[Sigia-l] RE: Value of web sites

[O'Neill, Todd]

Jan

Having presided over a non-web (but related media) professional
association AND having presided over their website redesign AND being a
practicing IA/web producer, I'll though this out -- although none of it
is scientific or based in any statistical fact whatsoever.

An association's duty is to it's members. The board of that association
is the guiding entity to see to it that the association has fulfilled
that duty. Association staff and member committees are the worker bees,
executing the vision set forth by the board which therein fulfills the
association's duty to it's members. That is the association food chain.

A web property (inter-, intra-, extra- net) is part of the modern media
mix for any entity that has a need to communicate a message to an
external or internal audience. A web property has the extra added
benefit of enabling transactions (search, payment, database update,
etc.)

Whether this association has a website or not comes down to it's mission
and vision (which put voice to the "duty" of the association to it's
members.) If the mission is to communicate to various publics about the
industry or profession the association claims to represent then a
website (and countless other written and electronic media) is in order.
Or if the association has as its base members who have a need to
communicate or share resources among themselves then build (and operate)
a site. The only kind of association that I can think of that does not
have either of those two needs would be a monastery/convent whose
initiates have taken a vow of silence and solitude.</sarcasm>

So, it seems your association needs a website, IMHO. But take note of my
parenthetical "...and operate" above. There are websites and there are
Websites. In the print world you would never go through the trouble of
designing and printing a four color media piece if the objective was to
inform small group of association leaders about the next board meeting.
It is all about scope matching need. If your need is to impress folks
with much money that your members can bring their dreams to reality then
your site should probably align with that need -- it should look VERY
cool, be very richly designed and be a veritable dream come true.
However if your need is to connect members to each other then maybe
YahooGroups or Topica or an out of the box intranet solution is what you
need.

Consult professionals, as you've done with your post. (Hmm, that sounded
pretty full of myself, didn't it?) Consult your association's
professional staff about trends in the association biz. Visit the
American Society for Association Executives at http://www.asaenet.org
for more information. Another good site is TechSoup @
http://www.techsoup.org/. Both may point you at hard data.

If your board or your members are ignoring the advice of your paid,
professional staff then you've got problems. If you have no staff and
the board or committees run things there is no reason not to run things
professionally -- as volunteers your overhead will be WAY lower!  :-)

Sign this...

Once too passionate about being an association president, 


Todd O'Neill     Web Producer     USAA Customer Experience 
210-913-8312     todd.oneill at usaa.com
These opinions mine not those of USAA.
"The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer." Peter
Drucker


Message: 2
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 11:46:56 -0700
From: Jan Knight <jknight at email.arizona.edu>
Cc: Sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Value of web sites

Hi:
As I work only on the periphery of IA and web site design, I'd like to
ask if anyone has any great articles or resources they suggest that make
the case for the general subject of "how a well designed web site can
improve business, make more sales, provide great professional visibility
to an entity, etc."

There is a situation where some members of a professional association
believe they don't need a web site and see no value in it, let alone a
well designed one. Then there are ohers who believe a well design web
site could help promote their association as well as help feed potential
clients to the individual members businesses.  This latter group is
basically looking for some hard data - or any data/evidence - to sway
the non believers.

I've done a little preliminary research but believe that most of the
people on this list have had some point had to support/prove this also
and may have something more pertinent.

Keep in mind - I'm looking for pretty general information - nothing too
detailed or it will dilute the point.

Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks so much.
Jan
 

********************************
Jan Knight, MA
Senior Research Specialist
Learning Technologies Center
Computer Center (CCIT) Rm 337
1077 N. Highland Avenue
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

Ph: 520-626-7761
Fax: 520-626-8220
mailto: jknight at u.arizona.edu
http://www.ltc.arizona.edu