The Web site www.boyscouts-marin.org moved to a completely new hosting environment early this year. During the last 12 months, we have worked to evolve the new site, and take advantage of the increased functionality and distributed, web-based publishing features. Our goals were to improve our visitor experience by providing accurate, timely content, and easy to use tools for calendaring, e-commerce and event registration.
In the past, the webmaster had the majority of the control over the content on the site. By moving to a distributed model, we have enabled several staff members to maintain the bulk of the information. We periodically meet as a group and "audit" the site--what is working, what is not, how can we improve the presentation of certain sections, etc. The results are a nice distribution of the workload, as well as the incorporation of several perspectives.
Impact on the council is twofold: one, broadening ownership of the site helps engage more individuals, which means better content, and two, more functionality means we can provide a quality website more effectively and efficiently--something our community has come to rely on.
You can have multiple site contributors, if you use the right system. While we have fewer actual pages and less content than were on our site previously, we believe that the site serves our visitors with more timely information and more useful tools.
Moving ahead at the beginning of 2006, the Council Marketing Committee determined that the council website needed to be improved in several key areas:
If these goals were achieved, our Web site would improve our services to area leaders and youth as well as serve as a great marketing tool for funders and community supporters who wished to evaluate or explore our organization through the Web site.
The process began by evaluating the optimal flow chart for the site as well as the branding needs for our local council. Two initial findings were made:
Images were selected by the Marketing Team from a collection of photos from assistant Scout executive. The final images best captured the spirit of fun, diversity, and learning that we wanted to communicate to our Scouting community as well as the community-at-large.
Taken together, these changes were implemented by our Council Marketing Chairman Bryan Kramer and his firm, PureMatter.
The immediate impact of our Web site redevelopment has been an overall buzz and excitement within the Scouting community. The changes on the site also reflect changes within the organization.
Overall, the Web site is receiving an increased number of hits and we expect that trend to continue as we add additional layers to the Web site, including online registration for council activities and links for potential unit outings.
Through this process, the professional team of the Santa Clara County Council as well as the council marketing committee realized that our focus needed to be realigned to reflect the boys in Scouting along with the impact Scouting has on their lives. Too frequently, our focus on the Web site had shifted to simply passing information between people without pausing to consider its effect on the youth we serve.
Subsequently, the council has designated "A Scout Life" for our 2007 theme which will be reflected in all marketing and public relations for the year.
The goal of the new Piedmont Council Web site was to design and produce a community site that will become the main source of information for all things relating to the Piedmont BSA council. Information on the site includes pack, troop, venturing information; council calendar and events; donation and endowment information and capabilities; sophisticated e-commerce capabilities; resource and training information and links; various forms; and links of other organizations. The Web site was designed as a recruitment tool to bring in new Scouts and parents, to inform existing Scouts and parents of events, and to reduce the amount of paperwork and phone answering done at the council office. Because we are a youth-oriented organization, we designed the Web site process and production to include significant Scout participation.
Although we have volunteers with Web design experience, most of them use their talents to create Web pages for the units in which their children participate. We felt we needed someone with focused and ongoing attention to design the site. To this end we submitted a grant proposal to and received funding from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation to hire professional help to put the site together once the planning was done. Since the site went "live" we have mailed two postcards to our Scouting community to introduce it and promote its use.
