From: Anthony Mako (ajmako@NLS.NET)
Date: Sun Jan 09 2000 - 23:05:56 CST
<Previously on Scouts-L...
<<BSA's view on the Internet, or what little of it I understand, troubles
me.
There is no reason to make parents or kids for that matter call the council
office only to be rushed brochures that could just as easily be put in
searchable Adobe Acrobat format.>>
There is actually a good reason for this, as I will explain below...
<Gary Spencer wrote>
Without even touching on the sale of BSA merchandising how about:
Reserving campsites/cabins via the Internet
Obtaining an up to date Council/District calendar
A central location to obtain National/Council/District forms
Recharter on private pages with money exchanged via UDA or credit cards
Place summer camp registrations
Council/District Camporee registrations
Place orders for pick up at local Scout Shop
and on, and on....
</Gary>
Some of these things CAN be done on a local council web site. These aren't
the type of thing National does. Some of the things mentioned above may
never be done on a BSA council web site. Many councils require either a down
payment or full payment on campsite reservations. While they'll gladly take
a credit card, major transactions like charter paperwork will likely never
be done via the Internet. One day they may be completely paperless, but
that's a long way off. Anything that requires the exchange of money over the
Internet is liable to everyone from the Council President to the "Scout Shop
Lady" running screaming for the exits.
I know that the folks down at Great Trail's headquarters would opt for the
least costly, simplest web site possible if I described to them what it
would take to be able to conduct business over the Internet. For an
organization like the BSA, failing to jump on the E-Commerce bandwagon won't
hurt them in the long run.
As for the BSA's current Internet policies, they are not as backward as you
might think. Any business with a presence on the World Wide Web has to look
at what kind of impact that presence will have on their current opperation.
There are many questions to be answered before even the first <HTML> tag is
written, and for many companies, those questions aren't easy to answer.
One question that has to be asked is: "Do we include an email address for
our business?" Most of us would say yes, but that leads to other questions
like: "How will this email address affect the way we do business?" "Who will
be responsible for reading and answering the email?" "How much volume can we
expect?" The BSA very likely looked at these questions. An email address on
the National BSA web site could generate huge amounts of email. Even with an
auto-responder, much of the mail would still have to be read by a human and
distributed to the appropriate department. The overwhelming majority of
email would likely be questions National would ordinarily refer to a local
council. That makes publishing an email address prohibitive.
Publishing BSA literature on the web also sounds like a good idea on the
surface. Once again, the BSA's desire to impact their current line of
communication as little as possible probably has something to do with this.
Most likely, though, some BSA documents and publications WILL be available
online in the future. The G2SS is already available, as is the BSA catalog.
And, if you've gotten your hands on the latest "Troop Program Features"
you'll know that volume 3 includes a CD-ROM. Granted, the information on the
disc is exactly the same as the information in the book, but it's a start.
<Gary continued>
I offered about 6 years ago to help our council secure computer equipment
and set up an in-house network as a start. Was told: "Nice idea, maybe
someday..." We now have a "Well we're here, want more info call XXX-XXXX"
type site.
Oh well, at least the DEs did get e-mail addresses about a year ago.
</Gary>
Gary,
Every council works a little differently. For the last couple years I've
been jealous of those councils who have created useful and fully functioning
web sites. Great Trail council has had at least two aborted attempts at an
official web site (both without the initial blessing of the council). Our OA
lodge has had their own site for a couple years, but that's to be expected.
Until last summer, it appeared to me that the council was nervous about
having a web site (I was told they were afraid of "homosexual hackers" who
would hack the site), but their initial reaction to the "unofficial" site I
created was positive. If all goes well, there could be an official site
(based largely on the work I've already done) by mid-February.
It will take time, and more than a little dilligence on the part of local
volunteers to convince your council to upgrade to something more useful. It
very may well be that they simply don't have anyone willing to step up and
take on the task of "Webmaster." They could, just as easily, be debating and
studying the answer to "What do we want our web site to do?"
It's important to remember that a web site need not include the latest
technology to be useful. In fact, I've encountered many sites that purport
to be "great" because they include the latest web technology, but no real
content. There are lots of tricky ways to get people to visit your web site,
and lots of "kewl" things you can make a web site do, but the real goal is
to create something people will not only visit, but visit often. Imagine
what MAC Scouter would be like if its creators concentrated on including the
latest technology instead of providing the great resources. The same goes
for Scouter.com, Bowline, and the several others.
The BSA web site serves its purpose well. It is not intended to be a central
repository for all things Scouting. It is meant to be an informational
site - this is what the BSA is, what we do, and who you can call to get more
information. When National decides that adding capabilities to the web site
are in the best interest of the BSA AS A WHOLE, it probably will. When
National figures out how it wants to handle catalog orders over the
Internet, it will probably do so. When they realize that certain documents
could be more easily distributed electronically, it probably will.
YIS
AJ Mako, Scoutmaster, Troop 381 http://www.scouts381.org/
ajmako@nls.net
Great Trail Council, Old Portage District
