Just a bit of info regarding what is happening with the website. I'm not going to beat around the bush with it and I guess I don't expect all responses to be positive. However here goes...
From day one, the 'club' website has been very poorly supported by the club as a whole. Some interest at various stages has been shown, however this has been more on a individual basis as opposed to the club in general. For the past 4 years, I have been working on the website the tools provided have never been properly utilised.
4 years on and I am now much busier with far more commitments. Dave Farrell and I have kept in regular contact since day one and he certainly is one person who has grasped the website concept and the benefits it can bring. We have been discussing how we can take things forward and have come up with a plan of action:
- Firstly there will be a re-design and development of the website to give it a modern feel and bring it up to date.
- The website itself won't be run by the club, at the club, instead myself and Dave are taking on the responsibility. Why you may ask? Well quite simply the club have failed to show enough interest up until now so unless someone does something, then nothing will change.
- We are going to try and ensure that the club releases ANY news story to us first so the official website will actually contain fresh new content regularly. However getting that content online is a different matter altogether.
- We are actively trying to build up an editorial team to help with the write up of articles and to also ensure that the quality of the copy is to a high standard. One route we are going to try is approach local colleges/sixth form centres to see if there are any students who have a passion for journalism and would like extra brownie points to appear on their CV. I'm a believer in this route as it's simply a college project that got the ball rolling for me in this field.
- Also, we are looking for people to volunteer with maintaining the statistical side of things throughout the season. No special computer knowledge is necessary as everything will be extremely easy to update through a web browser.
- One thing I will say is that a reliable website team is what is needed in order to make this work. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in helping out then either PM me or email webmaster@whitehavenrl.co.uk
You might be thinking 'why should I be involved in the clubs official website?', well it is a good question to ask. However at the moment the club really just aren't at the level to grasp the concept of the benefits of the internet. One thing myself and Dave will be doing is to attract advertisers ourselves to make use of the fantastic hits the site still receives and advertise their businesses. We feel that any revenue raised after development costs have been covered should go into something like the Reserve Grade to help the future of the club.
Yes this is far from an ideal situation, but it is something I can practically do to try and make the club move forward on the internet. Like it or not, this is the way we are going to try and I sincerely hope we get the backing of the HavenFans.co.uk faithful
