Rotary 7040 Webmaster

NOTE: As an object lesson, the webmaster address for my old Rotary domain was subjected to a flood of crude solicitations before I implemented this technique. With spam levels increasing dramatically year over year, using a script such as the one below to protect your email addresses has gone from nice to necessary. Take the time to learn to use the scripts below.

SPAM is a term for unsolicited commercial email messages. Commercial spam is big business, and its purveyors use automated software called spambots to trawl websites, newsgroups and chat rooms looking for fresh email addresses to add to their lists. Savvy emailers know to limit spam in their inboxes by never giving their email address in newsgroups or chatrooms and using a throwaway address from services like yahoo.com when they need to provide an email address in an unfamiliar environment.

But how can you prevent email addresses being harvested from your website? If you are willing to learn a little JavaScript, it’s easily accomplished.

The technique shown in Sample 1 below has kept my club website almost entirely spam-free for several years.

(The colours in the samples below are purely for clarity on this page, they will be different in whatever editor you use for your pages. The red text shows how the email address fits into the code.)

A normal email address link coded in a page looks like the following (on one line):
<A HREF=”mailto:president@rotary.ca“>president@rotary.ca</A>

Sample 1

That code will appear on the web page as president@rotary.ca. You can see that the email address appears in two different places in the code and once on the rendered page, making it quite easy for a spambot to pick it up.

The trick I’m going to offer you here is a JavaScript technique that will make it difficult or impossible for the spambot to recognise the pattern of an email address in your webpage.

Sample 2 shows the same entry set up with JavaScript to obscure the address from spambots. The last six lines are the JavaScript code. the lines starting with “document” and “+” would usually appear on the same line, it’s just compressed here to fit the display.

Note also that the address as it will be displayed in the page will have a space between each character. This is easy enough to read, but obscures the address from spambots.

<script language=”javascript”>
<!–
document.write(”<a href=” + “mailto:president”
+ “@rotary.ca” + “>” + “president @ rotary.ca” + “</a>”)
//–>
</script>
Sample 2

Notice how the email addresses are broken up in sample 2.

If you place the text in sample 2 above in the HTML code of your web page or newsletter entry, replacing the black and red text with the appropriate information, this will work for you.

The responsibilities of the Club Secretary have expanded over the years as the Internet has played an increasing role in club activities.  In light of this, many District 7040 clubs may find it more practical to create the role of eSecretary to allow the duties to be divided.

While this is not a formally designated position, we encourage clubs to consider this to share the dutieswhere appropriate.  This might be a great position to draw in a newer member.  In many clubs this role might naturally fall to the webmaster.

Here is a suggested list of duties that might be carried out by a club eSecretary; each club will have a different set of requirements;

• Maintaining a club website (unless the club has a separate designated webmaster.)
• Maintaining club records on the District 7040 website;
  • Add and remove new and past members from the roster.
  • Maintain listings of club events for publication on the District Website.
  • Maintain the club profile on the district website.
  • Maintain attendance records on the district website when that feature is activated.
• Maintain club records on the RI website
• Assist club members to register on the district website
• Update members periodically on the features available on the District Website, particularly those available only to logged in members;
  • Club Roster
  • Electronic Post Office
  • District Directory
• Maintaining a Club Blog or newsletter online.
• Maintaining a club calendar online through Google Calendar.
• Ensuring that new members are aware of the resources available to Rotarians online, especially the club rosters and electronic post office available on the District 7040 Website.

Thanks to Bonnie Black of RC Plattsburgh for inspiring this list with hers.

Google Calendars are a great way to organize your club’s activities.  They allow you to give serveral people editing rights, and the calendar itself can be public or available only to your members.

Once you’ve set up your calendar, you can embed it right into your website!

To add a calendar to your site, carry out the following steps:

• Go to Google Calendar and view your club calendar.
• Click Settings in the top right corner
• Click the Calendars tab under Calendar Settings
• Click the calendar you wish to embed
• On the Calendar Details tab, you’ll see a section titled “Embed this Calendar”.
• Click the “Customise the colour, size and other options” link in that section
• Set up the customization options, then copy the code shown into the page you wish the calendar to appear in.

