Lake County Contractors Association

Professional Practice

Report

December, 1998

 

Introduction to LCCA’s Web Site

By Bill Zeigler, Zeigler Associates

One of the primary purposes, benefits and functions of your Association is to collect, organize and disseminate information useful to running your business in a timely fashion and in an organized manner. To that end, using the increasingly common tool of the World Wide Web, the Association debuted its Web Site in October 1998 to provide members with information collected and continuously maintained by the Office. This is an overview of what our Site currently offers.

Home Page - A very important part of the Site is the page first seen when entering the address:

http://www.lcca-il.org

This Home Page is a directory of the entire site which is based on lists and reference material normally managed by the office staff. Each Friday, the new changes are processed and published to the Web Site that weekend. Each item updated is listed at the start of the Home Page including a link to that changed information. This is designed to increase the utility of the Site by allowing fast access to the recent week’s changes. In addition, hot links to other sites of interest on the Web are interspersed throughout the site, positioned on the appropriate page associated with the site’s similar content. In addition, all hot links are accumulated on one page.

Directories - The membership area provides directories of the entire Association membership in more than one format. Firstly, associate members and contractor members are segregated into separate listings. In addition, all members are combined into a Master List. The master list also includes any available email addresses and links to web sites if the member has one and has provided that information. These lists are updated continuously and republished to the Web Site each week. Further, in case you wondered, you can view the By-Laws or apply for Association membership in this area. Links are provided in this area to other trade associations.

Calendar - The Calendar area includes upcoming Association events for the next year plus a form to conveniently register for those events. In addition, a continuously updated listing of plans available for review at the LCCA Office is provided. The hot links in this area include many government agencies which may have helpful information for the bidding process.

Safety - The Safety Page provides an index and full text of the monthly Safety News. The Association maintains a library of safety videos - the Site provides a complete listing of these which are available for check out by members, including a synopsis and reviews for each one. Further the Association has developed an inventory of safety products which can be purchased. A mechanism to place orders for any of these materials is provided. And a number of links to other safety associations and resources is available in this area as well.

Education - The Career Resources page provides a listing of management seminars offered in the Lake County and Chicagoland area. The Association also offers a listing and description of all apprentice training programs serving Lake County. The hot links include sites that provide their own training programs.

Information - The Info Source page links to the full text of the most recent monthly Newsbrief and to a directory of all the Professional Practice Reports that have been published by members of the Professional Services Committee. The full text of those articles published in the last three years is available as a link from that index. The hot links on this page go to a couple standards setting bodies.

Legislation - The Legislative Update page includes a directory for many if not all local, state and federal officials with jurisdictional boundaries including our area. On occasion, reports and articles summarizing a session or perhaps a specific piece of legislation can will be available in the area – watch the weekly update summary on the Home Page.

Labor Information - We also have a page set up and reserved for Association members only and protected by a password which will be distributed to new and renewing members at the start of each Association year. At this time, the Members Only page includes union agreement and rate information. Over time, additional information categories will probably be moved or added to this area.

In addition to these reference areas, several functional utilities are provided on the site. A word search facility is available [not including the information residing in the Members Only area] which will display the pages that contain the search terms or phrase. Detailed zooming maps to the office are provided to assist unfamiliar visitors as well as provide a geographic look to our regional position for those from out of the area. For the meantime, a facility to post public discussion messages remains available. And similar to many web sites, a Feedback message screen is available to send comments directly to the Association.

Most web sites are a continuous work in progress and ours is no exception. Comments and suggestions are sought additional features will be introduced over time. Tremendous credit is due the entire Association staff for all the work they’ve done to compile and format the information for use on the site. It is difficult for the users to appreciate the level of effort required.