To:    Ent club members
From: Jonathan A Rees, for the ad hoc web site committee
Re:    Ent club web site
Date:  9 October 2001

I have prepared a "draft" Ent Club web site for your review. This site is accessible by giving the location http://www.entclub.org/ to your web browser, but it is not currently public -- that is, only people who know the URL can get to it, since it's not known by any search engine or web directory.

I would like to make it public soon, however, subject to the approval of the officers and membership. To this end I welcome all comments on the site and suggestions for improvement. By the time of the November meeting I would like for all comments to be in, so that we have a good chance of making a decision at that time to "launch" the site.

Once it becomes public, it will be found in web searches (e.g. Google) that involve terms that appear in any of our talk announcements or other material on the site. It will also be found by people looking for entomology information at places such as Iowa State's Entomology Index of Internet Resources. This web presence will result in a lot of visibility for the club, its speakers, and the contributors to the site.

Here are the main purposes I see for the site:

1. Answer the question "who's speaking at the next meeting?"
2. Provide abstracts for past talks and schedule of future talks
3. Answer "what club business took place at such-and-such a meeting?"
4. Allow members to provide information about themselves (name, relevant URLs, area of interest, contact information)
5. Provide a place for members and speakers to deposit information of general interest (images, manuscripts, data sets)
6. Increase attendance and membership, and improve morale, by making the club more visible on the Internet

The site has a member database. The database holds name, contact information (including email address), and interests for each member. It is temporarily readable and writable by anyone who knows about the site, so please visit it and update your information now. Please note: We are very much aware of privacy, junk email, and security issues, so before the site becomes public we'll be changing the member database so that your contact information will only be accessible on the web if you have given explicit permission to make it so. Unless you take explicit action (there will be a way to do this on the site, or you can contact me or Piotr) only your name will be listed, not your email address or other contact information. Individuals desiring especial stealth can ask to have their name suppressed as well.

Just before the site becomes public, we'll secure the database and all changes to it will have to go through me or Piotr, so please review your database record now and make any necessary changes.

The site has modest goals and very little material right now, but the more "content" (i.e. interesting and unique material) it has, the better the experience will be for everyone. If you have something to contribute, please let me know.

Please take a quick look, and send your comments to me at webmaster@entclub.org.