue with the SEOA mailer as this is helping market SEOA events. How Dave does this I think will be up to him. I shall certainly tell him about your service oo wrong way. At the moment the mailer sends out a list of forthcoming events every week. The plan is to extend it with information/marketing emails re SEOA competitions. Eg for the south east League, an email gets sent before the first event, listing the events and promoting the competition (with a link back to the SEOA website for the competition homepage,rules etc).

Regional competitions can be a bit of a poor relation. Club competitions like club leagues tend to get publicised well between orienteers by word of mouth, the big national competitions have Focus, status and advertising budgets. Regional competitions, the important level beyond simple local events, can be rather invisible, especially to the less keen/regular orienteer or the ones who stay mostly local. The idea is that push marketing emails raise the profile because it's mainly/only the keen who will seek out the SEOA website.