jBlog: Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?-- 9 Days Until Relay --
Visit #2... and Beyond!
I was watching "Ghost Hunters" the other night. You know the show... two Roto-Rooter guys who search for spooks when they ought to be unplugging toilets. They were stumbling around an old sanitarium in upstate New York in the middle of the night, and to tell the truth, not much was happening. They had a couple of "spooky feelings" and heard a creak or two, but other than that it was snoozeville. I was about to exercise my channel-changing thumb when one of the younger helper-guys gets a frightened look on his face and says "Gaaaa!!
jonnymac – June 3, 2009 – 3:08pm
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jBlog: If You Build It, Will They Come?-- 15 Days Until Relay --
It's the tree falling in the forest thing. We spend time and energy building the site, but will anyone show up? A cool site that no one sees would be frustrating.
Think about web sites you regularly visit... what got you there in the first place? Why do you keep going back? I don't know about you, but unless I'm using a reference, the reason I return to a site is to see something new. If I go there and find the same thing as before, it's unlikely that I'll go back... at least not anytime soon. On the other hand, if I return to a site and discover new and interesting things, and that happens the next time as well, then I'll probably return.
The same is true for our Relay sites.
jonnymac – May 28, 2009 – 8:52pm
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jBlog: Promoting Fundraisers-- 17 Days Until Relay --
We're going to Relay in a little over two weeks... it's hard to believe!
I described the "Recent FUNdraisers" Greeting page section in my previous post, so this is probably a good time for a few thoughts about fundraisers. I seems to me that promoting fundraisers to the public and to the teams is a key function of the Relay web site, especially during the extended fundraising period leading up to the Relay event (I think I called this the third phase in an earlier post). Because of their importance, I try to promote each fundraiser in four ways: on the Nav Bar, on the Calendar, on the main canvas, and via email.
First, as soon as I learn of a fundraiser and get the basic info, it gets an entry under the "Fundraisers" section on the Nav Bar. I arrange entries in descending order by date, and only remove it once the fundraising event has occurred. jonnymac – May 26, 2009 – 4:35pm
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jBlog: Adding Rooms-- 19 Days Until Relay --
Now that the foundation is in place, it's time to do some framing.
Visitors land on the Greeting page, so that page deserves appropriate attention. I decided that each of the main groups that would (I hoped) be coming to the site needed a focal point... something that said "Hey! This spot's for you!". The default Nav Bar sections provide focal points for the public, including "Event Information" and "ACS Programs". To this I added a "Mission" section to house information presented by our Mission Delivery Chairperson at the monthly Relay Rallies. jonnymac – May 24, 2009 – 11:17pm
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jBlog: Laying a Foundation-- 31 Days Until Relay --
The Relay was progressing, our team members were out there in web-land, but they had no compelling reason to come to our site. Pretty much the same was true for all the groups I mentioned earlier. It was time to give them what they needed...
Ya gotta have tools, and ya gotta know how to use them. So, after Convio training delivered by Elise (our outstanding ACS Community Rep) I immediately created a "Forms" section on the Navigation Bar, uploaded some forms to the Event Library, and set about hooking them up. jonnymac – May 12, 2009 – 10:22pm
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jBlog: To Everything There Is A Season-- 38 Days Until Relay --
I've got to admit that when I first got involved in this, I didn't know how this Relay thing really worked. As I noted earlier, my company's team is very active throughout the year with various fundraisers and mission activities, so I was at least familiar with what I thought was the overall idea. Turns out I had only glimpsed the whole picture...
The 2008 Relay fell in a period between Debora's major surgeries, so we were able to attend our first Relay event in June, and we were very impressed. People were having a lot of fun, but they were also passionate, respectful, and obviously dedicated to the idea that every person can contribute in their own way to removing cancer from the human condition. The Relay obviously capped much previous effort and activity.
jonnymac – May 5, 2009 – 9:37am
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jBlog: What's It All About, Alfie?-- 39 Days Until Relay --
One of the first conversations I had with Tom and Nicki, the Relay Committee co-chairs was "what is the purpose of the web site?" What's it for? What's it supposed to do? Who's it for? We looked at each other in bemused puzzlement and discussed it a bit, and decided on several documents to make available. This got me thinking, and I eventually sat down to work on a list (as I am prone to do).
It seems to me that it's not a simple matter. Ultimately, the purpose is to help in the fight against cancer... but how would this web site help in that effort? In its own small way, what is its role?
jonnymac – May 4, 2009 – 1:56pm
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jBlog: Hello and Why I'm a ROC-er-- 40 Days Until Relay --
Hello! This is Jon Reynolds in East Tennessee... I'm the Website Chair for the Relay For Life of Greene County. We live in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians, near the intersection of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. It's a pretty place... please stop by and visit us at www.relayforlife.org/greenetn !
It's now just 40 days until Relay, and I thought that it's high time to introduce myself and share some thoughts about my experiences this year as the Relay's website chair.
On top of my mind is how I got involved in all this.
jonnymac – May 3, 2009 – 8:19am
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