I use a web hosting company, www.dreamhost.com, that has an incentive program that gives a $97 referral bonus, of which they will allow up to $50 to be kicked back to the new customer as a discount.

My standing offer to Rotarians is that if they use the SCAIFEROTARY referral code when signing up at www.dreamhost.com, I will give them the $50 discount (that’s applied automatic when you sign up) and donate the other $47 to the Rotary Foundation on top of my regular annual donation.

In this way I don’t benefit personally, which is as it should be in Rotary, but the club and/or Rotarian and the Rotary Foundation benefit to the tune of $97.

Those of us with District email addresses will want our emails to come from that address when we sent Rotary emails, and replies to those messages to come back to that address. Here’s a rundown on how to do this in different email clients. If you know how in an email program not covered here, please let me know!

If your program isn’t listed, odds are the instructions below will point you in the right direction.

Microsoft Outlook

In your email message form, click View on the menu, then From Field on the submenu. This will cause the From: line to appear on your message forms. Leave it blank to send as you always have. To send from your Rotary address, type Your Name <your.name@rotary7040.com> in the from line when you want to send a message from your Rotary address. (All you really need is the email address itself, but putting your name separately in that format makes it look a little better.)

In Outlook 2000, I’m told that you can do it by selecting File | Send Using | <Account>, though I have no way to test that out.

Leo Notenboom also has a great article on how to set up a send-only address.

Gmail

From the Settings page, select the Accounts tab and click Add another address. You’ll be sent a message requiring a response to prove you own the address. Once you confirm, you’ll be able to send mail from that address in gmail, or even use it as your default address.

This post is a work in progress.  It has been published early for the benefit of those who wish to use it.  Stay tuned for updates.

Google has introduced a powerful set of free services which allow an organization such as a Rotary Club to create a powerful suite of electronic services to serve the club and communicate with the public.

Combined with an Internet domain like www.mainvillerotary.org (easy and very inexpensive to obtain) these tools allow a club, without requiring any web programming skills, to;

• Create a club website.
• Establish email accounts like sue.smith@mainvillerotary.org or lobsterfestival@mainvillrotary.org - up to 200 accounts.
• Create an online calendar (you can give all your club officers and committee chairs access to create and edit events.)
• Create online documents like spreadsheets, presentations and word processor documents. You can make these public or restrict them to club members. You can set permissions for certain people to edit them.

Powerful, free, and you don’t have to have any programming skills at all. It’s all done through a web browser.

Here’s a step by step look at how to get this set up quickly.

First, obtain an Internet domain

The first step is to decide what you want as a domain name. The key is to pick something as short and easy as possible, yet instantly recognizable. www.rcsn.ca is nice and short, but it is hard to recognize that is is for the Rotary Club of South Nepean. www.rotarynepean.ca worked much better for my club.

Many domain registrars are available, and many will offer very low prices, often requiring that you purchase a webhosting account as well. My practice is to register my domains with a registrar that does not offer webhosting. I’ve used www.easydns.com for about 7 years without problems, and feel comfortable recommending them. They charge just over $20-$25 per year for a domain name registration. I recommend a .ca domain for Canadian clubs, .org for American clubs.

Set up your Web Hosting

This section assumes two things: 1) you have an Internet domain registered, and 2) that your web hosting company is www.dreamhost.com. If you have a different hosting company contact them to see if they support Google Apps for Domains. If you do not yet have a web hosting company, and wish to sign up with dreamhost.com, you can take advantage of a $97 sign-up incentive that will see the first $50 taken off your bill and the other $47 donated to the Rotary Foundation. Visit https://signup.dreamhost.com/ and enter promo code SCAIFEROTARY. All of this incentive goes to Rotary, through the $50 discount (the maximum allowed) on your hosting bill and a $47 donation I will make to the Rotary Foundation on top of my regular annual donation. I will receive no personal benefit.

Set up Google Apps for Domains

This section assumes two things: 1) you have an Internet domain registered, and b) that your web hosting company is www.dreamhost.com. If you have a different hosting company contact them to see if they support Google Apps for Domains. If so, the instructions should be similar. Otherwise, visit http://www.google.com/apps/.

First, let’s get registered with Google Apps.

