Feature

Souped up—and ready to roll!

Take kiwanis.org and kiwanisone.org for test drives and discover how they can make your Kiwanis experience go ‘zoom, zoom, zoom’

By Dick Isenhour

If it were a car, Kiwanis’ revamped and retooled Web site—with its member portal as standard equipment—would be a luxury model loaded with options designed to meet the needs of all who travel the information superhighway. If it were a pizza, the site would have slices for those who just want cheese and slices for those who crave a variety of toppings—even anchovies.

In other words, the new and improved Kiwanis Web was redesigned with all users in mind.

“The Kiwanis Web site now speaks to several different profiles of users,” says Angela Evans, Web communications manager. “It speaks to those who really want to dig in and read content. It speaks to those to whom you need to tell the Kiwanis story visually, in seconds. And it speaks to those people who want to interact with the site—those who don’t want to read and don’t want to scan, but do want to do some fun things, like taking a poll in which their opinion really matters.”

Above all, Angela adds, the site speaks to those who demand the latest in technology.

“Kiwanians are becoming more and more ‘techno-savvy,’” she explains. “We looked at the ‘old’ Kiwanis Web site and knew we needed to catch up with technology. The design style also needed to be updated. We wanted to be able to tell our mission visually and not rely on words.”

Log on to the Kiwanis home page and you’ll see it’s not “your father’s Kiwanis Web site” anymore. For starters:

• The home page is now a communications hub for Kiwanian and non-Kiwanian alike.
• The Club Locator feature—now called “Find a Club”—is readily visible at the top left of the page and includes a feature to map locations.
• A new calendar offers an expanded view of Kiwanis-related events.
• Headlines are found under K-News, and a separate Newsroom option includes media releases, samples of Kiwanis coverage from major publications, the Kiwanis International President’s page, and video and audio clips.
• For the first time, all Kiwanis-family programs are now represented on the home page, showing visitors the breadth of the organization.

One of the more exciting features of the remodeled site, Angela notes, is the online poll. In just a couple of clicks, visitors can register their opinions on a variety of Kiwanis-related topics. And because the poll operates in real time, polltakers find out how their answers compare with others.

“The home page has more of a marketing/public relations feel to it than before,” says Angela. “We wanted to get away from having all of the administrative resources for members mixed in with the public site. Anyone who came to kiwanis.org before and tried to figure out what Kiwanis is all about, had to wade through a lot of Kiwanis-business-focused resources, which could have been very confusing.”

That information had to go somewhere, though.

“That’s why we developed a member portal,” she says. “The portal—kiwanisone.org—is a collection of resources grouped together to help Kiwanis clubs and member be more effective service leaders.

“Eventually, all the information and resources on the Kiwanis Web site—and on the old site (http://classic.kiwanis.org/)—will be found on the portal. You’ll see marketing, public relations, growth, recruitment tools—all those internally focused things members need to know—the meat and potatoes of Kiwanis—there.”

The portal, dubbed “KiwanisOne,” will sport four primary areas:

• Kiwanis Community—a social-networking area, which features blogs; forums and chats; surveys and polls; an area where members can post photos; downloadable videos and, eventually, podcasts; and members-only news and RSS feeds. (All headlines are posted under an RSS feed engine, which means users can arrange their own personal news page and receive the Kiwanis-related news they choose to receive.)

The Kiwanis Community already is popular, Angela says, especially the downloadable resources. During the portal’s first month, for example, Kiwanis International CEO Rob Parker’s two-minute video, in which he shares his vision of Kiwanis, was downloaded more than 2,000 times. Similarly, videos from this past summer’s International convention also were downloaded more than 2,000 times.

• Kiwanis Leader—a place where anyone can go to find out what’s happening in the world of leadership, especially Kiwanis’ style of servant leadership. Kiwanis Leader features CEO Rob’s blog, which he updates at least once a week, as well as his Kiwanis Insider messages, which are downloadable. Rounding out the section is the International President’s page, leadership-development resources, and a list of recommended reading.
• Club Management—an area that will feature monthly online reporting and club management software modules; a subscription-based service that offers club newsletter and Web site templates; and e-mail. (Most areas should be up and running by the first of the year.)

The “coolest thing” about online reporting, Angela says, is that clubs can do a full demo and check it out. (If clubs click on Club Management, they can set up their e-mail and password to do the demo.)

• Member Resources—an area that eventually will include service ideas, marketing and PR resources, club-building tools, growth-campaign resources, and Web site resources. By the end of this month, the Member Resources area will be populated with the “nuts and bolts” from the old site, Angela says.

“If Kiwanians need information, we encourage them to check out the new Web site or member portal first,” Angela suggests. “If a member can’t find something on the new Kiwanis site or member portal, though, it’s probably still on classic.kiwanis.org.”