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Original query from Roger Resek, UWM Guild for Learning in Retirement,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
We have been discussing activating our web site that is currently just
a placeholder linked to the UWM web site. If we do it, we want it to be
professional looking and kept current, and this will take time, effort
and probably money. A survey of our 550 members indicates that approximately
one-third have e-mail addresses, and we conclude that this might indicate
the maximum number of members who would use a web site. We recognize that
the percentage of our members who are Internet active will increase greatly
over the years, and we also recognize that the Internet will eventually
provide a significant portion of our programming as well as becoming the
primary medium for communication. However, "If we build it, they will
come -- in about five years" doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us.
For instance, we will probably have to mail out our newsletter and other
information to all members for a long time. Why go to the effort of putting
it on a web site? We know a lot of LLIs have active web sites, and many
of those we have looked at appear to be very professional, content rich
and up-to-date. What we are looking for from those of you who have had
active sites for maybe a year is some indication of: What portion of your
membership actually uses your site? Number of hits per month, etc. Is
your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful
in attracting members, funds, etc.? Any other measures of success or disappointment?
Are you satisfied that the effort is worth it? Estimated cost to develop?
Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI
volunteers do it? Who keeps the material current?
Can you give us a time and cost estimate for doing this? Any other words
of wisdom? Thanks much. The UWM Guild really appreciates any input you
can provide.
Dick Di Vecchio here from Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk Community
College, CT
About half of our members (about 360 or so) have email addresses. The
only people that use the site to any great extent are our own Board and
Committee Chairs. I personally use it to determine various meeting and
function dates, times and room numbers. Some of our facilitators have
information on the site to advise members of assignments, chapter readings,
other information. But...that doesn't meet that it's a waste of time.
Eventually as you point out, it will be the way we communicate. If you
don't get on the bandwagon, when it becomes important, you won't be there.
We put our email and web site addresses on everything. It is hoped that
it will become important to our members sooner rather than later. Answering
your questions in the order you have placed them follows:
1. Very small number of hits except for those I've mentioned.
2. Since we place our addresses on everything, we hope to attract people
to the site (but we don't need additional members), and we solicit funds
via our registration forms and through a mailing each year.
3. We are satisfied with the way it looks (check us out at http://www.lifetimelearners.org),
but we are still waiting for a lot more hits. This is our registration
period so maybe we'll have more to report soon.
4. We are fortunately blessed with someone who knows more about this stuff
than I certainly will ever learn or know, so it cost us nothing.
5. We're still learning how to do this properly. The information has to
be composed, so the composer does it in Word. Then we email the material
to our "Webmaster" to clean up a bit. But in the main, it doesn't have
to be retyped. And it costs us no money. It is getting quicker all the
time because of the improvements we've made.
6. How about the fact that you're on the web right now getting information?
Or that almost all of our communication about the Northeast Regional Conference
is being done by email? Seems to me that while it isn't perfected, this
is the way to go. One last thought. I'll check with our Webmaster to see
if she can't write up something for you. She's a super whiz and you might
find her information more enlightening than mine.
From Merle F. Allshouse, Director, Academy of Senior Professionals
at Eckerd College
1. What potion of your membership actually uses your site?
Number of hits per month, etc. - Three quarters get all their info from
the site: http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec
2. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful
in attracting members, funds, etc.? - Our audience includes: prospects;
members; faculty; students; staff.
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied
that the effort is worth it?
- By all means, it is critical for our communication at all levels...
much more is available on the web site than in print.
4. Estimated cost to develop. Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring
institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? - I did it myself.
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate
for doing this? - My administrative assistant and I keep it current. For
the Newsletter see: http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/newsletter
6. Any other words of wisdom? - Get used to it since it is the best way
to keep your communication current and far cheaper and more versatile
than paper print. We are encouraging every interest group to develop its
own web site. For an example see http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/writers.html
From Stew Engel, Mary Washington ElderStudy, Fredericksburg, VA
We have 240 members & have a web site with our schedule, general info,
& a copy of our Procedures Manual.
1. What potion of your membership actually uses your site? Number of hits
per month, etc. Don't know 2. Is your target audience other than members?
If so, has this been successful in attracting members, funds, etc.? -
Yes. I recently tried a search with Google & got 35 hits on the word "ElderStudy,"
of which 25 were for our group. Don't know how successful.
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied
that the effort is worth it? - Worth it to us because the sponsor did
it.
4. Estimated cost to develop. Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring
institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? - See #3
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate
for doing this? a. The sponsor. b. No.
6. Any other words of wisdom? -
At least one new member found us this way.
From Marilyn Bakker, Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk, CT
I'm the chair of our Electronic Communications & Computers Committee,
and webmaster. I mention the EC&C Committee just to indicate that our
website is part of a larger effort to increase electronic communications.
More on that below, but first to your questions.
1. What portion of your membership actually uses your site? Number of
hits per month, etc. [Very few members use it.]
2. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful
in attracting members, funds, etc.? [No, our target audience is members.]
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied
that the effort is worth it? [Yes.] 4. Estimated cost to develop. Did
you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI volunteers
do it? [I did it myself as a volunteer.]
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate
for doing this? [I keep it current, and it takes a lot of time, but little
money.]
6. Any other words of wisdom? [See below.] Our website is http://www.lifetimelearners.org.
We pay $35/year to maintain the domain registration, and $9.95/month to
our web host(http://www.softcomca.com). That's the total cost. I use MS
FrontPage for html and Adobe for pdf, but since I own both, the organization
didn't have to pay for them. Along with general info about LLI and our
relationship with the college, the biggest part of the site is the current
catalog (click Spring 2001).
The catalog comes to me as a Publisher file, and it takes a lot of work
to break it up into html segments. An easier alternative would be to present
the whole catalog as a pdf file, but that would be boring, and not the
best use of a website. Our monthly newsletters are presented in pdf format.
Converting them from Publisher to pdf is very quick and easy. A nice feature
of the site is the online course materials, with links to pertinent websites,
but not many course facilitators are taking advantage of this yet. Anyone
can see our hits by clicking on the Nedstat counter at bottom-left on
the main page. The hits are generally very low, but there was a surge
on Monday. The reason? The first Internet classes of the season met that
day, and the students all click on the "secret door" in the lower-right
corner of the main page to get to the online lessons that I upload to
my own website. My feeling is that we need a website because ... well,
why not? [If it cost a lot of money, and if I minded spending the time
on it, I'd have to come up with a better answer than that.] On the broader
subject of Electronic Communications, we have two automatic mailing lists
that we started with egroups, which was acquired by Yahoo. One is for
management only, the other is a forum for members who would like to ask
and answer Internet and computer-related questions. I'd be pleased to
answer any questions. If they are too nitty-gritty for the EIN forum,
write me at mbakker@optonline.net.
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May 12, 2008
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