A website for every Club and District in RIBI
Every club and district in RIBI now has its own webspace within the RIBI site. I have designed this for a number of reasons;
- When starting this scheme in 2005, two-thirds of Rotary Clubs did not have websites.
- Some of the existing websites were not current, some even displaying information (theme graphics etc) from several years ago!
- Sometimes, when the club webmaster leaves the club, the domain name and the hosting leaves with him or her, so the club's site dies.
- Sometimes a member leaves and there is nobody with the expertise to maintain the existing site
- I wanted an easy-to-use site that anyone with an Internet connection could use to supply information about their club.
- I wanted a consistent 'corporate' look, reflecting the style of the RIBI site and our Rotary branding. Whilst there are some superb independent sites out there, to be honest there are more absolute shockers! As an organisation of professional and business people, I felt that our web presence should reflect this professionalism.
- I wanted a site that had all the features a club might want - more features are constantly developed, often based on requests from the clubs themselves.
- I wanted our own charity - The Rotary Foundation - to benefit. If you are reading this and are not a member of Rotary, you should be aware that NO ROTARIAN BENEFITS FROM OUR CHARITY, it funds a huge range of humanitarian activities. See www.rotary.org/foundation for more details.
To gain access to the site, Rotarians must register on the database. Rotarians are only asked to provide their names, club name and email address – they can also provide a photo of themselves and additional information later, if they wish, to help everyone know “who’s who”.
Rotarian’s EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE NOT DISPLAYED IN ANY OF THE PUBLIC AREAS OF THE SITE. Each member chooses their own unique username & password combination, so they can log in to their Club/District/RIBI section (as applicable)
Your own club website:
It is easy to use! Each club site can be administered by club members. No technical knowledge of web design is needed – anyone with a computer and Internet connection can easily maintain the site.
Clubs do not need to use all the facilities - pick and choose to suit your club; you may prefer to keep things simple to begin with.
Clubs have complete control over;
- Creating their own committees
- Maintaining their own club programme
- Adding Committee members
- Writing reports from the committees (including pictures)
- A ‘Members only’ area in which information not of interest to the general public can be posted
- Meeting information, e.g. venue details
- ‘Charter Celebration’ information – useful to advertise the event to other clubs
- Writing reports on special events organised by the club (including pictures).
Information supplied by the clubs can be displayed automatically on the district and RIBI sites – for example an event added to a club website can be displayed on the district site – if the district is using the system.
Each club has a contact form, which hides the destination email address. If no email address is entered by the club, the form isn’t shown. Clubs can also choose the subject headings and destination addresses!
I would like to emphasise that use of the new facilities is NOT compulsory – though I obviously hope there will be a significant number of clubs and districts who utilise them. One of the advantages of using such an integrated system is that new features can be designed and they are instantly available to every club, district or RIBI committee. Information can flow from club – district – RIBI and vice versa; the latest information about a particular project could be instantly available to clubs, without the need to go searching for it!
Another great advantage is that this is to the benefit of The Rotary Foundation! Clubs making use of the system (beyond keeping their meeting details accurate) are requested to make a donation of £50 p.a. to The Rotary Foundation of The United Kingdom at Alcester. Such donations should be in addition to normal contributions! This cost is significantly less than other ‘club site’ templates available and all the funds go to our own charity. See this page for the latest usage statistics and funds raised.
Use the menu, top left, to follow tutorials showing how easy it is to maintain your own site. Alistair West, District 1010 web administrator, has produced an excellent PowerPoint presentation on how to use the site. This can be downloaded here, but note it is a 9Mb+ download! You can download the powerpoint viewer (if you don't have PowerPoint) here.
Rtn. Chris Sweeney
Hon. RIBI Web Editor