Rotary District 9750 - Web Site Guide
Basic information to be considered

The basics:
A club web site does not have to be a major all-singing all-dancing enterprise, just simple information and layout is fine and very useful for members and the public, BUT there are a few simple things that a club's web site should have for best utility:

1. It should communicate information relevant to your Club and Rotary: Some clubs have paid for a site but never made use of it. The site should provide good information on Rotary and the club, its programs and objects, and communicate well to members and the public. Keep member's personal contact information to a minimum, and have their permission to put it on the site.
2. It should have up to date information: If keeping a "coming events" page up to date is too much work for your club webmaster, it is better NOT to have it than have something out of date. Just having the meeting venue, PO Box and contact information is perfectly useful and may only need updating yearly, but it should at least be appropriate for the current year. Only make it as complex as you are comfortable with.
3. It should have a link to the District & RI sites: To District so that members can find information that they need for their Rotary involvement - District contact info, Calendar, Conference information, other clubs, etc. It should have a link to the RI site, and it is recommended to have a link to the Rotarnet site and the RI President's site as well, but these and more are already on the District site, and its information is of immediate relevance.
4. Home Page: The Home Page should load quickly. It should be attractive, inviting, and be easily identifiable as an official Rotary club site.
5. Graphics: It should make effective use of colour, graphics and pictures, without over doing it. Too much is just a distraction, and slows down the loading of the pages.
6. It should have an e-mail link: to your club and webmaster: So users can contact you, or report problems with the site, like broken links. Consider using an indirect link, eg to the club's generic e-mailbox, like ClubName@rotarnet.com.au (available with a Rotarnet site), rather than to an individual's real address.

Click on this link for information on and access to the: RI Policy on Electronic Communications.
You should take careful note of it, it is common sense.
The District's privacy advice is on our Privacy page.

Whose site is it ?
A club web site is the responsibility of the club itself. The club receives an ID and a Password to access and modify the site, whoever the host is. The District WebMaster does NOT have such access to your club's site, even if it is on Rotarnet, unless you ask for some assistance and provide this information. If your club has lost this information, just contact your site's host.

But what if there is some information that is wrong or out of date ?
If it is on the District site, please contact the District WebMaster (see link below).
If it is on a Club site, please contact someone at that Club: preferably their WebMaster or their generic e-mail if either is identified, or their President or Secretary if not.

Wrong or out of date information makes ALL of Rotary look bad, so please feel it is your duty to ask for it to be fixed, just be helpful and positive about it, most webmasters (including me) are amateurs at this game. It is easy to make a mistake that looks glaringly obvious to you, but simply missed by others. So do something about it, but be helpful.

Rotary is presented to a sector of the community by our web sites, and we should present a competent and up to date image. So please try to get up to speed with your web site. Contact the undersigned if help is needed.

To WWW or to not:
I am used to seeing internet web site addresses start with "WWW", isn't that needed ?

That is a convention that was used to differentiate WWW servers from others already in use - the Internet is a lot older than the World Wide Web. "Rotarnet" is the name of our host server, thus the WWW is not actually needed. However, so that things still work if people expect this to be the case, either "www.rotarnet.com.au/...." or "rotarnet.com.au/...." will work equally well.
So - why not use it ?
Including the WWW only makes the address longer to type and remember. An e-mail address does not have WWW in it, so perhaps an even stronger reason is the symmetry of the simpler web address, and the e-mail address, both of which are available with your web site on Rotarnet, and which makes them easier to depict and remember as a pair, thus:
Web site: rotarnet.com.au/ClubName
E-mail:    ClubName@rotarnet.com.au

What do we need ?
A Host for your site.
Some editor tools to create and update the pages for your site
Some upload tools to get the pages from your computer to the host.
Create your pages with your design and information, or use a template and just enter your data.
These aspects are discussed in further pages accessed from the Web Site Guide Page.