The 2010 AFMS Webmaster Competition!!!

The club Web site serves several functions. Three of the major functions of the Web site are: (1) Attract new members (2) Provide member information (3) Public advertising of club activities such as shows. This item is a subset of the higher and more important question of "Does the Web site assist in fulfilling the mission of the club?" Advertising is only one of the many functional capabilities to be assigned to the Web site. Most clubs have the mission of educating the public, and they find that providing educational materials and links to educational sites for geologic and Earth Science information is a good use for the Web site.

Therefore most of the items in this contest are emphasizing these items. This contest attempts to determine the effectiveness of the club’s Web site in providing information for these goals, not to determine the quality or capabilities of the club. An effective Web site can be created without requiring weekly or even monthly updates. However, a Web site that is updated frequently might score more points in the Outstanding Features category. This contest does not demand that Web sites be formatted to a specific format or template, but it does try to give as much latitude as possible for freedom of expression. Hopefully in the future as we share more information, we will learn how and why some things work better for some Web sites, and we will learn from the efforts of our fellow clubs. The Internet is constantly evolving, and the contest is not intended to limit this process. 

A major contest goal is to provide support to the webmaster in balancing the content of the Web pages between internal club administrative data and the data necessary to make the site useful to the visitor. The organization of the Web site should separate general interest data (data useful to a visitor) from data that is of interest to a current club member of the club. Club member data should be in the background. 

Judging will be at both the regional level and AFMS level

At the regional level, a first place plaque will be awarded  in 2010 as well as certificates for 2nd through 10th and honorable mentions. The first place entry from each region will be forwarded to the AFMS competition for judging at that level. Awards at the regional level will be at the Editor and Webmaster’s Breakfast for each federation as part of the BEAC Awards. The AFMS winners will be announced at the Bulletin Editor and Webmasters’ Breakfast in  in La Habra CA, on June 20, 2010.

DIRECTIONS TO ENTER:

1. Download the above three PDF files (Guidelines, Score Sheet, and Entry Form)
2. READ the Competition Guidelines carefully!
3. Use an Adobe Reader vs. 9 to fill-in and save the forms on your harddrive. 
4. Fill in the Entry form with ALL the information requested.
5. Fill in the top portion of the Score Sheet with  your club's name, your name, city, state, your club website URL and check the Regional Federation you club is a member .
6. Email attach the completed Entry Form and Score sheet  to the SFMS Webmaster no later than January 15, 2010
   Email to : Jim Flora at jimflora@windstream.net or sfms@amfed.org

AFMS 2010 Web Site Contest
By Phyllis George

Ad Hoc AFMS Web Site Contest Chair

The 2009 Webmasters Contest was a great success. The webmasters of forty-six Web sites across the country entered the contest. Seven regional finalists competed at the AFMS level, and the results are as follows:

It was an extremely close contest—only one point separated the 2^nd and 5^th places, and the two sites tying for third were only a quarter point away from 2^nd  place.

Now that the word is out and people are aware that there is a club Web Site Contest, I feel confident that there may be twice as many entries for the 2010 contest. The name of the contest is now officially changed to “AFMS Web Site Contest,” and the Entry Form, Score Sheet, and Score Sheet Guidelines are all greatly modified—the judges and Contest Chairs evaluated the forms used during the 2009 contest and suggested major improvements. So the 2010 contest is even more focused on creating Web sites that greatly benefit their clubs.

All of last year’s regional Webmasters Contest Committee Members agreed to continue in their positions for 2010 (except me, and Dale Watts is taking over as Committee Chair for the Rocky Mountain Federation), and they are the ones running the regional Web Site Contests. The Committee Members receive the entries, they forward the entries to the judges for that region, they receive from the judges the completed score sheets, and they rank the results and award the first-place plaque and the certificates (places one through ten and honorable mention) at the Bulletin Editors’ and Webmasters’ Breakfast at their regional federation’s annual show. The first-place entry is forwarded to the AFMS level for judging.

The Committee Members will be notifying the regional newsletter editor plus the webmasters, editors, and club presidents in their region about the details of the contest, the due date for entries, and of the schedule for their regional contest. Each Committee Member sets the due dates for his or her federation’s contest.

Members of the Webmasters Contest Committee are as follows:

California Federation (CFMS)...................... Merryan O’Neill....... mvoneill@comcast.net
Eastern Federation (EFMS).......................... Dan Imel.................. lapidry@aol.com
Midwest Federation (MWFMGS)................ Cindy Root............... d-root@sbcglobal.net
Northwest Federation (NFMS).................... Cheri George............ lizardwoman3@yahoo.com
Rocky Mountain Federation (RMFMS)........ Dale Watts............... d.watts@oksoccer.com
South Central Federation (SCFMS).............. Don Shurtz............... don.shurtz@gmail.com
Southeast Federation (SFMS)...................... Jim Flora.................. jimflora@windstream.net

Contact the Committee Member for your region for information about the contest and the deadlines. This information varies by region according to when their annual show is scheduled.

Webmasters wishing to enter their Web sites into the contest should download from the AFMS Web site (or from their regional federation’s Web site) the contest Score Sheet Guidelines, the Entry Form, and the Score Sheet form. These are in PDF format, and they can be opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader^®. Free Acrobat Reader software is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/. The contest information on the AFMS Web site can be found at http://www.amfed.org/web/webmasters_contest.htm.

To enter the contest, the webmaster needs to fill out the Entry Form completely and fill out the information requested in the top part of the Score Sheet, both front and back. These forms can be filled-in on your computer and saved to your hard drive. Note: Use Acrobat Reader 9 to be able to modify the saved forms later if necessary. Send the TWO completed forms as e‑mail attachments to your regional Committee Member before the due date for your region. IMPORTANT: Every entrant and every judge must thoroughly read and understand the Score Sheet Guidelines. This document explains exactly what each scored item is looking for and why it is important to a good Web site.

Having two judges for each region worked out quite well last year, so I plan to do the same again this year. Neither judge will be judging entries from his or her own region. The two judges’ scores for each contestant will be averaged.

If you are a current (or former) webmaster or are very Web-site savvy, please help make the 2010 contest a success by volunteering a little of your time to act as a judge. Read the Score Sheet Guidelines to see what the judges will be looking for on the sites that they judge, and contact me at pgeorge4@comcast.net to help this new contest be an even bigger success in its second year.