The Making of a Club Website
David Bathurst's adventures in cyberland while creating the WACC site

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As a long term member of WACC  (Walthamstow Amateur CineVideo Club) and a lover of computers (sad I know), I have always wanted to have a WACC web site but didn't have a clue how to go about it.

I loaded Microsoft FrontPage, which is supplied with the Windows operating system then said to myself, "Yes what now".

I found FrontPage very unhelpful and difficult to use, without a manual, so I left it alone. Some time later a friend from my computer club said that one of the computer magazines was giving away DreamWeaver 1 on their cover disc and how wonderful and easy it was to use. Upon that recommendation I actually spent some money and bought the magazine.

I loaded DreamWeaver onto my computer and decided that before designing any screens I had to create five pages. I soon discovered how to put the number '1' on a page and save it as Page1.htm. I repeated this with three other pages, calling them pages 2, 3 & 4. My next task was to create a Home page with four buttons on it; labelled one, two, three & four and to try and link these to their appropriate pages. If I could get button one to display page 1 and have a button on page 1 to link me back to the Home page, then I had cracked this web page business.

I am happy to say that with DreamWeaver I did this with very little help and no books to read.

Armed with this little knowledge I was ready to create my masterpiece. Each web page is basically a magazine style layout and can be treated in the same manner as creating a DTP (Desk Top Publishing) page. Having been creating and publishing WACC's own 12-page members' magazine I didn't find this a problem. In fact with very little practice it's a piece of cake to do. The only difference is that unlike the magazine on a web page you can link to various pages with ease to guide your reader around. No knowledge of the HTML language is required with DreamWeaver, and I can assure you I have none.

Once I had designed and created my Home page and four other linked pages the next problem was "How do I get these on the Net?".  I hadn't a clue! Someone told me about FTP uploaders and that DreamWeaver had one. So of I went looking for my FTP uploader, ah yes I have one. I looked at my ISP's (Internet Service Provider) pages on help to upload and they told me what I needed to key into my uploader. This I did and the next thing I knew was that my site was up and on the web.

"Well done!" I said.  "If an idiot like me can do it, anyone could."

Having told the club that we had a web site and those who were on the web, where to find it we were in business. You'll notice that I created it before telling anyone, which meant that if I failed no one would know. Now at WACC we don't get hung up on committee meetings for the sake of it. In fact those that can do, do; and the world rolls along quite nicely. My advice is get on with it and if you make a good job of it no one will complain. If anyone does complain, ask him or her if they can do better.  If they think they can, offer to hand all the files over to them. Surprisingly very few people say anymore.

So we have a site and now the brain goes into overtime with confidence and new ideas just start flowing. If you look at my site at http://welcome.to/wacc you'll see many sections that have been created as the ideas flowed. We have a Club Meetings section, About Us, Where to find us, linking to an on-line map site, a Gallery section, DIY Techies section and much more. If you want to see what can be done, just give us a visit online.

I loaded our site onto my ISP allocated web space. Because this wasn't given the name of WACC I wanted to have an easier web address. I went to V3.COM where they give a free re-direction service so people only have to key in WELCOME.TO/WACC to get to us. The browser puts in the http:// bit automatically.

Your next job is to get listed on search engines and other clubs sites along with the excellent IAC site. This way if we all link to each other we spread the word about our hobby and people will find you.

My main reason for creating the site was to allow members who are online to know what is happening at the club, and to allow prospective members to find out a little about us, and how to find where we are. So far that has worked very well and I'm quite proud to have created this site without any knowledge of programming and above all no cost.

As my ISP, NTL offers a totally free of charge internet service, my only cost, other than man hours in creating the site, is the cost of that computer magazine to get DreamWeaver 1. So if you have wanted to do this, just have a go and don't worry about club politics. In fact if I had to clear everything with them I wouldn't have done it. I find being creative a spur-of-the-moment thing that can't wait for committee meetings.

I have never had any adverse comments only praise for our site. I did a presentation of the site to members whom are not online and they were thrilled with it. It will present your club to the world and we have had responses from all over the globe.

So have fun, have a go and enjoy yourself.

We do it for fun not money and for the love of our hobby. Let me know when you've created your site and I'll put a link on mine to yours in return for a link from you to us. I look forward to hearing from you, good luck.

- David Bathurst

email: davidbathurst@ntlworld.com

Don't work alone, join the IAC for all the help, encouragement and information you need.  Click for membership details.

"It's lonely at the top, but you eat better."

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