Unlike other positions of responsibility, Webmaster is one of the ones that the scouts really can’t do it alone, but with some preparation they can have a successful and rewarding position.
Transcript:
Unlike other positions of responsibility, Webmaster is one of the ones that the scouts really can’t do it alone, but with some preparation they can have a successful and rewarding position.
As with other positions it is important to the spell out the responsibilities of the scout so they understand the responsibilities. And pairing the scout with an adult that has some amount of technical expertise is important, as it’s not realistic to assume a scout will be able to build and launch a site by themselves.
In terms of a website there are simple ones set up easy enough, and while it might not give you the perfect site, you need to do this with the goals in mind, and that is to keep your unit informed and for outsiders to be able to contact your unit. With these couple of things in mind you can craft a website that works for you.
In terms of tools, there are WordPress themes set up for the BSA that you can use. WordPress for those unfamiliar is a simple configuration engine that can help you display pages, images blogs and links. It has an easy set up and is free.
If you have a parent in your unit who happens to be design handy, all the better.
The main point is that once the site is set up you need to decide on what the scout is going to be responsible for. For this, I will use my unit as an example.
On our homepage, we have a message area that the scout can update. New stuff going on is placed here. Things like upcoming court of honors, Eagle Ceremonies. Anything general public friendly, like that, since anyone can view the website.
There are also some areas of the website that are externally hosted, like our photos area, which use flickr to upload photos. Having photos is also good, as it requires the webmaster to work with the troop historian. It’s an important note that for photos, we do not specifically name scouts full names, usually we don’t name them at all, but simply list the event.
Another area is our troop calendar, which is hosted by Google Calendars. This lets the webmaster update and maintain the calendar.
Other areas like our Eagle area, and our troop forms is handled by adults. These don’t change often and it’s better to be handled by someone with more technical skills.
While the Webmaster handles the parts of the website, the Facebook presence which is a private group is handled by adults, and is primarily for the adults. While we don’t specifically discourage scouts from joining, we don’t really encourage it either.
In essence the responsibilities for the scout include:
- Maintain the upcoming announcements on a weekly basis
- Publish the troop yearly calendar after our planning meeting
- Maintain the calendar on a weekly basis, adding patrol meetings and troop events
- Interact with and upload photos from our Troop Historian
- Publicize the website and calendar with the troop
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was a bit on the Troop Website.
