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ROA Department
& Chapter Web Hosting Capabilities
Introduction
In
2007 ROA expanded communications capabilities by moving to a full
service web provider. Among other things, this web-based service
allows us to provide free user-friendly department and chapter web
hosting services. In order to encourage departments and chapters to
participate, this service strikes a balance between ease of management
and range of content options.
Overview
Your
department or chapter web site will be a dedicated section of the ROA
web site. Each site will have it's own direct url. All ROA hosted sites
have an easy to remember URL derived from the department name and
chapter number. For instance, the department of Ohio is at www.roa.org/oh, and California chapter 57 is at www.roa.org/ca-ch057. Over 40
departments and chapters are currently using the service and several more are in development.
Email
Communications
Built into the system is the capability to easily
send email messages and electronic newsletters.
With the
ever-increasing costs of traditional print newsletters and decreasing budgets,
perhaps it’s time to consider delivering your department news and event invitations by email. Departments can send messages to all department
members or selected chapters within the department. Chapters may only
send messages to their chapter members. Member mailing lists are
generated from the Department/chapter information in each member's
record and are automatically updated prior to each mailing. For more
detailed information on this capability, please read the ROA Email
Serivces document availble on this page.
How others are
using the Service
To see how current users are utilizing the
service, please visit the Department & chapter
web links page. There you will find links to existing dept/chapt web
sites. Most of the listed sites use the service. The rest have opted to
host their sites on other services for more flexibility. Please visit
several of these sites to see how others are using this service.
Your
Site
Your site will consist of several blank pages to begin
with. Each can be renamed and re-purposed to suit your needs and
additional pages can be added as needed.
Software
Requirements
None. The site management process is as user
friendly as we can make it. No special software or web training is
needed. Updates and editing are done online through your browser. Your
web master should have a working knowledge of Word or similar word
processing software.
Creating your site
You will begin
by editing the "wrapper" for your site-choosing the headings for your
club activities and using the templates provided, you will select a font
and color scheme for your site. Then you will create your own content
to complete the Home Page and pages for your other activities. All these
additional pages will automatically be linked back to the Home Page for
your club.
GETTING STARTED
If you are interested in
using this free service, the file "Clubowners Guide,"
which is available for downloading on this page, provides a good deal
of information about how to use it, and step-by-step instructions.
Please review this document before making the decision to use the
service.
If you elect to use the system
Use of this
system is free and voluntary. If you decide to use it, your department
or chapter president must indicate their approval of the person who will
be responsible for the site. An email from the president to kmatthews@roa.org
with the name and email address of the approved webmaster is
sufficient.
Purely Voluntary
If you decide that this
system doesn't provide enough functionality or flexibility for your
needs, you may want to consider another service to host your site. Two
very reasonably priced hosting services are:
GoDaddy at: http://www.godaddy.com/
Earthlink at: http://www.earthlink.net/web-hosting/
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