The Internet has been the major revolution in the past few years. The Internet has made a massive impact on our lives, with its simplicity and applications. The Internet has changed our dimensions of life and has been instrumental in influencing our lives to such an extent, that our normal activities are incomplete or impossible without the Net. As well said by Andrew Brown "The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life". If you are not still convinced, read on the
Cyber Atlas Report or view The Global Internet Statistics .
The main key to the major success of the Internet has been its unimaginable flexibility to suit all our actions. It has been applicable to all the fields known to humans. Just as the Internet has been applicable to the various activities of our various people, it can jolly well apply to your club also. The Internet can be effectively used for bringing about a change to your club as well. Yes Rotaractors, Its high time we gave your club the e-xperience and it is ripe for you to e-nhance your club and thereby your Rotaraction.
While developing your club in the Internet, it is customary to immediately think of the constraints of time and money. Improving your club Rotaraction through the internet is indeed a time consuming process, but the end result is worth the time spent. You can pull your club into the WorldWideWeb through a host of free service providers.
I would divide the process of e-nhancing a Rotaract club into three definite stages namely
i) Creating your Web Presence
ii) Promoting your Web Presence
iii) Using your Web presence
We will ponder upon them in a pragmatic manner, as below.
CREATING YOUR WEB PRESENCE
The first and primary step in enhancing your club through the World Wide Web is creating your presence, an online identity for your club.
This would include the following
a) Creating an e-mail ID for your club
b) Creating an online group for your club members
c) Uploading the format of your clubs Documents.
d) Creating a website for your Club
e) Creating an Online Calendar for your club.
You can create an email for your club using various free email providers like
www.yahoomail.com, www.hotmail.com, www.mail.com, www.myownemail.com, www.rediff.com, www.sify.com, www.bharatmail.com www.smackdown.com etc. You will do better if you view the Free E-mail Providers Guide. I would suggest you the websites www.yahoo.com, www. lycos.com, www.indiatimes.com etc, which are free services that would allow you to encompass all the above features.
An online group may be highly useful in establishing the enthusiasm of your club in The Internet. Also the Online groups/Communities are highly powerful web sources that would help you share information, pictures and files over the Internet. While
Yahoo Groups continue to be the favourites among many online users, MSN Groups, Lycos Communities, ClubsPage, Akheva Communities are all fruitful services.
It is also useful that you upload online your club documents like the Club Members Profile Form, Club Application Form, Members Addresses, Voucher Model, Receipt book Model, the soft copies of your Club Bulletin, Financial Statement Form, Attendance Book Format etc. Apart from improving the professionalism of the club, these files may prove more than useful at the times of emergency. Moreover they may be linked to your website too. You can employ the services of the websites like
www.angelfire.com, EZWeb Services, Geocities and StormLoader. You may also peruse the List of Free Web Space Providers.
Your club website is your online PRO. It may contain various information about your club from past history, sponsoring Rotary, Photo Gallery, Club and District information etc.
The creation of a website should not be confused with the Creation of the Web presence. Your Club website may form a major part of your web presence, and it should contain all the above features within it. There are many websites that allow you to create a website in easy steps, without the slightest knowledge of Web Development. They are
Geocities, Tripod, Zyweb, Bravenet, etc. However if you can manage a professional looking website, and want to upload it, you may use 100m.com, topcities.com, Angelfire, MS-11 etc. For an elaborate idea about free hosts, do check out Free Web Space Review .You may also need to know about Free Web Tools that may be available in Bravenet, Animation Factory, and Homepage Tools etc
Another important online tool for your club would be the online calendar. Since your club takes on its activities in a yearly or monthly basis, it is important to pre-plan activities generally for a year and particularly for a month. Online Calendars are very useful in letting the club plan its activities online and send reminders to the Club Members.
Lo Calendar, Calendars.net, Remember It etcAfter the completion of above steps you would have successfully created a web identity for your club.