The process for designing and producing the Web site was broken down into the following stages:
A. Outline
a. Write outline of Web site content
i. Input by a wide range of council Scouts, advisors, volunteers and office staff
ii. Brainstorming session with the executive board on key points for the site
iii. Writing an outline for the content broken down into links and categories
iv. Several reviews and revisions on the outline content
b. Approval and sign-off on outline
B. Flowchart
a. Construction of Web site flowchart
b. Approval and sign-off on flowchart
C. Staging of production
a. Hierarchy of pages, production and collection of content
i. Communication committee breakdown on Web page priorities
ii. Assignment of collecting and writing content
iii. Assembling photos or other images
A. Content Providers
a. Establishing a content coordinator
b. Copywriting
c. Photography
d. Forms
e. Other
B. Designer/Production
a. Job description for designer/production
i. Staging of project
ii. Requirements for job
iii. Work/payment schedule
C. Production Level 2
a. Scout Coordinator
b. Scouts who will enter content into templates
A. Design first three levels of Web site (splash/primary [home], secondary, tertiary levels)
B. Collect content for first three levels (copy, photos, other)
C. Production of first three levels
a. Template and master pages produced by designer
b. Additional pages produced by Scouts
A. Identify and design first stage of quaternary pages (fourth level)
B. Collect content for first stage of quaternary pages (copy, photos, forms, other)
C. Production of first stage of quaternary pages
a. Template and master pages produced by designer
b. Additional pages produced by Scouts
D. Upload of partial site (August 15) [Entire site went up on August 15]
A. Identify and design second stage of quaternary pages (fourth level)
B. Collect content for second stage of quaternary pages (copy, photos, forms, other)
C. Production of second stage of quaternary pages
a. Template and master pages produced by designer
b. Additional pages produced by Scouts
D. Upload site (September 15)
E. [Entire site went up on August 15]
A. Identify log-in and e-commerce requirements
B. Design layouts and scripting structure
a. Log-in area
b. E-commerce company
c. Christmas tree lot information and job signups
d. Donation and endowment payment pages
C. Production of log-in and e-commerce pages
a. Template and master pages produced by designer
b. Additional pages produced by Scouts
D. Upload and connect e-commerce capability
[All e-commerce, Christmas tree and endowment and donation pages uploaded November 15]
A. Web designer works with Venturing crew to organize, design and produce their own Web site
B. This project is currently in process
It is difficult to describe the leap forward the council has accomplished this year in completing the new Web site. It has created an energy and excitement in our small Scouting community about the possibilities that we have only begun to explore. For example, the council has always mailed a "council calendar." This year we did not create a hard copy and we have successfully been directing people to the online calendar for event information and to sign up for activities. This has been well received. In fact, our biggest challenge is keeping ahead of requests for additional online information: for near-time events there are sign-up and medical forms, but when we first went live, we did not have all the extended information available for events later in the year. This confirmed our belief that the site would be a primary source of information for current council members.
We recently added a PayPal account for FOS contributions and online registration for council-wide events. Since it was added in November/December, we have not yet notified people that it is available. However, online registrations are already coming in for a January event for which this was an advertised option.
Every year the council raises some $150,000 by selling Christmas trees. This is a huge operation that requires a great deal of volunteer coordination and manpower. This year we managed the entire volunteer schedule through an online registration and schedule system. Volunteers literally managed the schedule themselves by communicating changes and assignments directly on line to the entire participating community. This greatly reduced duplication of effort and confusion about assignments and had the added benefit of reducing the paper workload of the council paid staff at the busiest time of year.
Beyond our immediate community, we have begun to get inquiries from old time Piedmont Scouters who now live in other parts of the state or country. Some of them have suggested corrections to our history and provided old photographs! Google Analytics reports for the three and a half months since the site was activated reveal that it has been accessed from all over the country and even the world! And people are coming back to the site for more than one visit: To date some 20 to 25 percent of those visiting are return users!
We learned that before building the site, investing the time to establish goals and plan what's needed to achieve them made all the difference between a Web site that would have been "adequate" and one that is much more than the sum of its parts.
The site is set up in such a way that it is relatively easy to add functionality as needed, without creating a hodge-podge effect. So far everything that we have added has created clarity of additional functionality. The site is not finished, it will continue to evolve as we find better ways to communicate or discover additional ways to use the site.
The objectives of the council Web site are:
The council's Web Site committee, comprised of volunteers and a staff advisor, meets monthly to review site pages along with statistical and user feedback. Between meetings of the committee, approved information to be posted to the Web site is sent electronically to a designated Webmaster. This includes information on upcoming events, training, and integrating online services such as advancement, rechartering, camping, and training.
The Web site, which is constantly in a state of change, has recently added features to help new families join the Scouting program. Along with making the council Web site as user-friendly as possible for both returning and new users, the Web Site Committee has recently launched a separate Web site to promote and offer the same services for the Learning for Life and Exploring programs.
The Web site committee also maintains a log of open and closed maintenance items, which includes all site activity, updates and items that need to be fixed or updated.
To be useful to our volunteers and visitors, the site is updated regularly.
