Tips on Building Your Own Scouting Web Page
In October 1999, the Scouts Association of Penang decided to enter
the world of cyberspace with the 1st Annual State Scout and Guide
Website Competition. In the midst of this competition, Scout and
Guide troops all over the state got into a website-mania,
challenging each other for superiority in cyberspace. A guideline
and criteria on the creation of a Scout/Guide Unit website was then
introduced by the Penang Scouts Association.
Although not a comprehensive guide, the following tips may help
you in building a website for your Scouting organization:
CONSIDERATIONS
First Things First - Planning
Decide what kinds of information you want to publish
Who will develop content and who will do the web publishing
Where will you host your website
How will you let your target audience know about your web page
When will you update your content
Setting Up A Website
Hosting: Make arrangements with an Internet Service Provider to host
your website.
Uploading: Look for a host that will allow you to upload
files via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) instead of a proprietary web
based device that forces you to load one file at a time.
Server Space: Make sure that the host offers enough free
space for what you want to put on the web. Shoot for 5 megabytes or
higher to start.
Contract: Review the hosting arrangement to make sure you do
not have to include content from the host that might be inconsistent
with the aims and objectives of Scouting; e.g., you do not want to
have a banner add that changes to advertisements for alcoholic
beverages or promotion of a site with adult content.
Free Hosting: You can visit The NetCommish or http://www.creighton.edu/~bsteph/pack114/library/freepgs.html
where there are lists of ISPs that provide free website hosting. In
addition you may want to consult the agreement you entered into with
your ISP to get access to the Internet. Most providers offer a
limited amount of fee web space. For example, AOL offers members the
option to have up to five screen names with 2 MB of space for web
pages for each screen name (total - 10 MB).
Local Resources: Check with local Scouters in your area to
see whether a local ISP offers free hosting. In some areas ISPs even
compete to offer free hosting to non-profit organizations.
Plan a template for each of your web pages that includes:
Title Tags - make sure that each page is identified with a
title that describes the page. This is what search engine robots
will use to index your website. Include key words related to the
page including the word "Scout" and the name of your
organization. The name of your city and state may also be helpful.
Remember that when someone bookmarks your page the information in
this tag will become the bookmark's name. Titles like "home
page" are not very helpful. Instead try something like
"Boy Scout Troop 13, Kilian, Texas - Home Page"
Identify Your Site: Use A Masthead or something that
identifies your website on each page. You want visitors to know when
they are on your website and when they have reached someone else's
website.
Make It Easy to Navigate Navigation links - Always make sure
you have links on each page that lead visitors back to your home
page or any key web pages on your site.
At this point you may want to sit down and draw a diagram of how you
want your website organized. Usually it is best to have a simple
home page that only gives the most important information in very
brief form to a visitor and links to the rest of your website. Most
successful websites have a hierarchy of pages. The top level is the
home page. The next level of pages are tables of contents arranged
by subject area. Finally the bulk of pages are at the third level
where most of your information is presented. Be careful not to have
too many levels. Most users will not go beyond four levels.
Example:
Home Page
Calendar of Events
About our Troop
Meetings
Leaders
Getting Ready for Camp Checklist
How to Join
What's New
Activities
Campout
Summer Camp
Hike
Scouting for Food
If you use an image map for your navigation, make sure to also
include text links. Otherwise, some people may not be able to get
beyond your front door because their browser doesn't support image
map links. Redundant navigation isn't bad.
Content Area: The middle of your page is where you are going
to place your content and perhaps links.
Footer information: At the bottom of each page include
information about copyrights, if you have any and contact
information. Each page should provide a method of contacting the web
page owner to make suggestions or alert you to problems. Generally
including an hyperlink to an e-mail address is sufficient. If you
can include a link to a suggestion form that is better.
Develop a web policy for your pages
Laws and Rules: Check to see whether there any laws
restricting what you can place on your website or any rules from
your Scouting Association on web content
Council: Incorporate your Council's web policy, if there is
one. (US)
District: Incorporate your District's web policy, if there is
one. (US)
Privacy: Address privacy and youth protection issues
Avoid pictures of Scouts that identify the Scout by first and last
name
Contact information should lead to an adult, avoid e-mail links to a
youth member
Do not include personal information about anyone without the
individual's permission (parents permission for a youth member)
Commercialism: You may want to avoid links to commercial
websites to avoid giving the appearance of a Scouting endorsement of
a particular commercial product
Link Restrictions: You may want to restrict links to only
local Scouting units, your District, and your Council
Scouts with Disabilities: You may want to require all pages
to be compatible with a text based web browser like LYNX. This means
that all graphics will need to use the "ALT" tag to
identify the graphic and any link related to the graphic, if it is
used for navigation. This will also help people with disabilities to
navigate your site.
Writing the HTML
Look at How Others Do It: It's a good idea to look at other
pages and view the HTML source to find out how a certain effect can
be achieved.
Free Template: For a bare-bones, foot-in-the-door web
presence, you can try using the templates that are available at our
website. Click
here.
Backgrounds: Keep your background light and simple - a busy
background will make it difficult to read your content. Also make
sure that your text has good contrast values with your background.
For example, light purple on bright yellow is hard too read and may
make your visitor look for an air sickness bag.
Keep It Simple: Don't overdo the bells and whistles - if you
use java applets, javascripts, heavy graphics, etc. all on one page,
it may take forever to load for a modem user and obscure the message
you are trying to get across. While the page may look really neat to
the author, most visitors will move on to another page, if it
doesn't load in 15-30 seconds. Keep It Simple.
Graphics: Use graphics to enhance your pages and help tell
your story, but remember that the larger the graphic the slower your
page will be to load. Try using only a few graphics for each page
and keep them as small as possible. (Do not rely on width and height
parameters in your html to make the graphic smaller. This does not
decrease the file size of your graphic and actually takes longer to
load because your user's browser has to calculate the resizing of
the graphic. Instead resize the graphic to exactly what you want
with a graphics editor program.)
Preferred graphics formats include GIF and JPEG. Other formats may
not be supported by all browsers. GIF works best for small objects,
line art, and lower resolution images. JPEG is preferred for complex
images, such as photographs.
Attracting and Keeping Visitors
Register your website with popular search engines
E-mail an announcement about your website to online Scouting groups
like Scouts-L
E-mail local Scouters about the opening of your website
Notify other Scouters that maintain link sites or indices to
Scouting websites
Notify public service websites for your community and ask for a link
Put an announcement in your local Scouting newsletter
Use word-of-mouth locally too
Update your content regularly, stale content will suggest to a
visitor that one visit is enough
If available from your host, use website statistics to help you
decide what pages are being used and which ones are not. This may
help you figure out what needs work, what needs to go and what needs
to be expanded.
As for comments and evaluation
Respond to customer needs - don't argue with suggestions, use
them when possible
Make your content valuable - offer what customers want
Thank you to the U.S. Scouting Project
Portal for helping us with this article.
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