PROMOTING YOUR WEBSITE
Once you have established the web identity of your club, you have to take care that everyone knows about it. Promotion or Advertising has become an integral part in our life, thanks to the Internet. It is imperative that the Rotaractors all around the globe should easily recognize and access your site. So Promoting your website is simply quintessential.
The first step in promoting your website would be registering your website and members with RI international sites
www.rotaract.org and www.rotary.org. Since these two are the official Rotaract Websites, updating your club information in these sites is bound to fetch you good benefits.
You may also catch the attention of the best of global rotaraction by visiting the websites of various clubs, and signing the guest books with your web IDs. They may reciprocate and you could start an great online Rotaraction amongst you.
You should take care of using your website address and email address in all your official documents, say letterhead, roster, visiting rotaractor acknowledgements. ID cards, certificates etc. You should emphasise more on advertising your webpresence during your projects, especially awareness projects, public relations projects and youth oriented competitions.
The promotion of your website should not stop with Rotary and regional level. You should list your club in most of the Internet directories. Therefore, add your club directly to famous search engines like
www.google.com www.khoj.com etc. You may also employ the services of free site-submission engines like www.submit4free.com and www.webalias.com. You should also announce your site in various Rotaract Communities online.
You may promote your club in your own way offline through word of mouth and various other features. You may come up with innovative ideas of promoting your web presence. Do take care in promoting your web presence, as it is the catalyst for your web enhancement. The
ECNow Guide would be useful for more tips on Internet Promotion.
USING YOUR WEB PRESENCE
Once you have a World Wide Web identity and once people come to know your web presence, you must start utilizing it to the fullest extent for the benefit of your club
Using you club e-mail web site, you can do wonders, collect as many Rotaract e-mail addresses as possible, establish as many as online contacts, do as many as Internet enabled International Service Projects, and you can do a score of various activities through the net. A few successful ideas are listed below, but it is my unbreakable belief that you may walk into more innovative ideas using the Web. When you do so, please
e-mail me
1.Use your club email to communicate as often as possible with other rotaractors, as often as possible
2.Use free web campaign providers like
www.mailer.com, www.constantcontact.com to send occasional HTML Newsletters of your club activities to other clubs.
3.Use services like www.evite.com www.meetingwizard.com for online meeting intimations, and event invitations. The RSVP facilities and Address book facilities of these websites are very good.
4.Use www.photosdb.com. www.webshots.com www.photoisland.com, etc, to share online your project photos. You can also place the photographs of your club members and club/district logos.
5.Engage occasionally in Chat/Discussion Forums with other global Rotaractors to get a better idea of worldwide Rotaraction.
6.Use the Quiz Your Friends web service to quiz your own members or other Rotaractors in the District on Rotaract Activities. The best use of this website would be possible when quizzes are sent to all concerned rotaractors immediately after major Rotaract Events to test their sweet memories.
7.You may also collect feedback after your club events/projects online with the help of free services like Tuglet, Free Online Surveys etc.
8.Occasionally you may liven up things with opinion polls, which are offered for free by WebEnalysis, Global Guest etc.
9.You may use the Free Financial Planner, as well to plan your club accounts.
There are lots more ideas with which you can use your web presence. You may come up with new site and ideas very soon, and please remind to send me those nice ideas. However there are two vital things that you have to see through in online communications in a very careful and disciplined manner. They are
1. Promptly reply to every e-communication that you receive, as that is the best way to keep up your process & progress.
2. Take care of updating your site regularly, and keep the Rotaractors informed about subsequent updates.
If you fail in these two things, then you would throw mud in your own faces. The failure in doing the above two things will send a wrong signal youre your club has become inactive, and thereby create a negative impression. The whole cause of creating online communication will take a big blow,if we dont follow the above two steps.
But being a great Rotaractor, you are never prone to do the above things, and hopefully you never will. So friends, Its a kind request to one and all of you to think of enhancing your club for more Rotaraction and professionalism. As of now, I wish you all the best for an e-nchanting Internet experience for e-nhancing your good old rotaract club. And the time is indeed ripe for taking all our Clubs to one level, and use the Technology to our benefit.
