The SurDel Girls Soccer Club web site is based on the Drupal content publishing platform, which is used worldwide by organizations large and small. The SurDel executive has a powerful tool at their hands, and in order to add value to our Club, the executive are encouraged to take an active role in its evolution.
Organizations that use Drupal:
- Warner Brothers Records
- Popular Science
- Greenpeace
- United Church of Canada
- Amnesty International
Update on our new web site:
- Plan to have available for Coach's appreciation night
- New version of our web hosting software
- Single column article layout
- Continuing to outsource the photo album
- Categorization of articles to make it easier to publish them
- Advertisements now supported
- Blogs
- Team pages (may require a support volunteer)
- Online forms (i.e. RMF, story submissions, coach evaluation)
- RSS Newsfeed
- Online polls
- Accounts available for all Executive (submit request, training required)
- Byte Size and World of Soccer newsletters
- and more. . . .
The advantage of the database driven web site is:
- much easier to publish content and add new pages
- other members can get accounts and publish content
- lots of additional functionality
Risks of the database driven site:
- Recovery (see SDGSA)
- Higher skill level required than basic static site
Risks with web site hosting plans:
| Virtual private web site | low cost, considerable features, lowest reliability/performance, marginal ISP support, high skill level required to maintain application |
| Virtual private server | medium cost, lots of features, lower reliability, marginal ISP support, high skill level required to maintain application & virutal server |
| Dedicated servers | high cost, lots of features, ISP backups are additional cost, highest skill level required to maintain application & physical server |
| Team/club oriented sites | medium cost, few features, may have poor performance, lower skill level required to update content, ISP is responsible for the application |
The current site represents a high watermark for potential for SurDel girls soccer to date, however it comes with some risks:
- Reliant on a volunteer for supporting the application as well as the content, not a long term strategy
- Backup/recovery is more complicated than a static site
Please consider where you want to go with your web site in the future:
- Determine what you would like your web site to provide (you need to provide the information)
- Get more input & commitment from the executive
- Add value to the site, keep your functional areas up to date and interesting.
- Develop multi-year strategy for the support of the web site (capable volunteers are hard to come by)
- Consider hiring a web administrator/developer if you require a site with lots of functionality
- Tradeoffs between functionality, reliability, costs and skills required
Adding Value to SurDel
The web site is one way in which a club can demonstrate value to its members. For instance, Surrey Youth has a strong development program and they advertise that on their website. They publish player evaluation standards and provide information on their soccer academy. Tey publish information on their programs for player, team, coach and officials development. Surrey Youth charge a premium for their membership and are demonstrating the value of their training programs above those of other local clubs.
Conclusion
In order to gain and keep loyal members, the club needs to demonstrate the value that SurDel provides youth throughout their soccer careers. The SurDel executive are encouraged to use the web site as a medium in which to communicate our goals, programs, events and our progress towards improving the club.
