Web report: VGCV

Web report

At the start of last year I was convinced that the web site was fairly near complete and that only general maintenance of the site was needed. Along with recruitment of some members as volunteers to learn how to assist in maintaining the site.

Both items were frustrated by circumstances though the year.

  1. Web site member team: If the web site is to remain viable we have to create a team of members prepared to help with the web site. The individual tasks are not onerous - no-one should be expected to spend more than an hour/month doing this. Most of the tasks require a low level of computer skill. A team can share the tasks and cover when other members of the team are not available. All software needed is free and I can provide detailed notes on the tasks as well as individual training as needed.
    1. Proof reading: Few things destroy confidence in anything as much as poor proof reading. Anybody who has ever written more than two lines on a computer will know that they have made an error and that they are unlikely to see that error by re-reading the material on the spot whereas another reader will see it immediately. We need a proof reader member ** prepared to read the new newsletter each month for errors and report back.
      ** Since writing this Rod Goode has volunteered to do this.
      We need another pedant member who would offfer to read everything else on tghe web site systematically. Last month I had reason to check the Life Member report of Alf Jones which has been sitting there for a few years now with 5 different typos!
    2. Database maintenance: Accuracy of information in the Club's database is essential for efficient running of the Club. For various reasons the information will either be incorrect, or become incorrect with changes in circumstances. As an example every event has a booking sheet which is as up to date as it can be made before the event, but at the event the starters inevitably find members on the sheet who don't arrive, and members not on the sheet who do. Handicapper Ray who enters the results reliably on the day of they event is also able to provide a sheet with the actual players on it. A member to get this information from Ray and update the database would be gratefully welcomed. It should take no more than about 5 minutes per event.
    3. Database backup: The contents of the Club's database have become ESSENTIAL to the Club's operation. It is not impossible that our web host could lose the contents of the database through items like hacking or business failure. Hence we must back it up. Member Roger Huxstep does this each month with a trigger for action being receipt of the newsletter posted email.
    4. Uploading files to the web site: In our long term future we will have various files (newsletters, images, reports, etc.) which have to be uploaded to the web site. These files can be produced by other members who may not have the skills to upload them. It is essential that this uploading ability is well established within the Club. As is regularly discussed at the Committee - what happens when Laurie's not able to do this?
    5. Image manipulation: Images used on our web site come from two places: Cameras (John Molloy, Gary Finnis and myself in the main) and from the web as found with Google Image search. In the main, these starting images need editing to make them suitable for use on the Club's web site.
      The image editing tasks can be carried out with a wide range of free software and include:
      1. Cropping:
      2. Resizing:
      3. Cutting and pasting:
      4. Image enhancement:
      5. Saving the edited image to a filename consistent with the web site protocols. As a single example all the members headshots on the Members Contact page are named with the members database number.
    6. Another protocol is the picture of the winner in the newsletter. Each month a photo is taken of the winner (Usually more than one to allow selection of the best). The photo is then cropped and resized to 300 by 400. It may be enhanced if needed. It is then named "winnerYYMM.jpg" and uploaded to the web site.
  2. Newsletters: Preparation of the newsletters each month occupies an unfair allocation of my time. There is no reason other members could not contribute towards this task as part of a team. The newsletter is assembled in a set of independent segments. Several of these can be carried out by seperate team members as follows:
    1. Newsletter index: This is fully automated. If an appropriately named file exists the coding will identify it and include it in the index.
    2. Presidents report: This written by the President and emailed to me. I proof read and correct it then tidy up it's appearance. The Newsletter page coding looks for a file with the relevant name and includes it if it exists. This editing task is easy and could be carried out by any team member.
    3. Other report: From time to time I include another report such as golf course reports or rules notes. Again it is written in a seperate file and can be included in the newsletter. There is no reason any member could not write a report for inclusion here.
    4. Captains report: The Captains report is almost fully automated. Handicapper Ray enters the results of the day into the database from where the report section finds them and displays them in a standardised format. Five images are used and have to be prepared inclusive of appropriate captions. Another area where the task can be carried out independently of the rest of the newsletter. It is also as task which can be carried out well in advance, for example the images shown with NTP for up to next December are already on the web site.
