Annual Report

Team: Webteam Task list Roles Technology: PmWiki Links Development notes Website: About All recent changes Site map

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The webteam report submitted for the TTC Annual Report

2011

The year saw the demise of the ttc-fit email group owing to declining numbers of active 'fit' trampers. The group has been re-born as ttc-offtrack with a focus on navigation and off track tramping of all grades. Michael Taylor and Neil Challands have been progressing slowly toward converting the club membership database to SQL and providing access via the club website. This has mainly involved testing the suite of software tools available on the WCN servers for data security and usability. Daniel Rogerson has started a Facebook page for the club, which is popular with members wishing to share photos and be notified of activities. The Tararua Lodge pages have been revised with new photographs. Peter Whiteford continues a sterling job with the Tararua Tramper articles. Updates to the website have come from a wide range of members which greatly assists keeping it up to date and of use to members. A new skin for the website incorporating the new logo, and new colours is under development. Our free hosting on Wellington Community net, with the generous sponsorship of the New Zealand School of Business and Government is assured for the time being. The club's website has 1,278 pages of content, including 415 trip reports, 300 club night tramping reports, 54 photo gallery pages, and 12 recipes.

2010

The web team of Peter Whiteford, Neil Challands, Alan Wright, and Simon Davis was augmented by Peter Barber. Tramping reports were supplied by Sue Boyde, Brain Landymore, and Neil Challands. Michael Taylor has been active in the general committee and publications areas. It has been pleasing to see active use of the website by the climbing group and the social committee. During the year an email news group was created for electronic distribution of the Tramper, and for those interested in Walking. We now have email groups for news, social, biking, walking, fit*, family*, tramping, caving, climbing*, and skiing*, (active lists are *starred). For administration we have lists for Tararua Tramper electronic distribution, General committee, Ski & lodge committee, and Communications.

During the year the Wellington City Council has stopped all support for Wellington Community Net and were intent on closing it down until Wellington Community Net Trust formed by some interested members gained support of the council and a generous sponsorship to continue with the WCN, thus ensuring continued hosting of the TTC website.

The web team had a meeting in February to discuss the functioning of the website, and it is pleasing to report that it is considered to be working very well. The web team is supporting the club through investigating an updated look and feel for the website as part of the club's rebranding. The web team would like to see more use of the website and more committee and member contributions, through photographs, and helping the webteam. The web team is also setting up a means by which the people interested in maintaining a page's contents can be identified.

2009

The webteam of Peter Whiteford, Neil Challands, Alan Wright, and Simon Davis remained unchanged during the year. Additionally Liz Paton, Sue Boyde, and Neil Challands have keep the Tramping Reports up to date, and Michael Taylor for the General Committee Minutes. It has been pleasing to see a growing number of minor contributions as members and other realise they can contribute and update details in the website and especially uploading photos. In particular the climbing group have updated their page, and created a climbing fixture card page.

During the year WCN upgraded their server and hosting service which improved the means by which the webteam can configure the site, access logs, and maintain email addresses, and this involved a conversion of email addresses which did affect a couple of people as we retired most of the older addresses. Unfortunately WCN had one problem during the year which resulted in the website being down over a weekend.

The ttc-communications email group has assisted keeping the webteam informed and thus able to keep the website updated. The webteam asks that consideration be given to always involving them in providing and publishing information to members. In particular the web team would like to obtain early access to soft copies of the fixture card and prompt access to the "Who's who" list.

The web team would like to see more use of the website and more committee and member contributions, through photographs, and helping the webteam.

The club continues to enjoy and appreciated the hosting provided by Wellington Community Net. This hosting is threatened by proposed funding cuts by the Wellington City Council.

2008

The webteam of Peter Whiteford, Neil Challands, Alan Wright, and Simon Davis, have continued to keep the website up to date and supported. Additionally Diane Head has keep the Tramping Reports up to date, and Michael Taylor for the General Committee Minutes. For the first time WCN issues have meant the website was unavailable for a couple of weekends during the year. These were resolved and have not reoccurred.

During the year a new email group, ttc-biking was initiated. Members have taken advantage of being able to upload their own photographs and stories to the websie.

A developer has been contacted to provide some additional features that will allow a selection of events to be automatically placed on the front page, and in other places, eg family trips on the family pages.

The promotion and use of the ttc-communications email group has assisted keeping the webteam informed and thus able to keep the website updated. The webteam asks that consideration be given to always involving them in providing and publishing information to members.

The web team would like to see more use of the website and more member contributions, through photographs, and helping the webteam.

The club continues to enjoy and appreciated the hosting provided by Wellington Community Net.

2007

The webteam has added a new member, Peter Whiteford, who is keeping the trip reports from the Tramper up to date as well as catching up with the backlog. Neil Challands and Alan Wright also provide content for the website, and in their other roles Diane Head and Judith Maxim keep the tramping reports and tramper details updated respectively.

During the year a Whitireia student team undertook a development that had the potential to assist with the update and selective display of club events, but unfortunately the result did not meet expectations and was not implemented. Subsequently an approach to the PmWiki community has identified a developer interested in developing a PmWiki extension that will provide the functionality we are seeking. While this involves an expense it is felt this will provide a better longer term approach to making the website more usable.

During the year the content has been kept updated, especially the news page and annual events. The contacts page has been changed to be updateable online.

The webteam wish to encourage the General Committee, activity organisers, and club members to make greater use of the club's website. The webteam is always looking for more members and contributors.

During the year the a message of support was sent to the 2020 Communications Trust urging continued support of Wellington Community Net by the Wellington City Council. The club continues to enjoy and appreciated the hosting provided by Wellington Community Net under the auspices of the Wellington City Council.

2006

During the year the webteam has been active in keeping the website content up to date. Additional trip reports, sourced from the Tararua Tramper, have been added, and a backlog of reports is slowly being overcome. The Tararua Tramper Index, collated by Neville Lockett, was added to the website. The capability to categorise trips by location and type has been added and all new trips have been categorised.

Diane Head adds the tramping reports weekly. The news page is updated regularly, but would benefit from more contributions from club committees.

The webteam is very responsive to suggestions and input from members, notably the Huts pages were updated in response to requests from the Huts Convenor, Photo Competition and New Member's Evening pages were added, as was the Contact the right person page. The Photos pages have been revamped and some members have added their own trip photos.

The website is an enduring resource for club members for both current information, eg transport operators, and historical information, eg trips.

Latterly the web team has advertised for assistance in maintaining the content of the website after one member, who had been inactive for some time, withdrew. In concert with this the webteam role descriptions and task lists were added to the website.

The club's website is arguably one of the best in New Zealand, and serves as a major source of information for prospective new members, as evinced by the new members evening. The club continues to enjoy and appreciated the hosting provided by Wellington Community Net under the auspices of the Wellington City Council.