2009-08-03 Web Design status meeting

Old Business:

1. Agenda modifications

2. Subteam status reports

* Office status (Josh)

Gary reports that member discounts are not always given - seemingly random.

* Technology (Walt)

-- Backup plan
TIS not responsive - Walt needs space on new machine. eBase not yet running on server. TIS at office today - new box will be remote server; eBase will go onto old server. Walt needs permission bits for Web site backup to be set to webmaster. He also needs ftp access in order to move stuff over. Ed will communicate need to Josh.

-- Drupal 6
Test system is up for Walt to explore what happens to theming. Hopefully, will work with just a few changes. (Volunteer with Drupal 6 experience ... doing NY AMC pages now.)

-- Store issues
Appears random whether member role is set or not.

-- eBase migration
Walt met with Catherine re eBase migration.

Re problems with role=member: Table in Ubercart for userid, role, expiration date. Cron job and completion process move that data to member role in Drupal. Problem - Ubercart table is not getting set. Gary sometimes sets it, but then it sometimes gets unset. Walt needs to talk to Trellon people. Expiration date is checked by cron.
Need to have Ubercart working correctly before we can import eBase data.

-- Theming
Need to get right CSS to split picture and left side text. (Can do it with table, but need h1 tag in table - Georgette says it will work.) Can we do it in CSS without table? Need to ask Trellon about that too. Ann to contact Alonza to set up call.

-- Calendars partially working - should be available in a day or so. See Nynjtc/calendar. Let Walt know if any other fields are needed?

* Content (Georgette)

Questions on Regions db from Ken and Phil. Facts and Resources field - also need to link to maps and books. Walt needs to clone theming and db from parks or hikes so can fill out region descriptions better.
Also need to change map numbers. Walt to let Georgette know what needs to be done.
Georgette to follow up on volunteer hours for content work in 2Q2009

* Google Analytics (Doug)

Ed got email from Doug - doubled clicks June to July. Impressions (when you see our ad in a search) up 10%. Click thru rate is 3.51%. (Industry average is 0.8%.) Up to half our allotted budget - spending $5K a month. Doubled conversions (i.e. click resulted in sale).
Lou wants to know if we can track clicks on a particular ad on our site? Answer: yes. (But Ed not sure we can do it without spending money.) Walt will check it out. It would be helpful for providing info to sponsors.
Re Darlingtonschoolhouse.org - will be integrated into nynjtc.org -- start a dsh page on our site and point url to our page. Walt and Georgette to work together to get this set up.

* Business model (Ann/Ed)

• Handling feedback. See some guidelines on how to respond to feedbacks: http://www.nynjtc.org/book/responding-feedback-emails
• Please give Ann your 2Q2009 Volunteer Hours (Ann 88.5; Walt, Doug, Phil, Ken, Gayle, Susan, anybody else?)
• Update on CRM database project

o CiviCRM user group in NYC - meeting this week is same time as Trails Council
o 2-day workshop for developers in September ($600)
o Catherine has data dictionary of sorts - use as starting point. Committees are not necessarily the users - go to the users first.

o Ed to drop Ann an email with who to contact for what.

• Trellon responsiveness - Walt can't find the last email he thought he sent ...

 

3. Set goals for next couple of weeks

* Walt's priorities
Ed would like Walt to focus on eBase/Drupal synchronization first.
Our volunteer model is the one most outside the norm - need to understand customization requirements.
We need a strong fund raising package.
Review available software. May need separate packages rather than one comprehensive tool.
* Other high priority items

4. Specific action items requiring discussion.

See http://nynjtc.org/meeting/actions
Review outstanding actions from prior meeting minutes

New Business:

1. Discuss priority of mechanism for storing images - wait until we are on Drupal 6.

Meeting schedule:

Next meeting: phone call in two weeks? OK.
Invite someone to next status meeting?

Parking lot (for later discussion):

Ed requests we discuss: Publication pages; Member org pages; Sponsor pages