GVSU students donated 800+ hours to project
Tweet Rotary some feedback. Rockford Rotary Club has social media all wrapped up, thanks to hard work by a team of website designers from Grand Valley State University. The club’s new website was unveiled Friday, April 23 at the Rockford Community Cabin, where the group members meet each Tuesday at noon. The new website, Facebook page, Twitter account and Linked-In accounts mean that friends and family from all over the globe can keep up on group activities, including purchasing and paying for Start of Summer duck race tickets.
Web whiz kids—Rockford Rotary Club owes a lot to these smart young men from Grand Valley State University. A new website allows users to order chicken dinners or duck race tickets, pay online, see upcoming Rotary events and more. The students donated their time and talent for the nonprofit organization. Visit rockfordrotary.org. Pictured is Rockford’s Jim Tol, students Dan DeVries, Justin DeLand, Ryan Nesbit, Elliot DeNolf, Alex Postma, GVSU Professor David K. Lange, and Rockford Rotary president Ramona Hinton.
Students have been meeting with Rotarians to explore the best option for the club’s website. They decided on a Joomla! account which allows Rotary’s members to maintain and build the site over time. The site features both a private page for member use and a public section for those interested in the club. A gmail account, Google calendar, an events sign-up page and much more will improve communications within the club.
“A website can cost more than $10,000,” said Professor David K. Lange. He said the project represents more than 800 hours of work.
Professor Lang’s students design websites for nonprofit organizations. The students met three days a week for 10 weeks creating the site. Lang pointed out that Rotary members can rest assured that the site meets all legal requirements, details that are easily overlooked by amateurs and can have disastrous repercussions.
Jim Tol, one of three Rotarians that worked closely with the students on the project, praised the students. “It was a great pleasure working with these young men. The website puts us in a position where we can really shine online.”
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