Website

Basic Department Description

• Build, maintain and update the website and web presence of the convention for that year
• A thorough knowledge of web design and web development is a must for at least one person on the team. Other member should only need basic HTML skills as to update the content on the pages
• Staff Email is [email protected] & [email protected] (These are the forward facing “job” emails that get posted to the public and forward emails to your personal VF email. Your personal VF email is what you log in to and use to read and respond to emails.)

Yearly Responsibilities

• Sunday of the previous convention either the new or old lead should archive the previous website to the appropriate folder (example vancoufur.org/2016) and a splash page with the new theme should be put up in its place until the new website can be developed.
• The new website should be online ideally within a month of the previous convention ending as to give the maximum exposure to the con.
• Test all forms and every page for errors (See development guide)
• Once the new site is up make sure to get a schedule from the department leads so you know when things like dealers den and art show open.
• Make sure that social media is informed of any major changes to the website
• Be sure to keep in mind search engine optimization when developing the page templates and content. EG. Well written meta data, keywords and titles.
• If using a CMS like drupal or wordpress the website leads NEEDS to have admin access to the whole site.
• Make sure to make the design fun and eye catching. We are a fun con lets not make our biggest web presence boring!
• MAKE SURE TO SAVE OUT A ZIP/COPY OF THE VANCOUFUR PUBLIC FOLDERS IN THE FTP AS A BACKUP. While the server usually has its own backups, this is a preventative measure in case something screws up. (The entire public folder, including older years, etc.)

Convention Website NEEDS

Design site to include

• Twitter feed
• Space for other convention ads
• Countdown timer
• MAKE SURE DATES ARE IN MULTIPLE SPOTS
• Html title code
• Banner or header image
• On home,hotel,reg pages!

Needed Webite Pages

• Please read the Website Checklist (Contains Content and page checklists, procedures and more!)^[[[a]]]

Your Department on the Website/in the Conbook

• Make sure departments give you accurate information when the submit it to you.
• Any text the departments send to you should be audited and formatted to be interesting, easy to read and Search engine compliant

6 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• All departments should have their opening times, you should have closed the first batch of registration prices and the website should fully developed.
• All pages should be populated with information. If you have no content for a page, disable it from the navigation

3 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• All content should be up to date or archived
• Make sure to get closing dates for things like art show and registration form the leads
• You should start building a schedule for your team. -You will need to have someone available during the con incase the site goes down or needs immediate updates (like a splash page of the new years website for sunday, if available) or to provide/update the reg system/CM theme with the help if IT team on sunday for next years pre-reg. (Use the Master Schedule for the year! Programming lead sets this up every year and it houses our event schedule as well as the work/team schedules for at con departments.)

1 Month before con, what do you need to have done?

• Registration should be closed and the link to the registration kiosk should be removed or commented out on the website. (This is depending on when Reg closes)
• Send in any needed information to the Conbook for print.
• If there is a theme decided for next year, procure art or a logo for the next year and ready the splash page and kiosk theme
• The schedule should have its own page and should be posted to the website or be ready to post at this time. We usually use Sched.org so it is usually simply an embed code.

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) got inputted into the system for their hours.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next years’ chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)

If VancouFur owes you money for department spending, PLEASE PLEASE send your reciepts to [email protected] & [email protected] and then fill out [[1]]

Break down of contacts

• Website should be in contact with every department to make sure that any info that is needed to be on the website is accurate.
• Notable contacts should be hotel, registration, events, conbook, artist alley, dealers den, art show and charity.
• Website executive is the Marketing exec. [email protected]

Department Inventory and Ordering Resources

• Only needed if we need to buy hardware for the website or possibly premium themes for wordpress or drupal (if we use them)

Do's and Don'ts of the Department

• Make requested updates promptly and within 24 hours. A second is a great asset to help with this and halves the load.
• Do not make an update unless you have been given the go ahead by the department lead.
• Do not forget to make backups when updating
• TEST THE DESIGN IN ALL BROWSERS!!
• Responsive design!
• Make the text more interesting and easy to read. Avoid patterned backgrounds and small text
• Break up sections on a page to avoid people getting lost
• Work on getting a CMS in place (I highly suggest wordpress as it is easy to set up and easy to modify themes. Also there are a lot of fantastic plugins available to us as well)
• What didn't work/would suggest to avoid?
• What would you suggest to be done for the future years of your department that aren't already in motion?

Other Resources

• Codecanyon.net Place to buy premium themes and plugins for Wordpress and drupal
• [[2]] Begginers guide to Search Engine Optimization - Great resource for checking you are optimizing the site right.
• Google analytics - you get a lot of very good data from there on visitors and traffic. Remember to log in once a month to check traffic and make solutions if traffic dips

PLEASE REMEMBER

• Always respond to emails/contacts, even if it is just to say “I recieved your email and will get back to you soon!” / “I don't know the answer but I am looking into it for you!”
• Be sure to contact the Chairs or Admin to make sure you have access to the materials you will need for the year like your Staff Email, Access to any folders/sites with materials, etc. (Be on the lookout for invites or emails to these things and check your junk mail too!)
• Make sure you TEST your new staff email (if any) and report problems immediately to the Chairs! (if you haven't gotten any emails in a while, do another test!)
• Make sure you keep all of your information up to date with the convention staff! Contact the volunteers lead to update your information if the volunteers spreadsheet is not available for direct editing!
• Do not WAIT for someone to contact you. If you have a moment to reach out, do so! Depending on who you are working with, the communication road may not be a 2 way street and you will have to do a lot of poking. Please be proactive!
• Do not edit any staff members’ documentation without permission!
• Keep all VancouFur related documents INSIDE the VancouFur Materials folders. Keeping things on your own gdocs and not inside the VancouFur specific folders makes it incredibly difficult to find needed information for all parties without hassling a lot of staff.
• If you need to make something private in the materials folder (Googledocs or wherever it moves to in the future) Make sure that the Chairs, Admin and Executives CAN STILL SEE IT. We need to know where you are and if your files are all hidden we cannot proactively offer help, guidance, or corrections. Otherwise, just keep things public/view only to prevent people from messing with your info.

• Make sure you know who your Executive is! They are there to help you and oversee the branch of departments you are in. Contact [email protected] / [email protected] to check or check the contact page on the website! You can also use the contact sheet for the year