TOPIC:

spokanefalls.toastmastersclubs.org/

I would appreciate feedback on our website.

I'd love to have a slide show of members in action on the home page, but don't know how to make that happen. Help!

Thanks,
Linda Karalfa
VPM

Linda,

Bumping this thread so it does not get overlooked. I will come back to this with my comments later.

Also, do you have a Flickr account or Instagram account to store photos? That would be the first step for a slide show. (We do not store the photos for a slide show.)

no I don't have a flickr or instagram account. Can you keep the picture collection private?

lindakaye wrote:

spokanefalls.toastmastersclubs.org/

I would appreciate feedback on our website.
Thanks,
Linda Karalfa
VPM

Linda:

First, congratulations on taking steps to make your club more appealing to potential guests to your club and current members. In order to have a website as content-rich as yours is, it takes both want-to and follow-through to get it done, so that is, off the top, what impresses me about your site.

From what I see on the main page, it appears that you have created the page to appeal to the visitors to your site AND made it convenient to members to access certain info, or stay current on events and happenings, without having to log in.

I LOVE three things that you currently do:

1) A summary of the last meeting
2) Your club news section
3) The club photo gallery is really engaging and gives an inside look at who is part of your club, and gives insight to the club culture

2 things that I thing you could improve are:

1) Eliminating or integrating some of the links on the main menu, so it looks a little less cluttered.

Since your club has devoted a lot of time to creating original (organic) content, you may want to reduce the number of Organizational promo pieces that are offered through freetoasthoast.

Doing so, will allow the visitor to focus on understanding your club's culture.

2) Member Profiles - At a minimum, all club officers should make their profiles public, since these would be the people who would process a new member's application. While I'm excited to see non-officer's profiles, I think it would build trust, since a guest might eventually hand over some money for dues, etc. to one of these folks.

Overall, you currently have a solid website that reflects and works within your club culture. A couple minor tweaks (not a major overhaul) would help you make an outsider's visit to your website more pleasant by de-cluttering the menu and making officers more visible.

Thanks for putting yourself out there and requesting an evaluation on something you've worked so hard at improving. I hope you find it as beneficial a learning experience as it has been for me.

- Giovanni Lizama
Club #2945

First Impression: cleanly-presented.

I like the photograph that accompanies the text on the homepage. I learn immediately where this club is.

The newsletters are great! Well done. May I suggest renaming them so they are in chronological order? That would serve the visitor better.
SFTM_Newsletter_13-01
SFTM_Newsletter_13-04
SFTM_Newsletter_14-08
SFTM_Newsletter_15-02

I really like the club news page. And congratulations to your club!

The Future Agendas page is interesting. I note your club doesn't use the FTH agenda system. That makes this page important.

Your club photo gallery is nice.

Meet Our Members
More members needed, methinks.

Hit Counter
I find hit counters a relic from the early days of the web. I do not think they add to the look of a web site.

Instead, using Google Analytics provides far better information about the traffic at your site and is invisible to the visitor.

Overall, I like the site. It is informative, neat, and clean.

Liked the last meeting news on the home page and the photo gallery being up to date. Good stuff. It would be a club I would choose to visit. Reading the thread I learnt about Flickr. Thanks. Future agendas is interesting.A presidents Distinguishe Club.. I would join. As for suggestions I have none, but I take away much to think about.

lindakaye wrote:

no I don't have a flickr or instagram account. Can you keep the picture collection private?

The pictures for a slideshow will need to be hosted somewhere like Flickr or Instagram. While you can certainly put slideshows for those on your website via any of the readily available widgets on the internet for that, we do not have any "built-in" functionality for slide shows.

Thanks for the information, Steve. I will look into that.

I look forward to a deeper evaluation from you!

Linda

My Comments:

Likes:

1. "Welcome to our Presidents Distinguished Club" Nice! Is this your first year being Presidents Distinguished? If not, maybe add something like it is our third year in a row being President's Distinguished, which is Toastmasters highest award earned for club excellence. Your club earned that award, so make the award work for you.

2. "Spokane Falls Toastmasters is a group of people who accept the challenge of excellence! Our mission is to"empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. We value the lessons the Toastmasters program offers, achieving honors as we progress. This is enhanced by our diverse membership and the fun we have together." Very nice "elevator pitch" / value proposition!

3. You have photos of members on your home page. Even better, they are getting awards in the photos.

4. Meeting Info page. This is really great. The photos, the text and the Google map work well together. I am confident that I could find your meeting if I were to visit.

