Chapter Web Sites
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Setting Up A Chapter Web site
By Ken Harris

Every World Future Society chapter should have a Web site. Surprisingly, despite the obvious benefits to a chapter of having a Web site, most of the World Future Society’s 89 chapters do not have them. For a good example, visit the Web site of the Washington, DC, chapter, http://www.natcapwfs.org.

Even a simple Web site is proof that your chapter is in business and here to stay, and a Web site is the first place people will look to learn about your chapter’s mission and activities. If your chapter is lucky, it will have a member who is experienced in Web site design and willing to set up a site for free or at low cost. Indeed a capable webmaster is as important to chapter success as the president and treasurer.

So what do you do if you can’t get a techie to help or don’t have a teenaged child? The good news is you can set up a site without a techie’s help and you may be able to do so for free. An Internet search on "set up a Web site for free" yields over 17 million hits. Companies that host free Web sites like Yahoo provide canned software that lets you choose from a wide variety of colors and designs and allows ample capacity for your message. You will need a day or two, but you can do it! I did it, and I have at best average computer skills.

As a non-techie, I can attest to the fact that the do-it-yourself approach does present problems. The Web site for my futurist consulting business is http://www.theconsiliencegroup.com. I designed it and revise it from time to time using the web host’s canned software. I find the software more difficult to use than the package I am accustomed to, Microsoft Office 2004 for the MAC, but I have revised my Web site as needed, sometimes with the help of the web host’s technical support people who have been very patient. Some of my difficulty is that my web host’s software is more compatible with Windows than MAC software. I learned to get around this problem by accessing my site with the Firefox web browser, which you can download for free, instead of Apple’s Safari browser. You may find it easier to compose your material with your word processor and then copy it onto the site rather than composing directly on the site. This approach has eased the way for me a number of times. If you have a digital camera, you should be able to upload pictures you take yourself to your site. I have done that too.

Just as you should take maximum advantage of a techie’s advice on setting up your site, if it is available to you for low or no cost, I strongly recommend getting the advice of someone with PR experience on the content of your site. I did this at very low cost and found the advice to be well worth the money. You can have a Web site so that outsiders will see your chapter in the most favorable light possible! You can see individual trees; outsiders see the forest!