Keep your chapter websites up to date!

[aephi alum]

The web designer in me is having a fit.

I've been trying to find out some information online about my alma mater's upcoming recruitment. What I found is totally embarrassing.

Panhel web site:
- Recruitment info page has links to each of the 5 NPC sororities' recruitment pages. Two of the links are broken.
- Lists last year's formal recruitment dates. (Recruitment starts a little over two weeks from today.)
- Includes last year's recruitment registration form.
- No photos more recent than 2003.
- Link to Greek Week information is broken.

NPC sorority web sites:
- Two sororities' sites include 2004 recruitment info rather than 2005 info. Two others have generic recruitment pages without dates. Only one has the 2005 dates.
- All sororities have their membership rosters posted. Three of them still list 2004 graduates as actives.
- Four sororities' sites include plugs for charity fundraisers that happened last fall.
- One sorority includes a message congratulating last spring's new member class on their initiation.
- One sorority includes links to websites of other chapters of that sorority. One of those chapters has closed (though the website is still up).

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of keeping your website up to date. Each chapter should have a webmaster. Keep dates current for things like recruitment and fundraisers. When an event happens, change your website ASAP to indicate that the event is now in the past: "Our spaghetti dinner was a huge success!" or "Congratulations to our new members!" Check for broken links, especially links to external sites. Stale information reflects poorly on your org, and very stale information may lead people to believe that the org is defunct.

<off to knock some sense into whoever my chapter's webmaster might be>