5. Contact Us has phone # on it. Good!

6. Downloadable Newsletters. Nice!

7. Club News Page. Very Nice!

8. Future Agendas Page - Nice

9. Distinguished Club Program Page - Nice That may be a nice page to link to on your home page for those that do not understand what President's Distinguished means.

10. Photo Gallery page -

Possible Areas for Improvement

11. Use of color. You are using color, but it is a predominately yellow theme. You are getting some color from the home page photos, also, but I would suggest looking where you can put in some more contrast regarding the colors. For example, your home page background looks to be the exact same color as the site background (the site border colors). Refer to my points in: support.toastmastersclubs.org/6-tips-and...-on-the-use-of-color

12. Your home page is a lot of text and a few photos. I would move the "Summary of Last Club Meeting" to a supporting page and just include a link to it on your Home Page. (e.g. Click HERE for a Summary of our Last Club Meeting!) If you did that and added a few more photos to the home page, I think it would be more balanced.

13. You have photos that are very good, accomplishment oriented. Those work well, but I think prospective members also want to be part of a club that can have some fun. Do you have any "fun photos" also?

14. Mention briefly where you meet on your home page, but link that to your Meeting Info page for them to get directions. Use the link Advisory Title for the pop up tip text. (e.g. We meet at xxxxx xxxx , Spokane Falls... Click HERE for directions to our meeting. We look forward to meeting you!) Put it towards the bottom of the Home Page.

15. Include a link to Contact Us on your home page spokanefalls.toastmastersclubs.org/?contactus (Click HERE to Contact Us about our next meeting.)

16. Meet Our Members - President is missing. Officers are missing, Need participation in this, need photos, need bios. A prospective members should have a clear understanding of the type of people in your club.

17. Public Downloads - Put the Newsletters in a Virtual Folder

18. Supporting pages - You could use 2-3 more supporting pages. (FAQs, Member Login Help, A Typical Meeting, Description of Meeting Roles, Our Club Founder page, Distinguished Members page, Our Club Officers page, etc.)

19. (Home page) "See the club news page for information on upcoming events." Make this text a link to that page. (select the text and create the link on the text)

Overall, you obviously have a great club. This is your opportunity to let the world see that. Best Wishes!

Linda,

In order to continue to have this forum section be useful into the future, we need to request that everyone contribute to it.

Therefore, we are implementing "Get an evaluation, give an evaluation." . Basically, we are requesting those who have received a website evaluation give a Toastmasters style website evaluation for at least one other club that has requested an evaluation in this forum section. (You get to choose which club website to do the website evaluation for.) Just post your impressions: things you like about the website, and areas for improvement. Everyone has something to offer... just trust your instincts.

I've given a couple of evals...

Thanks for the feedback. I'm working on getting more members to place profiles on the site--guess I'll have to nag a bit at our next meeting.
I will explore your suggestions about links...
As for "fun photos," I will work at getting more of those.

Great feedback! I really appreciate it.

Linda

lindakaye wrote:

I've given a couple of evals...

Ok, sorry, I must have missed those. It has been hard to keep up with all the activity.

lindakaye wrote:

I'm working on getting more members to place profiles on the site--guess I'll have to nag a bit at our next meeting.

One thing that you can do that may help the situation is just create a "Bio Form" with relevant questions for members to fill out at your meeting. Just print the forms off, have the members fill it out, then you basically create their bios for them based on the form content.

Yes, it is more work for you, but if you are having trouble getting the members to do this themselves, you may need to resort to this. If they see you doing it, then they are more likely to jump in to "refine" it.

It looks like your club does not use the FTH agenda tool (*not* knocking that--it is your choice), so your members are likely more resistant about logging since they probably do not see much need to.

Great idea about creating a bio form... I'll get to work on that pronto!! (I'm retired, so I have some time to take care of these things. )

No, we don't sign up for roles. Our VPE makes assignments--if someone wants an assignment on a particular date or wants to fill in a blank spot, they simply let him know. This is part of our club culture. Which is why our website is more geared to visitors than members.

Linda

lindakaye wrote:

No, we don't sign up for roles. Our VPE makes assignments--if someone wants an assignment on a particular date or wants to fill in a blank spot, they simply let him know. This is part of our club culture. Which is why our website is more geared to visitors than members.

Linda

Understood. Please tell your VPE that my intention (I am the system developer) is to support some sort of agenda role assignments (auto assignments/role rotation) functionality for the agendas in the future. I do not know exactly when I will get to that, but that is definitely on my future "to do list". (It would benefit my club, also.)