The council Web site has become the go-to source for information regarding events and current council information. The number of phone calls to the council requesting information has been significantly reduced. In the Members Area of the Web site the council newsletter, Smoke Signals, is now published, saving thousands of dollars in printing and postage costs. Merit Badge Counselor lists, updated monthly, can also be found there. The council is also now offering Online Advancement, Rechartering, and Merit Badge Class signups for summer camp.
Any Web site is useful only when it is constantly maintained and updated. Without the dedicated volunteers who assist with this process, it would be a daunting task.
We constantly learn that volunteers want more information, in a convenient, easy to access format. To that end, we are committed to provide that information. They also want a streamlined and intuitive process for registering for camp, program and training. This will lead to the design and launch of an online registration and payment process in early 2007.
The objective of the council's Web site is to provide current, accurate information to our Scouters, Scout families, and friends in the community.
The council Web site is run almost entirely by a team of 28 dedicated volunteers! They do 95% of the work on a daily basis, providing the updates and keeping their pages current. They do an awesome job with our 200+ page site!
We have designated Web masters for each of our 11 districts, each of our activity areas (camping, advancement, religious committees), and each of our program areas (OA, ESAA, High Adventure, etc.). The team meets a couple of times each year to share ideas, put names to e-mail addresses, and to celebrate their efforts. All other communication between the team is done via e-mail. The team is led by two outstanding council Webmasters...volunteers supreme!
With over 500 individual, unique visitors a day, the Website has a big impact on the success of our Scouting programs. Tracking software allows us to see exactly where our visitors are going and to adapt our pages to best serve our users.
Our goal in 2007 is to add extensive automation to the Web site (through online surveys, sign-ups and payments), while still retaining the personal touch that only our volunteer team can provide.
|
|
To create a Web site that supports the ScoutParents national initiative. The site is functional, easy to use, communicates timely information, is visually effective in reaching parents who have Scouts in the program as well as getting parents information on how to get their child in the program.
The Flint River Council worked with our council ScoutParent chairman who took this project on. We also met with people who were familiar with Scouting as well as those who were not to get feedback on our design. The site came online in July of 2006.
The main objective was an information site that has useful and current information for parents. The site encourages them to participate in the program, gives them Scouting basics and benefits for their child and supports the vision of recruitment and retention of both child and parent.
We are still monitoring the number of hits on the site and the information downloaded. We expect to be better able to educate parents on the Scouting program and provide them with the tools they need to provide a quality and long term Scouting program for their son. Recruitment, retention and participation of more youth and adults are the goal of this program.
It takes quite a bit of time and resources to bring a new site online and develop the linkage, flow and architect. After the site comes up it requires a significant amount of time from the Webmaster to keep it vibrant, accurate and effective. Web sites will be the major means of communicating with parents and volunteers in the future. It is important to recruit the professional support that can make this site development work.
 |
 |
The Grand Teton Council has seven goals or objectives for the Council Web site.
The planning and developing of the council Web site took over 18 months. Our objectives placed many challenges in front of us. Instead of just a HTML page, which we started, the council Web page has evolved into a Web site with a Cold Fusion application and development. News and Static page editors had to be developed to manage over 1,000 pages of static information, 60+ news items for the council and district, and 2,200 calendar entries. The council Web site changed into an online system with unlimited possibilities. The planning and implementation of this project will never end and it will change with the council needs. Recently, phase two has been put into production.
In the planning process we developed two sites to test our newest and latest additions to the Web page. These pages were not publicized, but the word quickly got out on the benefit of the Web page. We had over 500 individuals look at our "hidden" preview site. Volunteers will have all the information in one spot to keep current with Scouting. Our council is spread over a very large geographic area. Additional tools are in the planning stage that will help with our outlying areas. The Web page has turned into a tool for communication. With every page live or built-on-the-fly, we can quickly change the information.
In the last year since we have been live, we have had over 90,000 visitors (unique IP addresses) and 6,178 registered users. The Grand Teton Council has been visited from Scouts and Scout leaders from across the nation and the world. Over 1,790 of the registered users are from outside the Grand Teton Council.
