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Buttercup · 01-18-2012, 02:57 PM

As you may know, the Electronic Communications Committee has been tasked with improving the clubs communications via electronic means and it is a big task. It involves not only the clubs web site, but the WBCCI.net domain and also the clubs database systems eventually. It has been a personal dream of mine to have a web site that was owned, managed and maintained by WBCCI and the volunteer efforts of club members. That day is finally almost here. After over a year of work we are getting close to releasing the new site.

The club's new web site represents a change in the way the club does business. No longer are we depending on some outside company to maintain the site, we are doing it ourself with volunteer efforts from members just like yourself. It is the members web site and the members get to take the bull by the horns and run with it. This is your opportunity to contribute to the club in a way that does not take up a lot of your time but greatly helps the club.

What we need is members to take responsibility for a small section of the web site and maintain the content on that section – keep it up to date. All training will be provided. Basically, if you can post on these forums, you can create, edit and publish content for the site – it is that easy. We have lots of sections to maintain from Blue Beret content to calendar of events. From updating the president's message to updating the International Schedule.

If you are willing to help out or want more information PM me and we will get you set up, trained and maintaining your little corner of the site.

zlee · 01-18-2012, 02:59 PM

I'm not a member yet, but I do plan to be in the near future. If you're interested in almost-members helping out, let me know.

Buttercup · 01-19-2012, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zlee

I'm not a member yet, but I do plan to be in the near future. If you're interested in almost-members helping out, let me know.

Thanks for the offer! It would be better if you became a member first. So hurry up and join! I'll be waiting for you.

zlee · 01-19-2012, 11:52 AM

I still have pick up the trailer! (on the 25th!)

if it helps, I have written for a living and I used to work as a web designer. These days I usually work with WordPress sites.

Buttercup · 01-19-2012, 01:43 PM

Design experience, heh?? That could make you my new best friend! Do you know Joomla at all? Joomla is the engine that runs the site. Aw, heck, I'll PM you and we can talk shop.

For those who do not know Joomla and may be intimated at helping with a web site, you use an editor mostly like the editor for the forums here. Its simple, don't be shy!!

zlee · 01-19-2012, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buttercup

Design experience, heh?? That could make you my new best friend! Do you know Joomla at all? Joomla is the engine that runs the site. Aw, heck, I'll PM you and we can talk shop.

For those who do not know Joomla and may be intimated at helping with a web site, you use an editor mostly like the editor for the forums here. Its simple, don't be shy!!

Do, but be aware I'm tearing around trying to get everything done to go pick up the Bambino! If I don't get back to you quickly, I'm not ignoring you!

zlee · 01-19-2012, 01:49 PM

Oh, and it's been a while since I worked with Joomla, but shouldn't be too difficult to get back up to speed.

**DKB_SATX** · 01-19-2012, 04:49 PM

Interesting. I sent you a PM outlining some of my IT skills. I'm a geek by trade and hobby, and would like to contribute if you think there's a fit. I'm basically responding here just to subscribe to the thread.

David

Chuck · 01-19-2012, 06:46 PM

Are the unit sites (*.wbcci.net) staying with wordpress?

I've heard a bunch of things along the lines of "things are about to happen"...but not much for details!

Buttercup · 01-19-2012, 07:18 PM

Yes, we did not want to change the system that so many are used to using. What we are doing is to upgrade the software to the latest Wordpress version and once we do that, hopefully we will be able to embed the WBCCI.net sites into the new wbcci.org site so that the unit data can appear within the wbcci.org site. This has tons of advantages.
I don't know what to say about all of the things that are happening with the ECC - we are going to start maintaining the WBCCI.org website and it will be completely owned and operated by the WBCCI and maintained by members who volunteer. We have been maintaining and adding unit sites to WBCCI.net which we have taken over and is now competely owned and manages by the Club - thanks go out to Tim Schwartz for his generosity in getting that done and for the years of work he put into that to get it going.

And we are looking at replacing the clubs antiquated database system which is used to manage membership and other information in the club. Hopefully, by using member talent in these areas, we can save the club lots of $$$ and help propel the club into the 20th century.

There are lots of people out there with skills, and it does not take a lot of skill to help maintain the site at all. For example, all of the advertizers in the Blue Beret are supposed to have an ad on the web site as well. To date, that has not been done. We could use help of someone maintaining just that information on the web site. Might take an hour of your time per month. It's just simple, silly little things like that. But its lots of simple, silly things.

