by Lynn Ovenden, Website Working Group
The club is building a website that can become the central place to find all OFNC news and information.
For those with a technical interest, the new website will be built in WordPress. Each OFNC committee will receive website training to add event listings and blog posts to the new site at their convenience and to make any changes to their committee information. The website will function equally well on desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices.
A new website is OFNC’s first step toward improving communications to OFNC members. Modern tools enable the club to integrate email, blog, newsletter, and social media communications through the website. Our goal is a system where information and news about all OFNC activities can be shared via one central club email, one Facebook page, and Trail & Landscape. We want OFNC members to have easy access to this information. We also want to make it easy for the communicators in the club to communicate.
Do you recall the 2015 member survey (see T&L 49(3):87 and Field Notes May 11, 2015)? Communications consultant, Heather Badenoch of Village PR, developed the survey and interviewed OFNC members from every committee from January to May 2015. We learned how OFNC members like to receive information and that OFNC currently uses about 30 different communication methods to reach OFNC members if we include the various website, email, and Facebook systems of individual committees.
Village PR submitted its final report on last year’s surveys (some details are now out-of-date) with nine recommendations for OFNC’s future communications. The board of directors took the report under advisement and asked that a working group begin by developing a modern website that can support some of the other recommendations.
Big thanks to OFNC members who are helping with this process: Annie Belair, Mark Brenchley, Owen Clarkin, Barry Cottam, Ted Farnworth, Sandy Garland, Christine Hanrahan, Anouk Houdeman, Rob Lee, Lynn Ovenden, Luke Periard, Rémy Poulin, Chris Traynor, Ken Young, and Eleanor Zurbrigg. We receive strategic communication guidance from Heather Badenoch of Village PR and have been joined by web developer Osamu Wakabayashi of Zen Ideas.
With any questions about this project, please contact Lynn at bigskies at xplornet dot ca.
