Scouts Australia

Website Redevelopment project 2023Image by vectorjuice on Freepik

Background

In May 2023 the Scouts ACT IT Committee began a project to redevelop the Scouts ACT website.

The purpose of this page is to share information about the progress of the redevelopment project with everyone: Youth, Parents and Carers, Leaders, AA Teams, Committee members and all the other valuable people involved with Scouts in the ACT.

The project is being conducted by Andrew Newbery under the guidance of the IT and Digital Coordination Committee and the Communication, Marketing & Publicity Committee. Andrew (Darzee) is a Scout Leader from Lake Ginninderra Sea Scouts.

Make a suggestion - yours ideas count!

Use this Feedback Form if you have any suggestions, ideas or comments on how to improve the Scouts Act website.

Consultation has begun!

The official consultation process began on 5 September 2023 at the  Group Leaders Meeting (Jumbanna).

The consultation period is planned to end on 30 October 2023, so make sure to get your suggestions and ideas in by then!

Suggestions so far

The 2 purple tables below list most of the  Content ideas and  Management ideas received so far. Not everything sent in should be published, but rest assured if you sent it in using the form and it's not here, it will be in the lists of feedback in the Final report to the IT Committee.

The plan is to update the tables at least weekly, but don't hold me to that: like everyone else, life happens!

Content ideas

#

Idea

Suggested by

Status

1 Scout youth can't access the information in the Member's Area.
2

Branch Youth Council ideas pre-August 2023:

  1. Bring as much content as possible from out behind the login so youth can be empowered and informed to plan their own activities
  2. Create new pages for the Program Team and Program Support Team to share resources, information and opportunities
  3. Want to use Instagram to connect with people
Branch Youth Council
3

Ideas from Branch Scout Council - August 2023:

  • Show cool activities and adventures (not just hikes and trips but also normally night so people who want to join aren't surprised)
  • Videos of thing we do
  • make a video of on camp interviews with Scouts and ask what they love, what they are doing on the camp
  • Images and information about Scouting events
  • Images of Units

Types of content Scouts would like:

  • Appealing images/videos
  • Australian Scout Award?
  • EVENTS!
  • Branch Scout Council
  • Awards
  • Pure Scout material

How to appeal to young people:

  • Good Looking “Aesthetics” (watermark captions editing)
  • Easy to understand - Short and Direct
  • Clear Content
  • Day in a life, get ready with us
  • Colourful and eye catching content (Scout colours)
  • Music on Stories or video posts
Branch Scout Council - August update
4

Include more information about Groups on the Scout Groups page.  Include: their website, external and internal pictures of halls...

5

Create a page to upload and share Youth Programs so that Leaders can re-use what others have done. 

Could be a table of the following: program name, summary of program, youth group aimed at (Joeys, Cubs, Scouts, Vennies, Rovers) document file that has all details in it, who posted it (not who made it), maybe a rating system for how good it was?. Uploaded documents would need approval before being published to avoid unpleasant postings.

For example, I could share my Scouts Chariot Night program or my Orienteering at Weston Park program.

6 Could be cool to have a forum (where posts need to be moderated probably) for things like finding verifiers for OAS/assessors for SIAs or general help running activities that aren't AA e.g. finding leaders/youth who are great at golf to help run a golf night on a program Madeleine W
7

These were the ideas from brainstorming at the Branch Scout Council(BSC) meeting on 13 Sep

  1. Photo slides on main page (not really old ones and are updated regularly)
  2. Something to help recruit new Scouts to the Groups that need them so that Group gets more Scouts.
  3. list of Groups and if they are full or want new members
  4. Move contacts for activities providers (AA) to public site so we can see them
  5. A new BSC page (done :-)) and menu option to get there!  This is to include the next meeting: where and when, plus notes (minutes) from the last meeting.
  6. A shared list of program activities that are run so Unti Councils can get inspiration and people can add to.
  7. set (or choose) your own colour theme for the website
  8. recipes that Scouts have tried
  9. be able to access their group's emails so we can contact them
  10. videos of interviews with Scouts about how a recent activity went
  11. fund raising ideas page (including events that need funds and how much?)
    1. GG's Camp
    2. Summer Camp?
    3. Scout Groups (some don't have much money due to the small No of Scout members)
  12. a Donations page!
    1. allow people to make tax-deductible donations to Scouts ACT and
    2. if they want to, identify a particular Group to help - might (not necessarily to get all the money donated, but a good slice)
    3. identify Groups or activities that are looking for funding and what the money is for
  13. Event Page with coming and maybe past events on it, must include a contact for coming events
  14. Make the website mobile compatible - BSC said it was hard to use on their mobile phones.
Branch Scout Council 13 Sep 23
8

Tell people how to subscribe (and unsubscribe yourself) to emails or alerts that certain pages have changed.  I suspect that the existing ScoutsIT list <scoutsit@scoutsact.com.au> does this, but do people know they can subscribe to this? (I didn't)

  • I'm wondering if only Branch Office can subscribe people due to content of these emails having privacy issues (ie. only to go to Scouts ACT members?)
Andrew N
9

Have a SiteAdmin person (previously 'webmaster') whose job it would be to keep an eye on emails and other info sent out to Scouts ACT and make sure it gets onto the ScoutsACT website.  Maybe have an idea submission form linked to a new SiteAdmins@ScoutsACT.com.au email address advertised on the website.  This would expand to a group of volunteers over time.

[Andrew N raised this with the Communication, Marketing & Publicity Committee on 21 Sep 23. The Committee agreed and Andrew Newbery was appointed for an initial 6 month trial term.]
Andrew N Approved
10

Scouts Australia useful links page?