Buttercup · 01-19-2012, 07:21 PM

Its a breeze really. Everything can be done from the front end so there is no "backend" login to worry about. You just log in to the site, go to your page and edit it. Really that simple.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zlee

Oh, and it's been a while since I worked with Joomla, but shouldn't be too difficult to get back up to speed.

zlee · 01-19-2012, 08:19 PM

Nah, I'm not worried.

I'll join once I've got the Bambino in my hot little paws, I promise.

Buttercup · 01-19-2012, 09:14 PM

Well, I am quite excited to hear that you will be joining shortly AND jumping into the fold!

zlee · 01-19-2012, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Well, I am quite excited to hear that you will be joining shortly AND jumping into the fold!

It's a character fault.

Blue Pearl · 01-19-2012, 10:27 PM

Just to say congratulation on working on this project and to everyone else doing their part. This will bring the WBCCI together and move it forward. I'm looking forward to it. I can only post on this forum so I don't think I would be of any help but if you would PM me I will forward your Help Wanted Ad to our Oregon Unit, we have a lot of IT type members I'm sure will step up to help. Not only do we have quantity we also have quality members ready to be part of this new WBCCI.

Buttercup · 01-20-2012, 09:05 AM

Thanks for spreading the word to your unit. I sent a PM with the basic info. Let me know if you need any more information.

eubank · 01-20-2012, 10:23 AM

Ok, just spoke with my better half, and she approved of my getting involved. I haven't done Joomla sites; all of mine are more or less custom jobs done with Expression Web plus added code for scripts of various kinds. If I can be of help, please let me know!

Lynn

Buttercup · 01-20-2012, 10:44 AM

Excellent - I'll PM you! Thanks for jumping in!

nvestysly · 01-20-2012, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buttercup

... we can save the club lots of $$$ and help propel the club into the 20th century.

I'm sure this is a typo but you gotta admit.... It's really funny! Are we really moving backward to the 20th century?

Now on to more subtantive matters:

I've been giving this "transition" some thought and I hope the following things can be incorporated - not all at once mind you - but by laying the building blocks the other items can be achieved.

1) I see reference to a database. Granted it's outdated and it's almost certain that it is nearly useless moving forward. This "database" needs to be something along the lines of Oracle, SAP or some other relational data that can be used in a wide variety of endeavors. For example, an Excel spreadsheet is not the database this club needs.

2) With a real database many things become possible and changes can be made in the future. For example, the membership directory can be updated real-time and paid members can be provided access to the data (not just a PDF copy of the data) so they can easily search the information.

3) A true database will allow members to pay online for various things - membership renewal, retail items such as hats, jackets, etc., and best of all signing up for rallies and caravans can be done online. Just think... you could actually have a real waiting list for rallies and caravans and as people drop out/cancel a member would be notified they have moved up on the waiting list. Why it's almost like we're in the 21st century.

4) The database will be the repository for all the national rallies and numbered caravans you've participated in and for that matter any number of additional fields can be added as needed. Wow, a database! Who woulda thunk it!

5) After laying the groundwork with the database, many things become possible. Each unit web site could easily have similarities for membership, asking questions, finding general information, searching (wow, you mean a database can be searched?). Of course it's not necessary that all unit sites look the same, just that they would have a base to start from and this would provide some amount of common user interface for the entire membership.

I'll post more at a later date but dinner is calling. Oh yeah, one last thing - I'd love to post this on the WBCCI but that doesn't seem to be an option at this point.

Lucius

P.S. I realize my post has "tone" but I really do think this is the place to start. The WBCCI database provides the cornerstone of all the other electronic changes this club needs.

**DKB_SATX** · 01-20-2012, 03:46 PM

@nvestysly: As an Oracle professional, I can pretty much assure you that Oracle is not in the budget. PostgreSQL provides all the "real database" functionality that's likely to be useful for this sort of database and it's open-source, and MySQL can be made to do most of it as well (also open-source, but some of the nice transactional bits are add-ons there.)

Oracle makes sense when you either have truly massive data needs, or it would cost your business more to have downtime or some other bug than it costs you in licensing fees to use Oracle, and that's coming from someone who pays his mortgage with Oracle work.