Minutes of SGS Web Committee

Friday, August 16, 2013, 7pm.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran

ChurchNursery School

716 Rte. 25A Rocky Point, NY

 

PRESENT: John J. (Comments in Italic), Chris D., Barbara Z., Jim S., Richie H., Joanne F., Tom C., Terry M., Nicole L. (Reporter At-Large), and Michele E.

 

Chair’s Report –

  • John stated that nothing much went on since the last meeting so he will just review for new members, or prospective members, what we discussed.
  • There is a bug in the website and Amy is going to work on this.  Items only posting to the home page. (John subsequently discovered that the most current date/time stamped post goes on the home page, so we have a workaround: manipulating the date/time for posts that need to go somewhere else. And then, when I tried to publish the web committee minutes I found this does not work for our category. This works for the Minutes category though. Arrrrgggghhhhh. The Archive link on the home page is still wonked.)
  • John explained that 1&1 should not be in an individual’s name and should be under Suffolk General Service.  He will discuss with Jarrett how to go about this. (It turns out it is. The paperwork to get Kurt H off the account is underway.)
  • The Chair introduced Nicole L. as one of our “Reporters At-Large”.  She will gather general interest stories, events and information which will be posted to the home page of the website.  Problem – it’s not working, (but we have a workaround. Nicole will cover the September SENY Assembly and post on it.)
  • In regard to the money for the website, Terry and John talked about it at length and Amy is doing an enormous amount of work on the site and there must be a line drawn between volunteering and “paid work” on the site.  This guideline must be set up, as Amy will not always be with us.  A quoting system must be put in place and the money will be used to pay the contractor(s).
  • Map of SuffolkCounty by District.  This needs to be created and John prefers the nerds (contractors) to do this.
  • We would like to set up a subscription service for those A.A.s who wish to have it.  This way an email will be sent to subscribers monthly to let them know what is going on within SGS.  This will need a paid technician to guarantee continuity. We will need to get quotes.
  • The estimated cost will be about $2,000 for the District map, subscriptions and technical site document, which will leave about $600 for workshops.
  • This summer John is hoping to get all the bells and whistles in place on the website along with the content. (Not!)
  • Also, we would like to be able to access statistics.  How many hits to the site.  1&1 shows an average of 200 hits a day.  Google Analytics is what we would like to use, but on 07/02 it showed 4,000 hits.  This is a robot.  Akismet will prevent robots from crawling the site.
  • John would like to do a flyer about what we’re doing for the September Suffolk meeting. Topics:
    • September Workshop
    • Group Anniversary Process (Proposal: email to web chair after requester has obtained group conscience on posting.)
    • Projects to be contracted: Map, Subscriptions, Site Documentation.
    • Projects to be done by team: Akismet, Stats, I forget the rest.
    • New SIA site (with online Speakers Exchange)

Let John know if you have other topics before the 20th.

 

New Business

  • Terry to take care of Chris’ email, and to set Barbara up with an email.
  • John wanted to know how we felt about posting individual anniversaries on the website.  Majority disliked idea, but did like the idea of posting group anniversaries on the website.
  • Next workshop to be on September 29th from 10:00 AM til 4:00 PM at the SIA office in Patchogue.  Curry on the menu.  (Geeks in the morning, others in afternoon).
  • Have to check committee lists to see if LISTS is listed. (It is.)
  • Reporter-at-Large, Nicole L. – Given her first assignment.  “A day in the life of a GSR at an Area Assembly” (or something like that).
  • Barbara – Gave us a little bit of her background.  Graduate from St. Joseph’s with a BS in Information Systems; she has created 3 websites 2 using 1and1, and 1 using Vistaprint.  She is familiar with Quark, Photoshop, etc. Welcome Barbara.
  • Our next meeting will be on September 20th, at 7 pm.

Meeting adjourned 7:50 pm.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Michele E.