Web Site Creation Thoughts

Building a web site can be a frustrating process since it rarely turns out the way you want it the first time around. However, this is good! After all a web site shouldn't be something that you build once and leave it. It should be considered as a constantly evolving piece of work that requires your attention to maintain it's contents.

Visitors to a site are usually looking for something specific. If your site doesn't have what they're looking for they move on. Consider this from your point of view. When you use a search engine to look for something what do you do when you go to a web site that doesn't have what you want? You move on.

First consider the audience that you're creating it for. The answer to this question is "The Members of Your Own Unit".  Your primary purpose should always be to provide information and support for the members of your own unit. Visitors from overseas and other areas of the world may enjoy your site but its information will always be more useful to the members of your own unit.

In doing this you may ask yourself what's the site going to look like? Well, that's up to you. Step back and review the activities that your unit likes to be involved in. Keeping in mind that your goal is to serve your own unit first, then build the site around the theme of your own unit.

You are free to make the site any way you choose. However, we do have some policies that we insist on since Orange County Council is hosting the site. I won't go into those policies here. They are readily available on this web site on the menu to your left and they should be completely review by anyone who is building a web site under the ocbsa.org domain. Sites that do not comply to these policies will be removed from the server.

So what do you put into the site????

First of all and probably most important is an up-to-date Calendar of Events. This can be in the standard calendar format or it can be a simple list of events. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you keep it up-to-date. Again, see our polices. We permit webmasters to Embed a Google Calendar.

The other item that most youth and some adults enjoy are photos of recent events. A few well placed photos on the home page will help draw your visitor's attention. In regards to photos; keep the resolution down to around 70-100 bit and the size to 8x10 or less. More than this is a waste of space and won't improve the appearance of the photo on the visitors display.  The other thought here is to not maintain a large library of photos. Generally speaking a years worth of photo history is sufficient. If you want to maintain a larger library of events then consider using the Picasa Web on Google. Our policies permit you to Embed a Picasa Web album into a page of your site. Again, see the policies.

Remembering that since you're building the site as a resource for the members of your unit you probably want to provide some additional resources for advancement, belt loops, merit badges, etc.  This is OK as long as the resources you reference are officially recognized by the BSA.  The Internet is full of well-intentioned web sites that try and publish helpful information on the programs of scouting. Now you are going to be joining that list! You want your site to be accurate - right? Again our policies should guide your efforts here.

DO NOT LINK TO ANY WEB SITE THAT ISN'T OFFICIAL when you're recommending Merit Badge, Advancement, Belt Loops, training and other important items. The only official source of information is either the National BSA Site at http://www.scouting.org   or the Council at http://www.ocbsa.org  - see the policies.

Look at your list of resources this way; Let's consider for a moment that you have a young man in your unit who's working on his Eagle project. He's 17 years old and has been working for several months. His parents and he have both reviewed your web site for guidance and have been using the information that he's obtained from one of the resources you listed.  Finally, he's finished. He turns his work into the district advancement chairman for review and finds out that some of the badges he's been working on are no longer on the Eagle list of badges but others that he didn't work on are. Does he have the time to start over? Maybe not.  How are you going to feel when the boy tells you that your information is out of date?

This situation may seem remote but it happens more than we realize. This is why we have taken the stance of insisting that web sites that we host do not reference material that isn't official.  We are simply not willing to take the risk of one of our youth missing out on an award because the information he/she was given was inaccurate.

On the subject of links, permit me to make a suggestion. When you're creating your site, don't just create a page full of links to someone elses work. Try and be somewhat creative. Design your own graphics. A simple table can be used to display photos. Put the thumbnails of your photos in the cells of a table and link to the full-sized picture. Your site doesn't need to be extensive to be useful. An accurate calendar of events, a page of contact information for the leaders of the unit, and a few photos are often all that's needed to be helpful to the members of your unit. 

The webmaster is the Gardner and the Unit is the garden with the members of the unit being the plants in the garden. Your job as webmaster is to get the water to the end of each row and see that each plant is watered.  In other words, your job is to see to it that information you're given is posted in such a manner that it's useful to the members of your unit. Anything less than this and you're not successful.

A thought based upon a well know Cub Scout saying:   K.I.S.S.   (Keep It Simple Scouter). Don't complicate the site by extensive "stuff" that isn't required. The more straight forward the site the easier it's going to be for your visitor to find something. Don't put items onto the site that are not useful to the members of your unit. And follow the policies. Your site will be reviewed periodically.

Last but definitely not least: Update, Update, Update, Update: Your site needs your constant attention. If you build it once and never Update, your visitors will quickly lose interest and never return. You'll have failed as the gardner of your unit.

Good Luck. I hope these few thoughts have been helpful. If you need additional help in building your site, we have a group of support personnel who have a wide variety of talents and who are willing to help. They're members of the IT Support Team and a list with contact information is available on this web site.

Roy Mickelsen

Council IT Commissioner