Website Member Only Area Idea suggestions
 

I'm currently working on putting my orgs website together. We've already had a HUGE overhauling on it, but since I have some time this week I really wanted to work on the members only area. Now here is my question, and I hope it's okay for me to ask this, however I'm asking it since we are a local org (for now, we are working on becoming national) and I would like us to have an indepth site that will have members involved as well. My question is, what should be in an members only area? I'm looking to hear what other orgs have in their areas. No worries I don't want it in detail, just ideas of areas to have, and what would be important to have in an area like that. Any ideas would be helpful. Thank you! ^_^

Event/meeting calendar
Forms
Other Resources/Handbook
Copy of constitution/bylaws/etc.
Message board (for reminders, important notices, etc.)
Directory (phone numbers, email, addresses)

Unless you or someone in your organization is really great with websites, HTML and all that stuff, I would highly suggest not putting anything that's private (i.e. ritual stuff) on the members only page. When I administered my sorority's website a couple of years ago, I wanted to create a members only page for us and that idea was quickly vetoed by people who understood website creation a lot better than I did because they said that it's still very easy for someone to hack into the members only page unless you have highly advance security systems in place.

Ritual shouldn't be online, period. End of story.

You might also want to leave out items of a sensitive nature. For example, when a sister visits the Members Only portion of my org's website, all handbooks are listed and available for download and printing EXCEPT the Membership Handbook that lists all the official guidelines.

Just something to think about.

oh yes I fully understand that, I wouldn't put that on there. I just want an area where I can put a little more stuff than is already on the regular part of the site. But thank you for that. :)

Thank you for all your ideas!!! See on the old site they already had the by-laws posted in the main area, I guess I should move that. :)

I've seen bylaws for several organizations posted on the part of the website that's accesible to everyone. I would keep them on there, actually. If anything, just move the parts that deal with material that's of a sensitive nature.

oh okay then I"ll leave it there...:)

Something we've found useful in our members only section is trackers for study hours, community service, workout hours, etc. We've also been working on a tracker for campus/community involvement. This has made it much easier to apply for campus/national awards, as we already have all that information for each member.

oh wow, that is a great idea, since at meetings we'd always have to write up a new log for service hours. Question about that, was there a program you used for that, like some kind of a counter, or did you just have them submit the info into a database? If you're not sure, that's fine I figured I'd ask. :)

Good luck on building your site. Definately make sure you get some help for the private area if you are going to build it yourself. Remember, websites of the largest companies in the world get hacked into. If someone really wants in, they will be able to.