Troop 53
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So you're here because either you are interested in building your own web site or just want to see what drivel Kevin will let loose. I will warn you up front that much of what you see here is highly opinionated stuff and that my opinion and 75¢-$1.00 will get you a mediocre cup of coffee. This is not a tutorial! Other, smarter people have already done that. My goal is to relate some techniques, styles, and tips that may be useful to you, and some possible pitfalls (some learned the hard way) to avoid while building your unit's web site. And before you write the nasty-gram, do not mis-construe what you read here as "Official" BSA policy on unit web sites!

Read these articles before you continue!
BSA "Unit Web site Guidelines"
"Boy Scouts of America Social Media Guidelines" (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)

After having viewed thousands of web sites and dozens of Scout unit sites over the years I have developed a feel for what's good and what just flat stinks (at least in my opinion). There are some Troop and Pack web sites that have really offended my olfactory senses — and that's sad. The units belonging to those sites may be outstanding but their web sites certainly do not reflect that. Poor design, bad navigation, sloppy writing and more contribute to a less than enjoyable experience on those sites.

Your web site is the world's window into your unit. With good content and presentation, a visitor can truly get a feel for what your Troop or Pack is all about. The best unit web sites can make you feel like you've walked in the door of a meeting, or walked into their campsite, and are having a discussion with the Scouts or adults, or are watching a part of their program. Content is king, but presentation counts a great deal on the web as well. If it's hard to navigate, hard to read (for various reasons), or just plain ugly, people won't stay around to find out about your outstanding unit.

Although there will be more information about this later, let's briefly discuss cost. With the possible exception of the server which will host your site, you can do everything for free... yes, free. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing. Free is a good word, especially for a Scouting unit that may be strapped for cash. Except for my computer and internet connection (and since you're viewing this you also have these), everything I use to build this site I got for free. That includes my HTML editors, image editors, PDF creator, FTP software, and more. No, it didn't come "pre-installed" on my computer and I don't own any Microsoft Office products. Other than Internet Explorer and Paint I only have two other, small MS applications. See the Technical resources page for links to much of the software I use.

I guess that all of what follows boils down to 3 words: the first word is "control", the second word is "control", and the third word is "control". You want control over every aspect of your pages, all the way from writing them to how they display in the viewer's browser. Now, you cannot have absolute control over the whole process because every visitor to your pages will have a different setup. The combination of computer, monitor, screen resolution, OS, ISP, browser and browser settings conspire to make your pages look slightly to greatly different to different people.

Let's go through the whole process in order with emphasis on what you do control. All these links open in a new window, close that window to return here. Once there you can navigate with "Previous" and "Next" links to go through the pages in order.
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Troop 53 Website Information

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Troop 53
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