Guidelines for Creating a Web Site on ASME.ORG

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

  • Increase communication & involvement among current Section, Group and Student Section members.
  • Offer greater visibility for activities and members.
  • Provide additional means for promotion/marketing of publication, programs and events.
  • Utilize as a recruitment tool for increasing membership.


DEVELOPMENT STEPS

Verify Your Site Needs
On occassion, we get requests for a web site when that ASME unit may already have one in place. To find out if you might already have a web site, use the following directories:

About Copyright and Terms of Use

ASME is particularly cautious about copyright laws, license, and privacy protection on ASME.ORG. Be sure that you obtain permission to post content, including multimedia products and presentations, that may be copyrighted, licensed or otherwise protected, either by ASME or by another party. If there is any doubt about whether or not to post something on an ASME web site, always obtain permission from the owner. Volunteer Webmasters should familiarize themselves with ASME's Terms of Use and Privacy policy.

Copyright References:

The Webmaster Tips section on www.nolo.com has some good free Webmaster Tips on Copyright, use of meta tags, and other general information. Creation of a Web site on ASME.ORG requires that you become familiar with these concepts.

If you have additional questions about this topic, please contact webmaster@asme.org .

Helpful Tips

1. Obtain permission from your Executive Board, Section Officers, and Members before publishing their addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses on any Web Site.
2.

Carefully consider the type of information that you are placing on the Web site. Some information may be proprietary or confidential. Even e-mail is not necessarily confidential.

3. In order for the Web site to be effective it must be updated regularly.
4. Keep in mind your audience.  Remember that we are also trying to attract new members, so try not to use language that anyone foreign to the workings of ASME may not understand.
5. Your time is precious.  Take a good look at what ASME.ORG has on it and create links before creating something new.  
6. Stay away from statements such as "click here", "link to ..." or "see page number"
7. Remember spell check!
8. When mentioning another entity or third-party, please link to their web site. All links to third-party Web sites should open in their own browser windows.
9. Test all the links on your Web page to make sure they are accurate.
10. Promote your Web site in your printed material (newsletters, announcements, etc.) and at your meetings.
11. Notify us at webmaster@asme.org when you update your pages.  We like to keep in touch.
12. Remember, we are here to help you so if you have questions.
13. Have fun!

Election of a Webmaster
Each Section, and Student Section should to elect a webmaster.  The job consists of gathering substantive information that the Section, Group or Student Section would like to appear on the web site.  It is an ongoing responsibility to ensure that the information that appears on the Web site is timely and accurate.

Please notify Unit Support (unitsupport@asme.org) when a webmaster has been appointed for your Section, Group or Student Section.

Support of the Web Sites
ASME provides general assistance with setting up your FTP settings, FTP software issues, and HTML coding issues. ASME also provides general assistance with web editing software. ASME is also responsible for the maintenance of the Web server hardware and hosting arrangements. On occasion, the Web Server may need to be unavailable for certain time periods for various technical reasons.

ASME does not assist with your local computer hardware or network settings that may prohibit you from posting pages, but will work with IT staff at your location to review any issues are resolved.

Gather Important Information
Gather information that is basic to all Sections, Groups and Student Sections.
  • Section History
  • About the Section
  • Calendar of Meetings/Events
  • Executive Board Members
  • Monthly Newsletters
  • Monthly Announcements
  • Chairman's Message
     
  • Section Officers
  • Program for the Year
  • Section, or Student Section Information
  • Local Contests and Awards
  • Local Professional Development Courses
  • Links to ASME Services and ASME.ORG

Create Your Section, or Student Section Webpage

  • Request Server Space
    ASME.ORG will host your society-related website at no charge, if you are affiliated with a Section, or Student section of ASME.
  • Currently, there is no limit to the directory size of an ASME.ORG hosted Web Site. This is subject to change.
  • You can use any web editor you are comfortable with to create and upload your site's files.
  • Please be aware that our server does not currently support Microsoft FrontPage extensions or other CGI scripting tools, PHP, or ASP. However, Javascript and Server Side Includes (.shtml) is permitted. If you have a need for more complex applications, please contact your section or staff administrator. Requests for these items will be placed into a Web project queue or referred to another external solution.
  • When creating a form, please be aware that certain information is "sensitive" and should not be collected through non-secure channels. If you are collecting personally identifiable information, such as name, email address, phone numbers, addresses, member ID numbers, you will need to make sure it is through a secure channel. Additionally, Credit Card information is not to be collected through a non-secure form. If you have any questions about form use on ASME.ORG or need a secure form created, please contact your section admin. One "free for now" resource for creating forms is http://formprocessors.com
  • Webmasters may use FTP to upload files to your directory. To ensure that you have proper FTP settings, please contact the ASME Webmaster.
  • ASME.ORG does not support anonymous FTP and your FTP access is limited to the directories we've set for your given username and password. You will receive instructions upon requesting your space on the server.
  • Template
    ASME will be providing a new template by January 2006.  This is only a guide and you are free to add your own Section or Student Section's personality but please remember that this is a professional society and the webpages should reflect that.
  • Now it is time to take all that organized information and put up a Web page.  
  • Pictures and graphics can be included but any use of the ASME's name or logo must abide by ASME 's Policy and must adhere to Copyright as presented at the top of this page. We suggest that all graphics are .gif or jpg files (gifs are best for icons or when there are a very few color changes and jpgs are best for photos) in order to increase consistency and speed.
  • Following is a list of ASME.ORG guidelines.
    1. All backgrounds should be white.
    2. All graphics should be limited to the following file sizes.
      Headers/Banners - 25K
      Photos - 25K to 30K
      Logos - 8K
      Icons - 3K
    3. Total page size should be limited to between 50K to 60K.
    4. Suggested fonts - (Arial, Verdana) with text sizes as follows;
      Header/Headlines - Size 2 - 3
      Copy/Text - Size 2 or 1
    5. All advertising or banners sold on ASME.ORG need to go through Micheline Turturro (212) 591-7786 . Advertising helps to pay for server support and space.
    6. We strongly suggest that all Webmasters learn basic HTML. Please use one of the many online tutorials, such as www.davesite.com or http://www.w3schools.com/html/
    7. The website should only be referred to as ASME.ORG and not ASMENET. All text and images should be changed or removed if ASMENET appears.
    8. Please double-check all spelling and grammar in both text and any images on your page.
  • After the Web page is saved to the server take a minute and review your work.  Check that the links work and make sure nothing is out of place.
  • There are several website that can test your webpages.  Following are a few

Adding Functionality to Your Site

*

Submit your site to the most popular search engines by following the links below:

  • AltaVista
  • Excite
  • Google
  • GoTo
  • HotBot
  • Infoseek/Go.com
  • LookSmart
  • Lycos
  • Yahoo
    • *

    If you would like to know more about how search engines work, and how to improve your site's placing on search engines, look at www.searchenginewatch.com .

    General Search Engine Tips:

    • Be sure that each Web page has an accurate, descriptive page title and a description meta tag.
    • Placing "keywords" within your page content may help improve your search engine placement.
    • Use Header Tags to help Search Engines distinguish important content.
    • Being listed as a link on other highly-ranked web pages helps create more visibility, and thus, may improve your search engine ranking for certain search terms. Look for opportunities to list your web site as a link on other organization web sites.
    * The site below will host an email list for your chapter for free:
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/
    • * These sites offer free hit counters:
  • www.beseen.com (also offers tools for building personalized search engines, surveys, and guest books)
  • www.TheCounter.com

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