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CREATING/UPDATING YOUR CHAPTER/BRANCH WEBSITE


Whether you are thinking of creating a website for your chapter/branch or planning on enhancing an already existing website, your first step should be to go to the Chapter/Branch Websites section of the EAPA CHAPTER/BRANCH TOOL KIT. There you will find links to over 30 EAPA chapter/branch websites from around the world. The diversity, complexity and range of sites are amazing and inspirational. You are certain to get ideas about color scheme, content, architecture and design.

If you are thinking about creating your first chapter/branch website, your second step should be to look at the Hudson Valley Chapter website. This simple demonstration site was created inexpensively by the EAPA web editor using software provided by a web hosting company. It consists of 5 pages:

Home page containing:
  • A welcome statement
  • EAP definition, EAPA definition
  • Brief history of the chapter
  • Reasons to join the chapter
About Our Meetings containing:
  • Meeting location and times
  • Structure of meetings including fees
  • Directions to the meeting
Meeting Calendar containing:
  • Meeting date, presenter, topic to be presented
Our Members containing:
  • A members only marketing perk –contact information for all chapter members with space to describe private practice, presentation expertise, etc.
Contact Us containing:
  • Listing of chapter officers, as well as functional contact information.
 Your third step should be to review our 7 tips for EAPA chapter/branch website creation:
  1. Websites must be updated on a regular basis, don’t have one if you can’t maintain it


  2. Less ambitious web sites are more manageable


  3. Do not make visitors to your website hunt for contact information – nothing is more frustrating


  4. Most of your audience is over 25 and many people cannot read 9 point text


  5. If possible, use EAPA colors: navy blue, dark teal, green, black


  6. Your design should not make your website difficult to use. You can add background music, animations and more to web pages – but that doesn’t mean you should. For those of us who do not have the latest technology and fast cable modems, avoid using flash based pop-ups, animations and splash screens that take a long time to download.


  7. A study found that people look at web pages in three distinct steps. First, they read horizontally from left to right, usually at the top of the screen; then, they move down a fraction and perform a second, smaller horizontal movement; and finally, they scan the left hand side of the page in a vertical movement. The implication? You need to put the important stuff at the very top of your page.
 For more information on creating/updating your EAPA chapter/branch website, contact webeditor@eapassn.org.