I personally have learned that a Web page, with our objectives, is an ongoing project. To meet our objectives, we have to rely heavily on volunteers for news and content input. The council has learned the benefit of the Web page as a marketing tool and a resource for the thousands of volunteers and Scouts we serve. We know the increase in summer camp unit attendance in 2006 was primarily due to the council Web site.
 |
 |
The objectives of the council's new Web strategy were:
The Sam Houston Area Council Web site, www.samhoustonbsa.org, is used as a communication tool with the council's internal audience (volunteers, parents, donors, staff, and Scouts). The Web strategy was expanded in 2006 to include online management functionality, multi-media, and online research.
One of the primary elements of the new Web strategy is the incorporation of a recruiting-focused Web site called www.BuildingStrongValues.org and a PR event Web site called www.HowIMakeADifference.org (a Web site focused on the council's Good Deed Day event, which encouraged everyone in the council service area to perform at least one good deed on September 12, declared by many local mayors and civic officials as Good Deed Day.)
The primary step in the planning process was the hiring of a marketing director who could coordinate the council's marketing efforts and build a cohesive execution plan for the council's overall five-year marketing and communications plan.
The marketing director was tasked with recruiting and engaging volunteer professionals to help integrate the council's other marketing vehicles with the council's Web site strategy.
The marketing director was trained in the use of the council's Web content management tool and took over the day-to-day content management duties of the council's home page events and news segments.
 |
 |
In order to better serve our volunteers and communicate to the general community about the Atlanta Area Council, we decided to create a new Web site. In the past we have relied on a volunteer to host our site (at no charge) and update the site. We had little control over the timeliness of updates and the site was not as user-friendly as it could be. The council wanted to create an interactive Web site for volunteers, Scouts, and the community that was user-friendly and pleasant to the eye.
The council began by researching several Web firms, including Double Knot. After many conversations with them and other councils that use them, we decided to move to their company. With these features the council would have full control over Web updates by numerous people, hold online registration, and take payments online. Although we would be paying for this service, it would be returned many times over through online service and less questions coming into our Program Center. The council also worked with a PR firm, at no cost, to design the Web layout. Working with a professional Web designer helped us design a user-friendly and Scout looking site while sticking with Web standards. After days of inputting data, the site is now up and running and an ever-changing project.
The council has had much positive feedback about the site. Several functions allow us to monitor who requests information on joining Scouting, who views the newsletter, and how many hits we have, all being very successful. We have also found that our youth visit the site almost as much as adults. They have enjoyed the just-for-kids interactive pages. With easy-to-find information for volunteers, parents, and committee members right on the site, fewer phone calls have been coming to the front desk and program center. Information is now easy to obtain, which is a great impact on the council, community, our volunteers, and our Scouts.
The council learned that it is absolutely necessary to have access to update the site. Although it is great to have a webmaster at no cost, it is inefficient. It is important to give out the responsibilities of updating the site to several people, by program or emphasis. This way the site is not program-heavy for one particular purpose and can be updated on a daily basis.
 |
 |
To create an easy, user-friendly tool units and individuals could use to get Scouting's message to the media.
The council worked closely with Cinema-Source, Inc., a company owned by an executive board member, to build www.boyscoutsnews.com. The process began with extensive brainstorming among executive and volunteer members, as well as experts from Cinema-Source to make the site as user-friendly as possible. We created and uploaded a database listing every print, radio, Internet and television media organization in the council. We developed a series of checks through which each press release must go through before it is distributed to the media, effectively ensuring that every release is viewed and approved by more than one individual.
We also developed a promotion plan to roll this out to our volunteers.
Our council has seen a gradual increase in the presence of Scouting-related articles in the news media. The Web site was a centerpiece of our fall recruiting effort in providing information to our local newspapers and television stations on when, where, and why to join.
Volunteers' time is at a premium, and it is our role as a council to make the most efficient use of their time by creating tools to make their roles easier. That being said, we still need to identify boyscoutsnews.com promotions chairs in each of our districts to push and reinforce the importance of getting news releases out to our units.
Effectively communicate information to volunteers, scouts, and other interested parties.
New and exciting pages are added through the efforts of both professionals and volunteers. The merit badge counselor directory is a recent addition that has been a great addition.
Use and demand for this venue continues to increase.
This has become a primary source of information for many people.
The Merits of Marketing (marketing.scouting.org) is a resource for local
councils, developed by the Marketing &
Communications Division of the National Council, Boy Scouts of
America.