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----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2005 9:33 AM
Subject: AHSNH/Website Set-Up
This is a special interest topic
issue of the listserv/newsletter sent via Blind Copy to Historical
Societies and interested parties from the Association of Historical Societies of
New Hampshire. If you do not wish to receive this,
simply hit Reply and respond, "Please remove." Recipients are
encouraged to participate by posting inquiries and resources. Another
avenue for discussion may be found at the Forum on the
Association website, http://www.historicalsocieties.org.
Up Front:
Sometime ago we received the following inquiry from Auburn:
I am playing with an
idea of creating a web site for AHA. Are there any HIGHLY AFFORDABLE
organizations that provide hosting services for non-profit
organizations such
as ours?
Here are some responses which we hope will be
helpful to those who are at this stage.
Contents:
AHSNH plugs web
maestro
HSCC offers to
host Cheshire County
Thompson-Ames
seeks cable service
Rye uses blog technology
SHDF offers to host heritage organizations
AANNH offers to host North Country
Association offers to host
members
from the Association of Historical
Societies of NH:
Before setting up the Association's website
(http://www.historicalsocietiesnh.org) we did look into such common carriers as Yahoo and AOL. That type
of carrier will host a web site at no charge, but it will put
advertisements on it. During my website tour (http://www.historicalsocietiesnh.org/enewswtour.htm) I
encountered several NH historical societies using Yahoo. I did not find
their advertising compromised my enjoyment of the site I was
visiting.
The Association, however, decided to pay a monthly
fee.
Richard Hureau
set ours up for us and is willing to work for others as well. If you
would like to have a free-standing site, you may contact him at rhureau@earthlink.net (Mention that
you are a member of the Association.) (Ed. note: See also the
Association's offer, last article below.)
In the
meanwhile, you could look in the Directory to see who has web sites, and could
contact them. In fact, they are all listed on our web site www.historicalsocietiesnh.org --from there you
could just click on them, to make a note of the ones you like and contact those
societies.
from the Historical Society of
Cheshire County:
HSCC offers to host web pages for
historical societies of Cheshire County. A web-page is a simplified
version of a web site, piggy-backed on a larger site (in this case, the site of
HSCC). Go to http://www.hsccnh.org , click on Roundtable Forum, then
on (Roundtable) Organizations. There you can see the names of the 36
organizations that are eligible for a web page with the HSCC, as well as the
link to the one-page form/application.
(from Thompson-Ames, on a
related matter): If enough societies were interested, would the
Association consider helping its member societies obtain free cable
service from the cable companies, such as Metrocast who does give this
service to libraries?
from Rye:
Did you get our website where we do list volunteer
opportunities (under "needs")?
(Ed. note: I include this because of the interesting
blog address, which represents another avenue. As it has
been explained to me, there is canned software available
for blogs, which are generally personal websites. Nonetheless, as
you can see by visiting Rye's site, the format can be adapted for historical
societies and includes facilitating images.)
from Sanbornton Historical Document
Foundation:
The Sanbornton Historical Document Foundation is offering
web services to New Hampshire Historical Societies and
Organizations with a historical mission. The goal is to
enhance the presence of Historical Societies on the Internet thereby promoting
historical programs and projects to the public.
The
web services will be provided under the domain name "histsoc.org"
(We are offering) currently two options for web services:
Basic and Standard. The
Basic Service provides a template of one page
that contains an image or logo, contact and program
information. It includes an email address that can be forwarded to
an officer of the organization or accessed via an email account or through a
private web mail page. The organization can elect to have an on-line
membership form as well. This is a form that can be filled out and
sent electronically or printed and mailed to the organization.
The Societies may choose among several
layouts, color combinations, and graphic placements. The organization
defines their name for the website and keywords that will be incorporated into
their page to insure search engines will find the site.
The content information for the web page is prepared by the
organization via a simple on-line form. Once submitted, the information is
placed on the web for review. After verification, it is made
public. The content can be updated quarterly by the organization. An
example of the basic page can be viewed at http://www.histsoc.sanbornton.org/demo/basic/
Sanbornton Historical Document Foundation
services are provided by the Coordinator, Jennifer Mayo and Technical
Consultant, Brandon Sussman. Cost $175 first year, subsequent years
$150.
The Standard Service
provides a template of five pages, a home page much like the basic
offering, and separate pages defined by the organization, such as a calendar,
historical projects, and other relevant information. Templates and pricing are
being developed.
from the Arts Alliance of Northern
NH:
The Arts Alliance of Northern NH is setting up a special
section in its web Gallery (http://www.aannh.org/artists.php) for
North Country history & heritage sites and
organizations. (Ed. note: This is a good avenue for North
Country Societies because it taps a different audience and may augment your
attendance.)
For the cost of annual membership ($20 to $50 for nonprofits,
depending on their annual budgets) plus $15/year, organizations can list all
their events in the North Country cultural calendar and
also have their own web page that includes
contact information, mission and goals, a description of current
activities and projects, and 3 media files (Jpeg
photographs, MP3 audio files, or Word documents). For information
call Kelly Bryer, Arts Alliance member services coordinator, at 726-8843 or
email info@aannh.org
from the Association of Historical
Societies of NH:
The website may contain up to 4 pages, 2 standard and 2
optional; 1 or 2 images; and any number of PDF documents (not to
exceed a total of 500K). There are also provisions for enhancements at an
hourly fee, in case your Board envisions something we have not
provided.
The on-line Directory will continue to offer links to
all Society websites, no matter where they are
hosted.
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