1. Go to the Dreamhost Manage Domains page in your Dreamhost control panel.
2. Click Add new Domain / Sub-Domain.
3. Scroll down to the Google Hosted section of the page.
4. Create your domain in the space provided and click Google Host this domain now!.
5. Click the supplied link to register at Google Apps for your Domain.
6. Create the Administrator’s account. It is important to create a generic administrator’s account like ‘Admin’ and ensure that the password is not lost.
7. Click I accept Continue with set up after reviewing the terms and conditions.
8. Now you are at the Google Apps dashboard for your club. From here you can create email accounts, web pages for your club, an online club calendar, online documents like spreadsheets and presentations, etc.

So now you’re registered with Google Apps, and it’s time to create your services.

What the heck is WordPress, anyway?

WordPress is a publishing phenomenon that allows people with no programming skills to publish on the Internet.  This is what people refer to as a blog, but don’t be put off by the term.  It’s really just an online newsletter.  If you can use a simple word processor and a web browser, you’re good to go with WordPress.

We’ve implemented WordPress on the District 7040 website in order to allow district leaders to publish directly to the district membership through electronic newsletters.  You can find them under the Newsletters item on the district website menu.

WordPress newsletters can have two types of content.

• First, we can have pages which are fixed information, more or less permanent in nature, like the front page of a club website.
• The second is a post, which is a periodic posting, more chronological in nature, like a daily diary entry or a monthly newsletter.

We can choose what visitors see first when they visit a blog on our site; a page or the most recent post.

In order to help you get the most of this, I’ve prepared a few tips to remember, and a list of resources to help you learn how to use WordPress.

Learning Resources

Here are some links to use WordPress;

• Getting Started with WordPress: http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
• Writing Posts: http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts

Types of Users: Admin, Editor or Author

There are various types of users in WordPress.  The District Webmaster is the admin or Administrator user.  Comittee chairs are likely to be authors which allows them to add and edit their own pages or posts, or editors, which allows them to do that edit thier own or other peoples posts.

Posting and Administration

Simply visit your newsletter and add ‘/wp-admin/’ to the end of the address to access the administrative facilities.  Enter your username and password, then click ‘remember me’ so you’ll stay logged in.

If you want to change your email or password, click your name in the top right corner of the page, beside the word ‘howdy’.  (A little corny I know, but I didn’t put it there!)

Tips

• WordPress operates as a series of Posts, or articles, that can be added at any time.  These are ideal for periodic newsletters, meeting minutes, and any other information that you want to pubish from time to time.
• We can choose to have pages which contain more permanent information, like a page that describes a Rotary program.   Being more permanent in nature doesn’t mean we can’t edit it from time to time as we wish!
• Every WordPress newsletter has certain authorized users.  The people who write and translate the newsletters will have Author privileges enabling them to write and edit posts on the newsletter applicable to them.  The district webmaster will have Administrator rights on all newsletters.
• You can work on WordPress from any where you can access the internet with a web browser.
• You can start a post early, then work on an unpublished draft often as you want and publish it when you’re finished simply by clicking ‘Publish’.
• Published posts can be edited after they are published.
• If you are working on WordPress, you’ll be given an account in WordPress with Author’s rights.  If your newsletter is to be published in two languages, the translator can be given author rights on the alternate language newsletter so they can publish the translation directly.

Uploading Documents

Here’s a good article on uploading documents to make them available through your WordPress newsletter.

Jotform.com provides a great resource for generating web forms in a drag-and-drop environment.  Reportedly you can even host the form on their site.  Otherwise, it looks great for simply designing a form and copying the code to your own site.

This post will be a collection point for miscellaneous resources for Rotary Club webmasters.  It will be added to from time to time.

• Web Developers Virtual Library: Very useful and comprehensive tutorials and articles.
• Jotform.com: provides a great resource for generating web forms in a drag-and-drop environment.  Reportedly you can even host the form on their site.  Otherwise, it looks great for simply designing a form and copying the code to your own site.

Photoshop is the ne plus ultra of graphics editing.   It’s even a verb now.  But a little pricey for most of us.

Adobe has given us a break with their free online photo editor and photo storage at Photoshop Express Online (www.photoshopexpress.com).

(Don’t forget Picasaweb for your photo albums.  If you use Google Apps for your club administration and communications, Picasaweb fits right in.)