THANK YOU to everyone who responded to our GOC website & IT user feedback survey - we had a fantastic 166 responses by yesterday's deadline, more than 10% of the 1,567 members that received it, and a lot of valuable feedback and suggestions. You can view the survey responses yourself in full in mentimeter. The survey is now closed to new responses.

It seems that many of you are largely satisfied with the GOC website & IT in many respects, so that is encouraging. However, there are many clear and practical suggestions as to where and how we can improve them and make them easier to use, so that is very helpful.

Our priorities will be to make the site more attractive, welcoming and dynamic, and easier to use

• for members and other visitors to find and join groups and events of interest,
• for members to manage their profiles and preferences, to find and connect with each other and to communicate and collaborate together,
• for event leaders, group coordinators and committee members to add and manage events, reports, news posts and images - not least by providing more customised forms over time and minimising the need to use the less user-friendly site administration area.

For those who are interested in some detail, scroll down for what we have already done in response to these and previous suggestions, and what we plan to do soon or if & when practicable.

THANK YOU also to those members who have already begun to support me and our website developer Owen Morris further in all of this, as members of a new Wesbite User Group - Julian Donald, Al Evans, Andy Fisher, Geoff Millner, Bill Pilcher, Chris Thomas and David Willis. Six of us met today in Zoom to review your responses and these next steps, and agreed to continue that support by means of a chat group and occasional meetings as needed.

Please do let me or any of them know of any questions or further feedback, and especially if you may be interested to join that group yourself.

Martin Gilbraith

See also Greetings from your new Website and IT manager

--

Home page & documents section:

• Updated the home page with new images and a clearer invitation to join a few events on a free trial basis today
• Added a selection of video clips to the About Us page, and added it to the main menu on home page
• Restructured the Documents section to add Next Steps documents and distinguish between Groups & Events, Governance & Finance and Data, Website & IT
• Added Associated Clubs page in Documents section
• Added role descriptions and profile links to committee members on Governance & committee page in Documents section
• Added a Social Media page in the Documents section where members are encouraged to share their own GOC-related video and other content via social media and on the GOC website
• Added the most used GOC social media channels to the GOC footer menu appearing at the foot of every page of the site, and to home page and groups & events pages  “Find and connect with us also on social media”

Groups, Events, Reports & News:

• Updated the Groups, Events, Reports & News pages to more clearly explain how they can be used, and how members can themselves propose or submit new groups, events, reports & news
• Added text to the Events page to make clear that it is possible to search events and see them ordered by location as well as by date/month, group, activity etc.
• Added a ‘Join Group’ button and a ‘View Group Members’ button to the top of each group page, to be more prominent than the text links previously at the foot of each page
• Added a field to the 'Submit event' form for saving route details to make it easier to repeat a walk again
• Followed up with the Cornwall group coordinator and Groups Liaison Officer to update the Cornwall page and ensure that messages are received and responded to
• Reviewed all message forwarders to ensure that no messages are forwarded to un-monitored inboxes. If you are concerned that any particular message has not been replied to, please let someone else know to follow-up - contact us

My GOC - members only:

• Enabled option to add preferred pronouns to member profiles in My preferences

Site admin - Group Co-ordinators & Committee members only:

• Invited Group Co-ordinators to use #prioritypic hashtag to identify and find high quality images in the media library for further use where appropriate
• Clarify to those submitting events how they can ensure that post codes used by members to configure their sat navs are aligned with the grid references and therefore the pin shown on the event map
• Disabled sending of mailshots to all but current members

Home page & documents section:

• Enable regularly-updated featured news posts on the home page, in order to more easily keep it up to date and feature time-sensitive news - when eg. AOG bookings have just opened or are about to close, when it’s LGBT History Month etc.
• Add a map of all upcoming events to the home page, to visualise for all members where they can find events near to them and to coordinators where there are areas not currently being served by events
• Add ‘Why not submit an event of your own?” link to the home page
• Add members-only page in Documents section for archive of Annual Reports & Committee minutes
• Add website feedback/help button to appear at the foot of every page
• Add new site search function to enable searching of the entire site
• Review merchandise offer in GOC shop
• A complete design refresh to update the look and feel of the site and especially the home page, and to make it more attractive especially to diverse potential new members - including perhaps graphic icons to indicate group & event types etc.

Groups, Events, Reports & News:

• Include the latest recent events under the earliest upcoming events on the Events page and Group pages, with links to more of each
• Include walk length where appropriate in event details at top of event page, and county or nearby town or city
• Amend calendar integration function to include key event details and link to GOC event page in calendar event
• In liaison with coordinators of neighbouring groups, add group pages for areas not otherwise served (perhaps for eg. a 6-month trial period), to invite members to join and step forward as coordinator

My GOC - members only:

• Add 'More events' link on 'My events' page in My GOC, to enable viewing of more than just a few upcoming events in My Groups
• Add "Events near me" page in My GOC to show upcoming events near member's postcode (where given), regardless of group
• Enable saving of draft events and reports by members before submitting to group coordinators for approval, and email confirmation of submission
• Enable event leaders as well as Group Coordinators to edit their own event pages
• Simplify and clarify process for amending subscription to add or remove monthly printed newsletter
• Enable members to add their social media profiles to their GOC website member profile
• Enable private messages between members to be copied by email to sender
• Clarify that when a member messages another using the contact form on the other’s profile, the sender’s email address is shared to enable the recipient to reply even if the sender has chosen to make their own profile invisible
• Add a members directory page in My GOC to enable members to search and find other members that have consented to make their profiles visible to each other
• Support GOC member engagement officer to relaunch the website Forums for text-based chat among local groups, group coordinators etc. and for any/all members on topics of common interest, to propose informal short-notice events etc

Site admin - Group Co-ordinators & Committee members only:

• Enable group co-ordinators to delete events when appropriate
• Simplify and/or better explain the processes for uploading images (including member profile images), for completing event descriptions and for managing ticketed events
• Distinguish between new and renewing members in the recent members list in the site admin dashboard, and include the date of registration
• Remove unused Yoast SEO options from GC/Committee access
• Use of meetup.com to publicise local and online events open to non-members, in order to attract more new members to join via the website for full access to all events

Home page & documents section:

• Enable viewing of enlarged pictures, and/or scrolling pictures at the top of the home page (in place of those that currently change less frequently)

Groups, Events, Reports & News:

• Enable calendar and/or map views of events on events page, group pages, My groups etc.

My GOC - members only:

• Enable use of hyperlinks and bold, italics etc. in member-only event information
• An automated monthly email digest of upcoming events in My Groups
• An optional email alert when new events are published in My Groups
• Enable ical integration with personal online calendars for My Events of events of My Groups, not just for individual events
• Add “Reports of events I attended” alongside “Events I’m attending” in My GOC section
• Enable linked memberships, eg. for couples, so that one partner can book both on an event together

Site admin - Group Co-ordinators & Committee members only:

• Consider how the site (especially site administration area) can be better optimised for use on smartphones
• Provide more customised forms for adding and managing groups, events, reports, news etc. in order to minimise the need to use the less user-friendly WordPress site administration area
• Enable automated reminders to coordinators in advance of magazine publication deadlines
• Enabling ‘save-the-date” pages for events without full details but with at least a group, date & event leader