Provincial Websites
The Provincial site is not just a static ‘brochure’ site but a Provincial Communications hub and is now being offered to all Provinces with England. See an example www.bedfordshirefreemasons.org
Creating a website that acts as a communications hub for your Province, lodge or Chapter
Websites that help Provinces, Lodges & Chapters improve communications with members, other Freemasons and the Public
Website Overview
The website can be considered as a series of modules. There is interdependency but the modules can be considered individually and added at different times.
Site Header & Footer
The header and footer of the site contain elements such as your logo/crest, navigation bar, member login, basic information, links to policies. The header & footer tend to be the same across all pages but can be varied if appropriate (e.g. to differentiate Royal Arch pages from Craft pages).
Web pages
Web pages are ‘topped & tailed’ by the site header and footer can be created with a variety of content and broadly divided into static and dynamic content.
Static content is information that is uploaded to the site such as text, images or video to create the page or specialist static content that uses specialist modules to create features such as; sortable tables, Google maps, downloads or flipbooks.
Dynamic content is information that is ‘generated’ by other modules within the site such as the Events Module that feeds the live calendar and event lists, the Blog that feeds to news pages, member information that feeds the member Directory.
Member management
Member management sits at the core of the website. It uses the standard WordPress user function and extends it with customised additional fields.
Users can either register online or be ‘registered’ by the secretariat via upload.
Online registration
If you choose to allow online registrations, individuals could register online using a form to become a member. This is unlikely to be used as individuals join a Lodge not the Province, but online registration could be held in a secure page (not accessible to the public) and Lodge Secretaries could register new members via the online form.
In either case, the registration can be set to require manual approval and email address verification before the user is authorised.
Upload user data
To start, you can take your existing database of members including such detail as you hold eg. Lodge, other orders, Provincial Rank, Grand Rank etc.
We would provide you with an upload spreadsheet template to populate.
The minimum requirement for a user is a name and an email address. We appreciate that some members may not have an email address but you would be encouraged to work with them to set up an email for them so they can actively participate and receive communications. If they do not create a genuine email account, we would allocate their account with a pseudo-address eg. no-email123@xyzfreemasons.org. This would allow them to have an account on the website but they would not receive any email communication or would they be able to reset their password; they would be able to login to view secure pages.
Member List
The database of users generates a list of members or Member Directory. The Member Directory is protected and only visible to members. The directory listing shows basic details such as name, Lodge, email. Clicking the name takes you to a detailed profile that shows the entire public profile.
When configuring the fields in the database you can set fields to be;
- Private – only the Admin or the user can see (used for info such as address)
- User can Hide – the field is by default viewable by other members, but the user can opt to hide it (not delete it) used for example for home phone.
- Always visible – all other members can see the information, used for name, Lodge etc.
Database maintenance
Each member can view and edit their own profile so, for example, if they changed their email address or moved home, the member can self-update the database without any intervention from the secretariat.
If required, site Administrators can make changes to profiles, individually, en-bloc or by mass update via a spreadsheet.
User roles
Each user can be assigned multiple roles within the website. Each role can have a series of permissions associated with it give abilities to view or edit various pages or functions. You might allocate all members the role of Freemason that allows them to log in to the site. Some would also be additionally given the role of Lodge Secretary or Almoner so they could access information specific to those roles.
Roles and permissions can be granted, added to or removed by an Administrator.
Secure pages
The site can be divided into public pages and private pages that are only accessible to logged-in members. Private pages can be further restricted by role so, for example, you can have a page or pages that are only accessible to users with the role of Secretary.
Member to member communication
Members can use the member directory to look up the contact details of other members to phone or email each other depending on how you have set the database permissions.
Event management
The Event Management module provides an event creation, listing, booking and payment system and is driven by the Member Management module.
Events
Events can be created individually or block uploaded from a templated spreadsheet. Events can be for listing purposes only or can provide a booking facility. The events can then be displayed as individual events, in an event list or on a calendar.
Events can be configured to accept all bookings automatically up to a pre-determined limit or they can be configured to accept bookings that need to be manually approved.
Event Categories
Each event can be allocated to a category or multiple categories so multiple events lists or event calendars can be displayed, for example, you could generate a list of all events related to the golf section or the Light Blues.
Event booking
Events that are made bookable can be free events or paid for events or a mixture. Events can be public or members only. For example, you might have a meeting followed by dinner; the meeting would be free and the dinner would have a cost associated with it.
The event module creates a set of ‘tickets’ with a price for each ticket so, in this example, the meeting would be free and the dinner, perhaps £25.
The person organising the event will need some information about the person making the booking such as name, contact details. A specific booking form is created for that type of event. For logged-in users, these fields are automatically populated from the Member Directory.
Event payment
Events can be set up to take payment by cheque/cash on the day, bank transfer or online via card or can have choices.
Event management
When a member books an event, various actions are or can be triggered.
- The booking is entered into a central database
- The member receives an email say their booking is accepted or awaiting approval (depending on how the event was configured)
- The event manager receives an email saying a booking has been received.
For events that require approval, the event manager can authorise or reject a booking and a series of emails are triggered.
The event manager can view their event and make changes to it. They can see who has entered and if they have paid. They can then build CSV export of all bookings.
In the run-up to an event, automatic reminders can be set to be sent to those that have booked and list of those that have booked sent to the event manager.
Email users
The event manager can also send ad hoc emails those users that have booked an event, it might be to firm up details, inform them of changes to the programme etc.
News articles
WordPress was conceived as a blogging platform. News articles can be created with text, images, video etc. Each article can be allocated to multiple categories. This means that you can create multiple news feeds, for example; General Freemasonry, Light Blues, Royal Arch, MCF etc.
Automatic posting to Social media
We can create an automated process such that all or some news articles are automatically published to your social media feeds such as Facebook or Twitter when they are published on your site.
Emailing module
Our central email module is based on MailPoet. This allows you to send HTML emails using an intuitive ‘drag and drop’ interface. Emails can have static content and be sent as and when required or can have dynamic content and be automatically sent.
For example, you can set up a ‘news digest’ that automatically sends out, for example, the latest x news articles every Friday at 12:00 or once a month or each time a news article is published.
The email module can create lists driven by your member list. You can for example build lists based on role so you can send out specific emails to those with a certain role. For example, if you wanted to remind all lodge secretaries to submit their annual returns.
Shop
We can add an e-commerce module to your site. This could be used to sell, for example, pre-owned regalia. You would take online payments and distribute the items.
Equally, it could be used to resell regalia. You could make an agreement with a retailer to resell its product on a ‘drop-shipment’ basis. Your member would place the order and it would be sent to the retailer as would the payment. The retailer would deliver the items. You would then receive a commission for everything sold.
