At the last district convention in Auckland we had the honour to receive the New Zealand Club Website of the Year 2011 award. Peter Scholtens who was competing on national level as evaluator received the virtual award on behalf of the club.
Some of the criteria for a good website includes breadth and freshness of content, SEO friendliness, structure and usability. Accessibility is a big issue on the Toastmaster’s check-list. A lot of this was achieved thanks to the implementation of a popular free website management system called WordPress. This system is so easy to use that not only the web master but also other committee members have the ability to post new content and keep the website up to date. (Which they do vigorously)
Six other clubs were nominated for the award, some of which have some very inviting designs (http://biztalktm.co.nz/, http://lunchtime.freetoasthost.us/). The competition was fierce this year and if we want to win the award next year again we’ll have to step up the game. Expect to see a new design, more features and more content soon.
For some guidelines on the judging criteria check the Club websites page on the Toastmasters NZ website.