Creating the New AHSE Website
By Kathy Kerber
After ending my career in corporate marketing, it was with some trepidation that I accepted the AHSE web site committee’s (John, Ken, Natalie) request to manage the web redesign project. You see, I actually knew what was ahead of me. Many think that all you do is tell the web company what to do and they do all the work. Well, that is true to some degree. And, our partner Vim Interactive was truly a hard-working and inspirational team to work with. But, you also become the lead point person when problems arise, and the one who has to make tough decisions, often on the spot. But most importantly, you need to have a vision of the final product and the ability to take in new possibilities as they pop up without getting distracted and losing your way. And, of course, there’s always the challenge of keeping everyone informed, on schedule, and well, happy about the progress.
When I learned that Abby Rose and I were the two finalists for the project management job, we decided to talk over the phone. She was happy to help but she also very busy and not sure she could take on the whole project. As it turned out, she was the main driving force in the Expanded Profiles section of the Find a Practitioner database, which was a very large project in itself! Plus, she also wrote quite a bit of content for several other sections, but more on that later.
The first job was to select the web design company. Having done this myself several times over the years, I had a pretty good idea what to look for. I was able to contact all the contenders, interview them, some of them multiple times, and then ultimately make my case as to why I selected Vim Interactive to the AHSE Board/Web committee. This was not a trivial process, by the way, especially since several of the companies had put in considerable time and money pitching their proposals to the Board and were very keen on winning the project. The two final contenders were equally competent, but in the end it was the energy or the “vim and vigor” that Vim Interactive displayed that won me over. And, the fact, that during the sales process, I was able to speak directly with the owners, the people I’d work with daily, and they were terrific. We got started putting together an online project schedule with due dates for all of us.
I was given hundreds of design templates to consider. I was to review color, layout, amount of content, etc., while they began developing the information architecture outline, including existing site content and new content (much of which was suggested by the web committee prior to my starting the project). During each major step of the project, I presented major milestones requiring approval by the AHSE Website committee and/or BOD, as necessary. I also put a content team together to write the various pages we were adding to the site. Some people freshened up the previous site’s copy and some wrote new copy. The site would never have gotten done on time were it not for the enormous help provided by those who were on this team. And, I’d like to name them, including myself: Abby, Eleanor, Joan Scovill, John, Ken, Krishna, Lyman, Martha, Phil, Susan. I sure hope I’ve not left anyone out! And, the really incredible thing is that we had a common voice. People who have read the site have commented that it seems like one person wrote all of the content. Isn’t that amazing?
To sum it all up--Vim opened my Basecamp account (project management system) on November 29, 2010 and launched the site the weekend of April 15, 2011. Between those two dates, I wrote/responded to 515 email messages and developed/edited 106 computer files. I communicated almost daily with Vim either through Basecamp, phone or email. They worked very hard for us and continue to do so. There were a few rocky points, as with any project. One thing we learned is that you have to write EVERYTHING out and include it in the written proposal. It is not good enough to remember discussing it over the phone. The photo selection for the home page was a bit challenging, both with our low budget as well as differing views of how to best present the association (Krishna, Ken and Susan were a joy to work with on this). I’m sure there will be many changes over the coming years. At least the future web masters will have something to work with. It was a lot of work, but was worth every minute. Each time I see the home page, I smile. And, the new clients keep coming in. That’s what it’s all about!