Article Contents

Communicating to Members and the Media by Newsletters, Web Sites, and Other Means

Web Pages

A Web site can be a powerful and convenient communications tool, and it is a relatively cheap one. To design a Web site that will work effectively for you and your chapter or conference, you should start with strategic considerations.Is the Web site primarily a convenient place for chapter or conference announcements? Is it intended to showcase the accomplishments of the chapter? To recruit new members or offer existing members a way to communicate? Is it intended to be a resource center on faculty policy issues? Each of these objectives suggests a different design for the site.

Logistics

Creating a simple Web site is fairly easy to do with Web authoring programs such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage. These programs allow you to design the page in a way that will be familiar to users of word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, while they programs supply the HTML code needed to make your design work. If chapter leadership does not have time, or is disinclined to learn how, you might consider recruiting a member from the computer sciences department or hiring a student to create and maintain your Web site.

Planning. More elaborate Web sites require a lot more time and planning if you don’t want to end up with a confusing hodgepodge of pages. Do only what’s necessary for your purposes, and only what you will be able to maintain. Keep in mind that some pages will need constant attention and upkeep, while others serve essentially as library pieces.

Hosting. It is generally not a good idea to have your Web site on your university’s server. Even if relationships are good now, if the university hosts the site the university ultimately controls the site. Web space is easy and cheap to buy. Compare prices and how much Web space different sellers offer. Many companies offer a cheaper rate if you’re willing to have their ads on your site; these are obnoxious and best avoided, especially since ad-free space is only slightly more expensive.

Links from National. The national AAUP Web site contains links to state conference Web pages at www.aaup.org/AAUP/About/ASC/ and to chapter sites at www.aaup.org/AAUP/About/chaptersites/. If you have a Web site and it is not listed, contact Robin Burns at rburns@aaup.org.

Content

The layout and organization of Web sites are much more complex than the layout and organization of newsletters, and so need more thought. The site needs to be organized into logical paths, so that people who are looking for information on a topic will be able to figure out how to find it.

A chapter or conference Web site should, at minimum, describe the AAUP and your conference or local chapter; link to the national AAUP Web site at www.aaup.org; provide contact information, including the names and departments of your officers and a telephone contact for individuals with questions; announce upcoming meetings and events; and provide an e-mail contact for the person managing the Web site. Even this minimal site will need some upkeep. Each time a meeting is scheduled, a new announcement should be posted. Each time officers change, the list should be amended. Finding outdated materials on Web sites inconveniences readers and may also make them wonder if your organization is defunct.

If you have more time and energy to spare, your site could offer news about AAUP events and concerns on your campus. While the content for this type of site is easy to produce, it does require regular maintenance to ensure that the news is fresh and interesting. It also requires regular consultation among AAUP leaders with regard to the content for the week or month. This type of site might include reports on past AAUP chapter (or conference) events; descriptions of and invitations to upcoming events; statements in response to campus news and activities; reports of interesting news from other campuses.

You may also wish to use your Web site to offer resources to your faculty colleagues, such as orientation materials for new faculty; background materials on topics that are under discussion within the chapter or conference; minutes of past meetings; links to national, state, and local AAUP sites; links to AAUP policy statements that are available on the national Web site. Most of these documents require minimal upkeep.

More elaborately, your Web site can be used as a communication tool between the chapter and its members, or between the chapter and faculty on campus. Bulletin boards, polls, Web-based e-mail, registration forms and other devices invite readers to react to the topics on the site, express their views about topics that they would like to discuss, propose agenda items and activities.

You may want to visit some other chapter and conference Web sites to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work.