Charlie
I guess my question is twofold, who is the site for and what do they want to
read?
If the site is for the members of the guild, then a newsletter format and
archive is called for. Generally this means articles on upcoming events and
the results of past ones. A gallery of last meetining's "show and tell"
coupled with a more permanent gallery of turnings is a great feature which
displays an ongoing history of the club's achievments. Reviews of guest
turners or other speakers are great for members who have missed meetings or
stood at the back and missed stuff. Pictures are always good and short video
clips, possibly flash loaded, are helpful as well. General turning articles
are likely better achieved with links to other sites on the web. A links
page is definitely needed.

If the site is for the rest of the turning world, what I have already
outlined gives a taste of what your guild is doing. Other wise the limits
are off and you can post a ton of stuff, but you have to ask if your target
audience will ever see it or if it is doing a service to your guild.
Personally, I like to see a simple newsletter page for a guild with lits of
member's turnings to browse, but that is just me.

Let me know when the site is up and I will get a link to it on my site.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
http://aroundthewoods.com
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
"John" wrote in message
...
In message , charlieb
writes
As the new webmaster of the Silicon Valley Woodturners club
I'd like to know what you look for on a woodturning club website?

Are you willing to download a 3 or 4 meg PDF newsletter?

Do you look for How To stuff or prefer to peruse plenty of photos
of other folks work?

What about reviews of stuff - turning videos/DVDs, turning tools
and accessories, lathes etc.?

Would like to make svwoodturners.org a resource for other turners.
You're input would be much appreciated.

charlie b

I am a webmaster of a site in a different field which has sat at the top
of Google for the last 8 years, and I do not provide a news letter.

Depending if the content will contain personal information or not

What I would suggest is to Not have a news letter as such, but to have a
News section on the website. Which you just add new articles to, or point
to new additions to the website with a small intro. Members can then
choose to visit as they want and see the news they want. This will first
make maintenance of the site content easier, and secondly reduce the large
download, or mailing.

If you want you could then do a one liner email stating that the news has
been updated.

It really depends on if you want the site content publicly available or
restricted to members

I don't know if you use a content management system, but if not I would
recommend Drupal as a starting point. You can define who can access what
on the website. So visitors get a small view, members the whole view.

If you want to know more let me know and I will contact you privately, as
you probably guessed this email wont work

--
John