Introduction
It’s been a bit of a wait, largely due to a few other commitments but at long last here is the new Grenville Lodge No. 1787 website and blog. The old website will remain for a short while as we ensure that all content has been moved across and all is ok.
The new site has been built using WordPress, one of the most well known products globally for building websites and blogs. The key benefits are:
- It does not need specialist skills to update or maintain it. Any updates can be applied via an easy to use admin panel that can be accessed via an ‘editor’ log on screen via any internet connection
- The website and the new ‘blog’ have been fully integrated hence the content will always be ‘fresh’ and the initial landing page will be the news section
- WordPress allows us to add much more functionality going forward, including registering for events and sending out updates.
- The website sits on highly resident IT systems that are replicated across different countries (it is pretty secure and safe)
- We have also acquired a number of grenvillelodge domains, including the very popular .com and each will direct to this site.
Navigation
You will come into this view when you first log-in and be presented with ‘News’ on the far left which is this screen and you can select it to return back here at any stage. It includes all articles and news, each categorised so you can search for types of news (e.g. charity).
On the right side on the black bar you will see a number of options that can be selected and are briefly summarised below:
- Home – A welcome to Grenville lodge page with some basic information
- About – An overview of the lodge
- History – The detailed history. It is in one document at present but may be broken out later
- Universities Scheme – Some information on the universities scheme
- FAQ – A number of typical questions that you may have
- Contact – Points of contact for the lodge, Grand Lodge etc.
On the left side of the window you can search and view news items by category etc. On the right side you will also see the all the events listed out and these appear on all the pages. If you select an event it will open up the full details.
On the left you will also see two other options:
- Subscribe – Add you name and e mail for updates
- Links – Links to the other Grenville internet services (Facebook, Google and Twitter)
On any page you can enter feedback, contact requests etc and these are captured on the admin section which can be managed via anyone with access and avoid the need to maintain e mail addresses etc. albeit we can set up grenville lodge e mail addresses if required here as well.
On any page and for any update you can also share it via any of the above and other services (e.g. Pinterest).
We probably now have one of the most advanced Masonic websites available and this gives us a unique and powerful tool to help our universally spread membership to feel part of and to participate in the Grenville lodge wherever they may be.
Please take a look around and feed any comments, suggestions back to me. This is very much a start point and I fully expect the site to develop throughout this year, next year and every year.
Anthony