I didn't know that Scouts Australia published their research and results of surveys!  You get to it at the bottom of the Resources pageand here is the link that takes you directly to the information.

I particularly liked the adult_experience_survey_-_noc_presentation_-_june2023.pdf adult_experience_survey_-_noc_presentation_-_june2023.pdf.

Andrew N
11 The Branch Venturer Council (BVC) long term plan is to migrate all the BVC content from https://www.actventurers.com/ over to the main ScoutsACT website and allow the BVC members to edit their pages directly. BVC
12 Could we set up something [on the public part of the website] like the Victorian adventurous activities page for the ACT AA teams, including when you click all the way through to their calendars?: https://scoutsvictoria.com.au/activities-events/adventurous-activities/ Andy B
13 Scouts NSW have a really nice calendar. The functionality is really good and it look really nice. the filters and nice big format make it easy to use. https://nsw.scouts.com.au/events-calendar/ Andy B

 Website Management ideas

#

Idea

Comments

Status

1 Allow a representative from each Adventurous Activity group access to edit their own website page in addition to Branch Office doing updates.
[This can only be done by SiteSuite support and does not work well]
Can't do
2 Broken link check to report on internal and external hyperlinks that need fixing.
[SiteSuite does not have this capability]
3 Scouts ACT to be able to manage user access to edit pages.
[This can only be done by SiteSuite support]
Can't do
4

Version-ing of pages. 

Currently any page change anywhere on the website that is saved gets published whenever anyone clicks "Publish".  This means changes that are in-progress but not finished get published.

  1. A new version of a page can be made and saved without it being published. 
  2. Pages have who saved it (audit trail)
  3. Pages can be approved by a different person acting as the approver and then get published.
[SiteSuite does not have this capability]
5 Multifactor Authentication (MFA) far all accounts that can edit the website.

Helps prevent defacement.  Good security.

6 Do we need MFA on the Member's area?

prevents access via a stolen or copied password

prevents password sharing

7 Site editing accounts require password change every x months or they are disabled. Catches people who leave or no longer doing changes.
8 Audit who has access to change the website and disable anyone without a current need. Helps prevent defacement 
9

Allow representatives of the Branch Scout Council, Branch Venturer Council and Branch Rover Council to edit their own webpages (similar to #1)
[This can only be done by SiteSuite support and does not work well]

Branch Youth Council
10 Create customised forms and surveys for use on the website (feedback etc)
[This can only be done by SiteSuite staff at a cost]
Andrew
11 Enhance security (no generic website admin userids [names only], MFA, change logs)
12 Error trap page to replace the built-in.  This will make us look more professional and friendly. Andrew N Done
13

Pictures on the website & Privacy.  

  • SiteAdmins need to understand using pictures on the ScoutsACT website
  • Scouts Australia has the Privacy Policythat includes sections on:
    • Photographs and images
    • Website and online services
  • Scouts ACT has a section titled "Website on-line services policy" contained in  2.11_Privacy_Policy_Guidelines.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) also has advice on their website here:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-guidance-for-organisations-and-government-agencies/handling-personal-information/posting-photos-and-videos

Andrew N
14 Add a favicon file so that the URL gets a Scout branded icon in browser tabs.
[This can only be done by SiteSuite support]
Andrew N Done1

Notes:

1. Press SHIFT & Refresh button to force a cache refresh in Chrome and Edge to see the icon.

Consultation plan

Here are the planned consultation methods for this project:

  1. Feedback Form on the website
  2. Attend Committee meetings
  3. Attend Branch Council meetings
  4. Survey sent to all Scouts ACT members (via Operoo)
  5. Newsletters that Committees and BEC email out
  6. Attend Scout Group and Rover meetings.

Other Scouts website links

A separate pagehas been created with screen grabs of each website to facilitate a comparison of pages.

Australia

scouts.com.au

ACT

scoutsact.com.au

NSW 1   NSW 2

nsw.scouts.com.au

QLD

scoutsqld.com.au

NT

nt.scouts.com.au

WA

scoutswa.com.au

SA

sa.scouts.com.au

VIC

scoutsvictoria.com.au

TAS

tas.scouts.com.au

New Zealand

scouts.nz

Consultation so far...

Here's a list of specific consultation done so far.  I've talked to lots of people along the way, but these are the specific meetings i've been to.

# Date Consultation
1 31 Aug Rob F
2 5 Sep Group Leaders meeting (Jumbanna) with Craig
3 11 Sep Craig R
4 13 Sep Branch Scout Council with Jay
5 18 Sep Branch Venturer Council with Jay
6 21 Sep Communications, Marketing and Publicity Committee meeting
7 TBA Sarah S
8 16 Oct Combined Branch Scout & Venturer Council with Jay
9 TBA Branch Executive Council

Other details about the project

Andrew plans to visit as many Scout Group meetings and Committee Meetings as he can so that there is direct consultation and feedback from youth and volunteers around Canberra.

Website Redevelopment Project Plan

Below is the table showing the overall project plan.

Table of deliverables
# Document Status Target date
1 Project Plan In progress 22 May 2023
2 Analysis of existing Scouts ACT website In progress TBA
3 Analysis of other Scout websites In progress TBA
4 Stakeholder consultation In progress 30 October 2023
5 Website management system and hosting In progress TBA
6 Final report to Scouts ACT IT Committee Not started 30 October 2023*

Note*: On 25 July the ICT Committee approved an extension for this project from 28 Aug to 30 Oct.  I'll have to request another extension. :P

I've also been updating the existing Scouts ACT website where I can along the way.

This page last Updated: 3 December 2023