Sagamore online goals 2014
Sagamore Hills online presence is getting some much needed attention in 2014. A core group of volunteers (David Klein, Dave Barker, John Lenz, Nancy Shober) and anyone else too, are discussing in the Sagamore online group (email • archives • subscribe & more) and making notes here (anyone can use the "edit" links).
Near term goals
Domain name
Is sagamorehillspta.org the right domain? See Sagamore online#Domain for what we're currently working with. No? Which one then?
Dave, 2014-05-07: John's sagamorehillselementary.com might be good, if not a little long. It could work like Jen pointed out http://fernbankelementary.com/ does.
Website platform
Wordpress?
- The pulse seems to be for Wordpress
- Any reason not to stick with the Sagamore Hills PTA Dreamhost account hosting it?
- The http://test-wordpress.sagamorehillspta.org/ is available for testing. Login credentials the same as the PTA site (check the password file in the Google Drive).
Wordpress mechanics
Dave, 2014-05-07: Decide how we're going to use Wordpress's organizational conventions: menus, categories, tags. As I understand Wordpress, "themes" are often far more than just "skins"; in addition to changing the look of the site, they can shape how content is organized and provide additional site features. I think it's important that we keep our content easily portable to future changes, and that means using lowest common denominator Wordpress ideums and not leaning hard on features of a particular theme. Being new to Wordpress, I'm trying learn what that means. Checkout the Sagamore PTA Wordpress notes.
Styling
What will the website look like…? Who has the Wordpress theming chops?
Relaunch existing PTA site
Let's start out by providing a refreshed version (new domain, new look) of the existing PTA site contnet only.
URL redirects
Leave behind url redirects! (Dave?)
- Can Wordpress post ids be manually assigned? Would simplify redirects.
JRL: Yes, Wordpress has "pretty" URLs that can be used, and content can be assigned to those "pretty" urls if the .htaccess file is writable. If not writeable, we can manually add in some directives to the .htaccess file and we'll be good to go.
Next term goals
Incorporate test-google-sites content
Bring in content from http://test-google-sites.sagamorehillspta.org
New content
Go, David!
All the reference material we wish was online.
Some bits:
- Treasures hiding in Constant Contact
- Things like old handbooks that might be hiding in the PTA Google Drive
- Sagamore reference
- Sagamore information inventory 2013
- Sagamore communication
Long term goals
District school site role
Talk to Ms. Brown about how the Sagamore Hills district site should relate to ours.
Workspaces
Have workspaces on the site where project work process is shared with collaborators and the curious (future volunteers!)
New Newsletter mechanics
It might be best Newsletter (and other push channels) content is the produced on the website first and then automagically republished on other channels.
Dave, 2014-05-07: I mentioned one possible method last September.
Reengage social media
Sagamore's Books of Faces and Twitterings and whatnot…
Monica Ellingson: major work needed here. Other schools push notifications and parent volunteer beat using existing social media channels. Push relevant content where people already are. Maybe less emphasis on web site (passive) and more on social presence (active) for parent engagement.
- 2014-05-09: Discussion started elsewhere, conclusions to be copied here
Media management
Can we do better than mailto:sagamorephotos@gmail.com ? Should the PTA online storage play a part? How about sharing via social media (designating a unique Sagamore hashtag)? Regularly updated highlights on the website?
Support parent-to-parent communication
Like with Sagamore PTA discussion groups