    5. Jokes: I have a huge collection of jokes, but feel one a month is enough. They are written in seperate files and loaded into the newsletter in the same way as the Presidents and Captains report. Finding and preparing images to suit the joke can be time-consuming and it is another area where a team member could assist.
    6. Printing: Each month all members with interent access receive notification of posting of the newsletter. Four members without internet access have printed versions mailed to them by Secretary Jeff. The printed versions do not display the images. Printing this version to PDF file for paper printing could easily be carried out by a newsletter team member.
  3. Web site changes: Through the year a wide range of improvements and appearance features were made to the web site. Most of these arose from the thoughts of other Members or Committee Members and were not in my mind at the start of the year.
    1. The most significant aspect of the web site maintenance was a change made by Microsoft in a Windows 10 update which blocked out my ability to test database interactions at home. Despite hours of web searching and questions I still have not been able to resolve this issue and it results in lots of time wasting as well as me needing to make the occasional recoverys from my mistakes changing the real data in the database.
    2. Members photos Member John Molloy made this suggestion and has done the major amount of the photography it entailed. The initiative was strongly supported by President Donald whose legacy will be his efforts to strengthen the social aspects and friendships within the Club.
    3. Revamp of the Honours pages on the web site. The unusual occurance of a three way draw for the Presidents Trophy required several changes to allow for it. 
      1. Relevant database tables had to be modified to allow entry of three members.
      2. Initially, after the first step, the third member of the tied winners was entered by specific code. In a dream and in the absence of home testing capability, I accidently made Lindsay Quennell the winner of every Presidents Trophy! Finding and restoring the original data from backups replaced watching a significant amount of Big Bash cricket!
      3. The data entry form had to be modified to allow entry of three members.
      4. Honours report forms had to be changed to show three members. While doing this several weaknesses in the appearance of the various Honours tables were noted and the code for display of the data was modernised.
    4. New Reports To help run the Club Committee members have access to a wide range of reports about members. New reports added this year include:
      1. Members without photo This makes it easy to identify members who will be playing at the next event, but for whom we have no photograph
      2. Members database number As mentioned above the member photographs are named after their database number
      3. Events database number This is used when the is a need modify event details manually.
      4. Christmas booking reports This is used to create the Guest labels, Table labels etc. as used at the Presentation dinner.
    5. Send email process This has been improved for the Committee allowing a wider range if recipients of emails sent from the web site.
    6. 70th birthday event. This required a new table in the database and modification to the members booking form. Also writing of the Web page reporting the event.
    7. Presentation event report. This report takes several hours to prepare as all images (as supplied by John Molloy, Gary Finnis and myself) need to have the people involved identified, photos tidied up and renamed, key photos prepared (These show on the report page while the original photos can be viewed and easily saved from your web browser by clicking on the key photo.
  4. Planned enhancements. There are some items in the pipeline to enhance the website including:
    1. The header image on our web pages includes a map with red dots at our courses. While this years map has been prepared it is yet to be used. Hopefully it will be in place before you read this.
    2. A system to allow Committee members to send email attachments from the web site is working, but needs to be finalised before it gets used. The target use is distribution of the AGM documentation.
    3. I received a request from a member at Keysborough to make the event results available earlier than shown in the newsletter. To do this I will enhance the current page showing all results to include the information currently published in the newsletter. This will make the data available as soon as Ray completes the data entry, normally by late afternoon on the event day.
    4. For the historically interested members there is still the chance we can find some of the old newsletters and make them available. We may find references to earlier Life Members of whom no current member has knowledge.
    5. For the Committee, the Committee minutes are inconsistently available. Posting the missing minutes in on the agenda.

Lastly - self-development

During the year I took classes in advanced HTML and Javascript and through these courses and reading of manuals I have found ways of making the site look better and respond better.

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