Troop 5 Palo Alto Forum Feed

Re: What do we want for the website?

feeds@r.us — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:08:05 -0700

Michel Frei's followup suggestion: I’d like to understand how the forum will work. Right now if someone posts anything it will show up in my Outlook box, and I will see it together with all my other email. Will I need to log in into this site every day to find out what is going on?

Re: What do we want for the website?

feeds@r.us — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:07:42 -0700

Michel Frei's suggestions: This could be deployed quickly once we agree on the public interface. From the description above it seems that the public interface has content similar to the current one (with the addition of general BSA informational goodies), with the exception with the dynamic pages coming from outing descriptions. We need to discuss how these get reviewed or whether we have rules. For example, the descriptions currently posted on the staging site have full names of scouts, which is something we have always avoided in the past. We could postpone the inclusion of the outing description in the public area.

Re: What do we want for the website?

feeds@r.us — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:05:23 -0700

Calvin Woon’s initial suggestions: 1. we need to make t5 site known to the scouts..so they can use it ..eg calendar.. send it to their friends ,etc so you might want send a link, to each (especially new ones, who have yet to get the hang of going to sites, or to distribute it on the T5 group, so they get it, and stick in their browser..and to parents as well. 2. recognition tab…..”return home” is not going home. 3. photos we need to update them.. i have a ton of pixs…if you come to my place for a bit, I can help you upload, or i make a cd ( somehow i like to see how you manage the site) 4. home button, imho, should be at the top. 5.we need to have a tab for the leaders….especially a list of previous scout masters (sort of a recognition of their effort and presence).. list of ASM as well. 6. overall, i trying to think how you want to make it useful for scouts 7. Post a rank update of each scouts 8. expand the photo so that either it link to t5 yahoo album or more photos

What do we want for the website?

feeds@r.us — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:00:39 -0700

This site is intended to provide two interfaces for Troop 5: one external for public interaction, one internal for troop private interaction. For public interface, the intention is promote the troop, let the public know what the troop is, what it does, how different and exciting the troop is, what are the experiences of boy scouting, how to join, why join troop 5. For this, we will basically market our troop, from scouting experiences both from scouts and adults. For private interface, the intention is to facilitate troop communication and processes, and to provide a central depository of pertinent resources for both scouts and adults. Communication can include but not be limited to: troop announcement, troop schedules, troop plans discussion, trip coordination, trip report. Processes can include trip coordination, trip signup, trip payment collection, expense report. The platform is built on Wordpress, a web 2.0 technology, so it is modern, flexible, scalable, and allows modulated and centrally controlled access. All content is indexed, categorized, tagged, so it can be easily sorted, organized, and displayed. The following specifics have been designed with intention to achieve these goals: For public interface: There are static pages about the troop that are designed to market the troop with one way editing of content from the troop: * About Troop 5 * Join Troop 5 * Outings * Troop Meetings * Community Services * Uniforms * Advancement * Troop Goals * Adult Roles On the aesthetic side, each page has a random header image coming from troop activity stock that visually promotes the troop. There are also dynamic pages coming from Private modules that are opened for public viewing without ability to editing. These include: * Troop schedules * Troop outings (that include trip experience reflections/reports from scouts and adults, trip photos) * Resources that include forms, web links, recommended sites/readings. For private interface: All private modules are restricted to troop access only, with membership requirement. Membership is by invitation only. Public can’t request for registration or invitation. All content in private modules is open for editing by members with appropriate permission. Members can have different levels of permissions to different modules. The following items are designed: * Troop schedules. This is an interactive calendar where authorized members can add and edit items real time. It is displayed on one page with option of either month view or agenda view. For each calendar item, a link will bring to a separate page with more details where contacts are listed, pictures can be included, event location map is embedded, and also a registration system is included. This registration system allows event coordinator to manage signups, send reminders, even collect payments. * Upcoming events (next 10 on the calendar) are automatically queried and displayed on the right sidebar. * This calendar can additionally be subscribed as iCal, or be fed into Google Calendar so it can be synchronized to mobile devices. * Outings experience/reflection/report. Completed outings can be updated on the site by authorized members so they can write up reflections/reports by both scouts and adults. Each outing can have multiple pages, and each page can be further updated by other members on the comment section. * Outings are sorted and categorized by month, and by venue. All outings are tagged so when looking for a particular outing, say for example Monte Bello, all outings in the past as well in the planning or even resources relating to Monte Bello can be queried out and displayed in a cluster. * Resources are for both scouts and adults, it includes forms, web links, anything the troop finds useful and helpful. * Forum. The troop internal discussion. Similar to bulletin board, but integrated in the posting system, so discussions can be tagged and categorized within the same system with posts. Photo is an important module. Currently, photos can be grouped into albums, and displayed as slide show, which can in turn be either a standalone page or be embedded into other pages. This serves as the starting point of discussion. Please chime in.