Scouting/Guiding
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group: Scouting/Guiding
chrissearle - Tue, 2006-09-05 05:47
Well, as an active leader in the Longship group (www.longship.org) I got the suggestion for the group from David, an ex-longshipper who is now an active leader with 4th Caterham (http://www.4thcaterham.org.uk/).
Longship is running drupal, Caterham is looking at switching.
It seems that drupal is a good match for such youth group sites - so - here's a group to allow discussion on what works well, what not so well - a place to ask questions and to exchange ideas.
I have a feeling that drupal is also well suited to large events - think for example about JOTI, or a site during and after a jamboree.
So - any scouters/guiders out there who are using drupal or who think they might benefit - come along and join us :)
Yours in Scouting
Using the Book Module
I've recently joined a BSA Troop with my 2 older sons. As a computer geek, I was asked to oversee the existing Web site. And guess what?! I'm going to convert it to Drupal! :^)
My primary motivation in doing so is to utilize the book module to create a few public resource guides for new Scouts, parents and leaders. My biggest frustration is that not only do I not know anything about Scouting (having never been involved with Scouting before in my life), but I don't know what questions to ask to get the information I need. I hope to help reduce the potential frustration level for future Scouts and parents.
The other modules that I see as being of importance are the forum module, the various event modules and the various image modules. I may use CCK instead of the event modules, depending on how much work it is. I will actually just be putting the site into place and be mostly letting the boys handle the content (except for those resource guides, of course).
duplicate post removed
Active contribution
I think that having a site where the members themselves can be responsible for the content is a prime mover for me. Older versions of the site only I could update - and tended to be very static.
I'm hoping for a much more dynamic and involving site with the new drupal version - which means
1) less for me to do
2) the scouts themselves feel that the site is relevant to them.
I'm already getting hints from the parents that the new site is more interesting (which I find interesting because the content is the same) - so the next step is to get the membership themselves involved.
Organic Groups
I'm planning a new hungarian scout portal, which will use drupal. I think the organic group module, combined with events module will be useful for us. At first, I will create a home page for my troop, and if it works well, then maybe the website of the Hungarian Scout Association will use the same architecture.
19th Maidenhead
David contacted me about the new group so I thought I'd let you guys know I set up the 19th Maidenhead site with a handful of custom modules. The biggest part I made was the fact that all events etc are stored online - linked to who went (to be seen by leaders only). There's quite a lot of information about the members available through the website and we do try to keep it up to date.
I'd write a longer comment - but I'm literally just about to leave to look after the above Scouts!
Another duplicate
Preview comment seems to be saving the comment the same as post comment. Odd
Now I did like that. I've
Now I did like that. I've been wondering whether or not to go over to a section-based view (cubs/scouts/explorers) - and you seem to have got that working for you.
How much customisation did you have to do?
Scouting Drupal Targets
Thanks to Chris for the credit - it's now officially all my fault!
I've got several Scout sites in mind for Drupal conversion. They're at different levels - there's a single section Hospital Group, which has a rough & ready drupal trial running at http://17thdev.17thholborn.org.uk , a multi-section Group (similar to Chris) and also a Scout District site which I now have responsibility for dragging out of the dark ages!
The District site is one that I have recently taken on and is in urgent need of attention. I'm going to try and focus my attention on this one as it has the biggest potential. There are 11 groups in Caterham, each with several sections, all of which could use the site to report. This makes for possibly 50+ contributers and hundreds of potential readers. The intention is (in time) to replace the current electronic District Newsletter, so that users submit reports/events to the website and the newsletter in effect turns into a RSS feed.
David