The SMHS1963 web page is active! If you are reading this, then you have received the email blast and have clicked on the link to the post.
The only people currently in the database are those who were copied on various emails from Pam, Wendy and Caren. In the near future, the complete database could be added, and anytime a new post is made an email blast will go out to all in database of a new Blog post. You will be able to able to click on the link to see the actual post.
At the current time, I am the only one who can actually make posts (but anyone can make Comments). I hope this changes in the future so that Committee Members can post to the site. I use a Microsoft program called Live Writer (free). Live Writer acts like a Word document.: text is written, spell checked, and pictures can be added to the document. Then instead of SAVING or PRINTING, the document is PUBLISHED to web site (set up user name and password once- then after that nothing else needs to de done). Very easy!
This web page is definitely a work-in-progress. Several sections have not been completed yet. We need to discuss what we want on this page. There are an infinite number of tabsthat can be used. I installed one that I called Class Wills. There can be others for whatever subjects.
For example, I am thinking about scanning the pages and images that pertain to the seniors from the SMHS 1963 yearbook . I am thinking to make this one long .pdf document, or perhaps divided into sections (Sports, activities, etc.). I do not currently have a Yearbook- mine got water-damaged many years ago. However, my sister,Kathy (1966) has borrowed a SMHS 1963 yearbook from one of her friends and I will have access to it soon.
Subscriptions:OPT-IN or OPT-OUT. Currently email blasts are setup to be automatically sent to everyone in database. This is called OPT-OUT. If you, as a recipient, were not interested in receiving future emails, you could simply click the UNSUBSCRIBE link. The OPT-IN option require the email receiver to actually subscribe by entering an email address into a form on the web page. From my personal experience on my own web page/blog I have found that people of our age do not understand the SUBSCRIBE process, and they are timid to submit their email address. I think it is a generation thing. In any event, I used the OPT-OUT model. People Recipients will continue to receive notifications to the new Blog posts unless the opt-OUT choice is exercised. We need to think about which model we want to use.
Facebook:The posts can be configured to simultaneously and automatically post to a Facebook page .Do you want to establish a SMHS-1963 Reunion page on Facebook? Is this overkill? Or do the majority of people our age pay any attention to Facebook? Something to think about.
One thing I know we need to find are old vintage 1963-era pictures. I have none. But a “call” could be put out for such photos Whether people will take the time to scan them, and get them to us is another issue!
Anyway, this is just a start- anything on this web site can be changedin future. On a technical note, I am using WordPress software to develop the web page. I hope other people with experience using) WordPress will lend their expertise to our project because my personal experience with this program is very limited.
Gretchen (wife) and I leave for about 4 weeks on Sunday, September 30 – we will return to Seattle by the end of October. Therefore I will not do doing any more development work on the SMHS webpage until then. If interested, any of you can subscribe to my personal blog by clicking here– then once on my Blog, complete the SUBSCRIBE section on right column. By subscribing, you will see how the Blog thing works- I will be blogging periodically on my trip. This is primarily a photography blog- I am off to a photography workshop in Jackson Hole for a week- then to Breckenridge to visit my sister, Kathy- then to North Carolina to visit friends before driving to NYC to drop Gretchen off at Jay Maisel’s workshop while I head to Vermont. Then a week later fly to Chicago to visit son and grandkids. Then home!
A normal Blog postwould look something like the post below: a Title, a brief text description, and a few pictures. ====================================================
Chris Grady Visits SMHS
My sisters and I visited SMHS in November 2011.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |