Website Report

I am pleased to report that 2010 was far less traumatic than 2009 in terms of website maintenance.  Both Pickaweb and Teamopolis have proven to be easy to communicate with when the need has arisen and responsive to questions raised.

In 2010 the major change we implemented was to enable on-line entry for Club Champs, including the middle distance (200m free, 200m IM) and long distance (1500m) events.  This was in part enabled by us removing the entry fees for these events so no payment collection was required, thus allowing a paperless system to be implemented.  I believe this worked well (… or at least Alan hasn’t grumbled to me about it all) and is a useful extension to the on-line gala selection & confirmation capabilities that we implemented in 2009.  As a reminder to you all, these facilities do require you to have a member’s login, so if you don’t already have access, please fill in the form on the website by following the ‘Password’ link on the left hand side of the main page of the site.  There is also a link to the form on the login pages for both Gala Selections and Club Champs.

When I create the logins for you, I also ‘associate’ the relevant swimming members to the login so that you can make the club champs entries or gala availability updates just for those swimmers without (accidentally) updating for other people.  This however has led to occasional panic when another family member subsequently joins and a parent realises they cannot make entries for the new member.  To save a last minute panic, if you have a younger (or indeed older) child join the club, drop me an e-mail so that I can add them to your login details sooner rather than later.

A further reminder is to let the Membership Secretary know if you change e-mail address at any time, since the gala notification will only work properly if we have your correct details and if you check your e-mails regularly.

And finally….my annual plea to everyone to visit the website regularly.  The website is an important (and often the primary) means of communicating information to all our members on a variety of topics.  In particular, we make use of the splash page for important news items which often need to be relayed at short notice (e.g. pool closure causing cancellation of swim sessions).  The calendar is also updated regularly with details of gala dates and venues (for which there is generally a link showing the address or postcode for your Sat Nav) so we would encourage you to visit on a regular basis to keep abreast of what is going on.

If you have ideas on what you would like to see on the site and how we can improve it to suit the needs of Club members, please let me know – after all it’s your club. You can send me an e-mail at webmaster@busheyasc.org  or talk to me at any of the club sessions.

 

 

Kevin Binns

 

BASC Webmaster, Bushey Amateur Swimming Club