Featured Web Site: Maryland Chapter

We continue to feature CPCU Society chapter web sites. We hope to share ideas and formats, recognize webmasters who have done a great job, and encourage chapters to constantly update and improve their web sites. This month we are featuring the Maryland Chapter web site.

Some highlights of the Maryland Chapter web site:

• Current Information on the Home Page

• Colorful Welcome Banner
  Ask Leslie Higgins to design one for your chapter.

• Featured Next Five Upcoming Events.
  This dynamic content is pulled from their calendar so they only have to input the information once.

• Dues Reminder
  Nice invitation for lapsed members to rejoin

• Prize Drawing for Providing Feedback
  This gets members involved; their names are published, and they get a prize.

• Circle of Excellence—
  They are going for the Gold. They have links to their progress and plans.
  

• President’s Message and Goals
  Sprucing up the web site was one goal they achieved.
  

• Photo Gallery (with links to archived photos)
  Check out the humorous photo for the archive area.
  

• Welcome New Designees
  They feature two years of designees. Note: The 2008 new designee list is now available.
  

• Links to Chaptergrams

• Hit Counter
  They are using a free hit counter from Sitemeter.com.

• Contact Information to Chapter Officers, Board of Directors, and Advisors
  

Thanks to Maryland’s Information Technology Chairman and Webmaster, Joyce Smythe, CPCU, who attended web training in Malvern in October 2007. She really turned the web site around and gave it a fresh new start.

Webmaster’s Tip:
Joyce says, “I am really glad that I stepped up for the job of webmaster simply because it is so much fun! I attended the class in October 2007 and started to use what I learned right away. Leslie Higgins is extremely helpful when you want to do something but you don't quite know how.

"We've started using the calendar to publish our meeting dates, educational sessions, and our community outreach. We've also created a link to a third-party tool (shutterfly.com) to store our old photos, which are fun to take a look at. We're also employing Acteva for online payments to our events. This month we're going to discontinue e-mailing our Chaptergram and we're going to put it directly on the web site and e-mail out a link—this will bring more people to the site and it'll get even more activity. We're also planning on using one of the survey tools to conduct our chapter officer elections. The e-mail tool allows us to contact our membership with a couple of clicks of the mouse!