Original query from Roger Resek, UWM Guild for Learning in Retirement, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
We have been discussing activating our web site that is currently just a placeholder linked to the UWM web site. If we do it, we want it to be professional looking and kept current, and this will take time, effort and probably money. A survey of our 550 members indicates that approximately one-third have e-mail addresses, and we conclude that this might indicate the maximum number of members who would use a web site. We recognize that the percentage of our members who are Internet active will increase greatly over the years, and we also recognize that the Internet will eventually provide a significant portion of our programming as well as becoming the primary medium for communication. However, "If we build it, they will come -- in about five years" doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us.

For instance, we will probably have to mail out our newsletter and other information to all members for a long time. Why go to the effort of putting it on a web site? We know a lot of LLIs have active web sites, and many of those we have looked at appear to be very professional, content rich and up-to-date. What we are looking for from those of you who have had active sites for maybe a year is some indication of: What portion of your membership actually uses your site? Number of hits per month, etc. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful in attracting members, funds, etc.? Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied that the effort is worth it? Estimated cost to develop? Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? Who keeps the material current?

Can you give us a time and cost estimate for doing this? Any other words of wisdom? Thanks much. The UWM Guild really appreciates any input you can provide.

Dick Di Vecchio here from Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk Community College, CT
About half of our members (about 360 or so) have email addresses. The only people that use the site to any great extent are our own Board and Committee Chairs. I personally use it to determine various meeting and function dates, times and room numbers. Some of our facilitators have information on the site to advise members of assignments, chapter readings, other information. But...that doesn't meet that it's a waste of time. Eventually as you point out, it will be the way we communicate. If you don't get on the bandwagon, when it becomes important, you won't be there. We put our email and web site addresses on everything. It is hoped that it will become important to our members sooner rather than later. Answering your questions in the order you have placed them follows:
1. Very small number of hits except for those I've mentioned.
2. Since we place our addresses on everything, we hope to attract people to the site (but we don't need additional members), and we solicit funds via our registration forms and through a mailing each year.
3. We are satisfied with the way it looks (check us out at http://www.lifetimelearners.org), but we are still waiting for a lot more hits. This is our registration period so maybe we'll have more to report soon.
4. We are fortunately blessed with someone who knows more about this stuff than I certainly will ever learn or know, so it cost us nothing.
5. We're still learning how to do this properly. The information has to be composed, so the composer does it in Word. Then we email the material to our "Webmaster" to clean up a bit. But in the main, it doesn't have to be retyped. And it costs us no money. It is getting quicker all the time because of the improvements we've made.
6. How about the fact that you're on the web right now getting information? Or that almost all of our communication about the Northeast Regional Conference is being done by email? Seems to me that while it isn't perfected, this is the way to go. One last thought. I'll check with our Webmaster to see if she can't write up something for you. She's a super whiz and you might find her information more enlightening than mine.

From Merle F. Allshouse, Director, Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College
1. What potion of your membership actually uses your site?
Number of hits per month, etc. - Three quarters get all their info from the site: http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec
2. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful in attracting members, funds, etc.? - Our audience includes: prospects; members; faculty; students; staff.
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied that the effort is worth it?
- By all means, it is critical for our communication at all levels... much more is available on the web site than in print.
4. Estimated cost to develop. Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? - I did it myself.
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate for doing this? - My administrative assistant and I keep it current. For the Newsletter see: http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/newsletter
6. Any other words of wisdom? - Get used to it since it is the best way to keep your communication current and far cheaper and more versatile than paper print. We are encouraging every interest group to develop its own web site. For an example see http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/writers.html

From Stew Engel, Mary Washington ElderStudy, Fredericksburg, VA
We have 240 members & have a web site with our schedule, general info, & a copy of our Procedures Manual.
1. What potion of your membership actually uses your site? Number of hits per month, etc. Don't know 2. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful in attracting members, funds, etc.? - Yes. I recently tried a search with Google & got 35 hits on the word "ElderStudy," of which 25 were for our group. Don't know how successful.
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied that the effort is worth it? - Worth it to us because the sponsor did it.
4. Estimated cost to develop. Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? - See #3
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate for doing this? a. The sponsor. b. No.
6. Any other words of wisdom? -
At least one new member found us this way.

From Marilyn Bakker, Lifetime Learners Institute, Norwalk, CT
I'm the chair of our Electronic Communications & Computers Committee, and webmaster. I mention the EC&C Committee just to indicate that our website is part of a larger effort to increase electronic communications. More on that below, but first to your questions.
1. What portion of your membership actually uses your site? Number of hits per month, etc. [Very few members use it.]
2. Is your target audience other than members? If so, has this been successful in attracting members, funds, etc.? [No, our target audience is members.]
3. Any other measures of success or disappointment? Are you satisfied that the effort is worth it? [Yes.] 4. Estimated cost to develop. Did you pay a consultant? Did your sponsoring institution do it? Did LLI volunteers do it? [I did it myself as a volunteer.]
5. Who keeps the material current? Can you give us a time and cost estimate for doing this? [I keep it current, and it takes a lot of time, but little money.]
6. Any other words of wisdom? [See below.] Our website is http://www.lifetimelearners.org. We pay $35/year to maintain the domain registration, and $9.95/month to our web host(http://www.softcomca.com). That's the total cost. I use MS FrontPage for html and Adobe for pdf, but since I own both, the organization didn't have to pay for them. Along with general info about LLI and our relationship with the college, the biggest part of the site is the current catalog (click Spring 2001).

The catalog comes to me as a Publisher file, and it takes a lot of work to break it up into html segments. An easier alternative would be to present the whole catalog as a pdf file, but that would be boring, and not the best use of a website. Our monthly newsletters are presented in pdf format. Converting them from Publisher to pdf is very quick and easy. A nice feature of the site is the online course materials, with links to pertinent websites, but not many course facilitators are taking advantage of this yet. Anyone can see our hits by clicking on the Nedstat counter at bottom-left on the main page. The hits are generally very low, but there was a surge on Monday. The reason? The first Internet classes of the season met that day, and the students all click on the "secret door" in the lower-right corner of the main page to get to the online lessons that I upload to my own website. My feeling is that we need a website because ... well, why not? [If it cost a lot of money, and if I minded spending the time on it, I'd have to come up with a better answer than that.] On the broader subject of Electronic Communications, we have two automatic mailing lists that we started with egroups, which was acquired by Yahoo. One is for management only, the other is a forum for members who would like to ask and answer Internet and computer-related questions. I'd be pleased to answer any questions. If they are too nitty-gritty for the EIN forum, write me at mbakker@optonline.net.