Help Bringing a Gun Club into the Internet/Digital Age

[lance22]

I'm surprised nobody stepped forward; I bet you can't throw a rock on this forum without hitting a web developer of some sort. I've been cranking out websites since '97 with Fidelity, Coldwell Banker, and General Mills being my last three gigs. The average site that I work on costs about 6 million dollars. I suppose that sounds crazy to people who think a website should be $ 500.00; but I'm not talking about brochure-ware sites. In my current gig I create web based pharmaceutical software that stores / clinics use when you order your prescriptions. I'd volunteer to make your club a sitge but I already have my hands full with two forms of web-charity work in addition to my paying gig. But, I can throw you a bone if you want - I have an apprentice that I'm nurturing into the trade and there's always the chance that he'd be willing to take you on as he needs to build a portfolio. Wouldn't be free but by my standards would be a give away. FWIW I'd supervise his work. PM me if interested, and I'll ask him if he's interested.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[ntg]

Lance,
I appreciate the offer and I may take you up on it, but I need to run options by the board, etc. Thanks a ton.

There's another "service" that I'm researching that may be a good solution: http://www.wildapricot.com/. What's the likelihood that anyone is familiar with it? It seems like it will do what we need for a reasonable price.

[mandalitten]

It's a great idea with a communications committee, and my gun club started one like it a year ago and I am on the committee. It's been a great success and people love it. I don't know if I agree with the people that recommend you to use Facebook since you are locked into using their format, which is not the best format for a site that I think you are trying to set up. If many of your club members are 50+ they might not have a facebook profile either. I think you are better off creating a site from scratch since it will give you total control. I have looked a quite a few websites in my area, and most of them are horrible. If you have a nice looking website, you will most likely attract more new members. Here is a link to our site:
http://www.tivertonrodandgunclub.com/

[ntg]

Thanks mandalitten for your input. I"m with you on facebook, etc. I basically see it as a way to funnel people to our website, not a "home base" for us per se.

That's a good looking website your club has. Is it all home built or how did you go about creating/getting it? I like that your site has a calendar in it. I've thought google calendar would be a good option if we try building our own. Of course i have no idea how one plugs it into a website.

[mandalitten]

I didn't build the website, I am just on the committee and write some articles for the website and news letter. I don't think it was all home built since I think they used some kind of tool to create it. I have another website set up for www.rifol.org that I used hostgator's sitebuilder to set up. It's easy to use and you can set up a page pretty quickly. However, I am in the process of changing it and making it home made since it's much easier if I need to make modifications to it since sitebuilder doesn't give you much control over what you can change in their templates. Unless you find a good tool where it allows you a lot of control over the html/css/script, I would recommend building it from scratch. There are a lot of good info on the net as well as tons of books and if you know a little bit of programming you shouldn't have a big problem. It's also a good learning experience :-)

[ntg]

mandalitten, you other site looks interesting, and if I use sitebuilder I'll keep you as a possible reference if that is o.k. I looked at sitebuilder and don't recall if they have the ability, but we need to have a calendar/scheduling tool for sure.

[mandalitten]

That's the problem with sitebuilder, if you want to add something that's not in their templates you will most likely have a problem. They have 100s of templates, so you might find something you like though, and maybe something that has a calendar. You should be able to add a calendar to a page though. You can use me as a reference, but I cannot promise I will be of much help :-)