Often one of the side benefits springing from Rotary membership
is the satisfaction received when using one's skills acquired over a lifetime,
to further the wonderful organisation of Rotary. Such is the enjoyment
the members of the District Website Committee receive from their involvement with the District 9790 website, even though many have never been involved in web design before.
The District 9790 website consists of more than 1000 pages of
Rotary information which regularly requires updates and revisions, with sub-sections covering
Vocational, International, Community, Club pages, meeting information, RYLA, Rotaract, links to Probus and Inner Wheel,
District Events Calendar, guest speakers, public relations and much more.
The D9790 Website Committee rely very heavily on all Club Secretaries, District Committee Chairpersons and any interested Rotarians to feed relevant information and updates through to them to maintain the validity and currency of all information contained on the site.
District is very fortunate to have an extremely dedicated Webmaster in PP
Robin Chapple (RC of Diamond Creek). Robin handles the mechanics of producing the visualisations with his
strong knowledge of, and skills, in Dreamweaver, HTML and many other areas. He generally oversees
everything to do with the site . . . his week in week out contribution
is enormous and is handled with great efficiency, nothing is too much
trouble. Robin wears many Rotary hats and is also a very active contributor
to his club (Diamond Creek).
Other members of the team support the Webmaster in various capacities, including:
- Managing specific sections of the website
- Liaising with relevant District and Club contacts to ensure information is up to date
- Designing the heading graphics that appear on many of the pages throughout the website
- Evolving the website and planning for future years
- And much more...
Website design provides some unique problems and is a balancing act
between creative design, useability, readability and file size (a large file takes longer to appear
on your screen and many viewers will not wait for large images to download), in addition to simply trying to keep pace with new technology, features and updates.
District has, in the past, been very supportive in providing
a small budget to maintain the site which has enabled the Webmaster to
obtain quality software - this in turn has had a big impact on the way
the site is able to be presented.
Design software used includes the Adobe / Macromedia Studio MX Suite (Dreamweaver,
Fireworks, Freehand and Flash) supported by Hemera Photo Objects, Swish
and Jasc Paintshop Pro software.
With each addition to the software comes an education process . . .
some of the software is quite sophisticated and has a steep learning curve
for those on the committee, requiring additional time, patience and persistence.
The current website provides additional animation and interaction and whilst Robin is hatching plans for next year's new design, this year's site is continually being updated and upgraded and is a credit to the committee's hard work and dedication.
We hope you find the site easy to navigate, interesting and informative and look forward to receiving your news, updates and information to add to this sensational marketing and information tool for District 9790.
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