Web site document

This document was presented to the committee on 28/04/2026

Website for Lancashire RMA

https://sites.google.com/view/lancashire-rma-nasuwt/home

1. The basic principles of a website

At its simplest, a website is a notice board set up to promote an organisation or group, and like a physical notice board its purpose is to provide the user with easy access to information that is useful, truthful, relevant, up-to-date and easy to navigate.

Therefore a website should be clearly presented and in appropriate language for the intended audience. Navigation around the site should be intuitive and must not require special skills or training.

The site should be long lasting and durable.

If a website fails in only one of the above, it is worse than useless.

The LRTA already has a web site, setup by John Tustin. Several members have been given training by John. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John for his work on the site and his willingness to continue to support its development.

The site has been made using a free web tool from Google - Google Sites.

Google Sites is easy to use and anyone who is able to put a text box into Word would quickly master it.

Google Sites has limited design facilities and is not as sophisticated as many of the current web-building programs. However it does have the advantage of publishing straight to the web without the added complication and expense of buying a web “domain” (the name and address of the website). It does not (currently) insert adverts.

Furthermore a site made in Google Sites could be easily managed by anyone who has experience in web design, which means that the site can be passed onto future generations without the need for skills in a specific program.

There are a number of relatively basic design facilities missing in Google Sites and people familiar with other ways to make websites could become frustrated by these limitations. Its biggest problem however is the address that is assigned to the website (see above) and the inability to apply a similar name. However I feel there are strategies that we can adopt to work around these problems and I strongly recommend that we stay with the Google Site and build on the good work already done.

2. Things that we need to consider.

2.1 The Content

The old site has a very wide range of content that must eventually be judged by the principles discussed in 1. above. At this stage I would recommend that it is moved to a lower position in the websites structure or archived.

Our priority must be to make the website work for us. To this end I suggest that we start with a Committee page that lists dates and times of meetings and information that members of the committee need OTHER THAN PERSONAL INFORMATION. This would ensure that information is kept up-to-date. In the future we may wish to explore password protecting the committee page BUT this will never provide 100% security. The information on this page should be structured in such a way that it is clearly displayed in mobile phones.

Another area that should be done immediately is a Events page. This would allow organises to promote their events/trips and remove the requirement to limit descriptions to a single page. A structure could be provided to ensure that all the reverent details are not missed out or mistyped. The proposed WhatsApp group could then be used as the Flyer to remind members of imminent events.

The third, and by far the most important, is to redesign the Home page. This is the page that states who we are and what we do, and shows that the site is up to date.

2.2 The Process

Who will be able to post information onto the website?

If more than one person can publish then there must be agreement that information going onto the website is supportive of the organisation and complies with the principles in 1. above. The web site is not a platform for discussions, disagreements or arguments.

Several members of the committee should be able to publish directly, (eg the secretaries) other members could submit material in a form suitable for direct copy to the site, such as Microsoft Word.

The website must be easy to manage and simple to pass on to others when the current editors move on. This again rules out a bespoke website.

3. Usage

The website must be seen as a central part of the LRMA and used appropriately.

The weakness of current website is its address. It is difficult to remember and very long to type. However the website can be visited by clicking on a hypertext link if one is provided in emails. Unfortunately WhatsApp does not currently support hypertext but the full web address can be included in WhatsApp posts.

Including links to the website in all emails and WhatsApp posts would be the easiest way of encouraging members to visit the site.

Barry Flint

April 2026