If you are reaching this page, you probably recognize the advantages to having your own Unit's Website.
For a limited time, for just 10.00/mo. or 120.00/yr. (payable in 1 year blocks), you can activate your website and start adding content. This is discounted from our 250.00/yr price for regular business customers.
With your own website (not just a page), you can communicate more effectively with your members and their parents. You can add a Photo Gallery, add helpful links to other Scouting sites, create a calendar and link it to your site, as well as impose your own creativity to your content and pages if you so choose.
There are certain areas, configured by the district, that the units cannot change. These areas are usually for marketing information that a Franchise or multi-location bsuiness wants to flow down to all of their locations. In this case these areas could be used for important District information that all units should constantly be aware of. This area is updated by the District Webmaster and as soon as the changes are saved each Unit’s website will be updated with the change. The Look and feel of the site, style , is also constant with all sites created this way and there is something to be said for uniformity at times.
Pack 55 has been using this model as a beta for over a year but with each den having their own website,
www.pack55ga.com. Not all of the Dens have kept their sites updated (hopefully this year), and I think this is better suited for the District/Unit level anyway.
As a current Scout family , I recognize the need for an affordable website solution that also allows for easy and instand updates to your website. Our ArkenCMS system allows anyone that can use a computer the ability to update their site. Granted, the more you use it and the more you understand, the better you can use all of the features, but initially ANYONE can get started.
Your Website:
· Will have NO banner Ads or any other Ads, unlike the annoying ads of tripod and others.
· Will Be linked organically with all of the other sites under the District Structure for better search engine results.
· Can be easily updated via our ArkenCMS system. At the bottom of each site will be a “Client Login” link. Once you login, you can start making changes.
· Doesn’t need to be uploaded once changes are made. Once you hit save, the changes are live.
· Will have the look and feel of the District Website but if the District wanted to change their style it would change yours too. This will be available when there are more Scout styles to choose from and could be useful at Holiday times using a Holiday theme for instance.
· Can be switched effortlessly if you are hosted by another company and all content can be copied to your new site.
· Includes an easy to use photo gallery, just upload the pictures to the server and the system resizes them and displays them in a flash viewer. They have to be a minimum size, however, because if they are too small and are sized up they will be distorted.
· Includes 2 email addresses @cowetadistrictbsa.org. i.e. troop111@cowetadistrictbsa.org or pack55_CM@cowetadistrictbsa.org If you have your own domain then you can have up to 5 email addresses.
· Is fully functional as standalone websites except for the areas controlled by the district. You can change some of the menu items, pages, add pages, link to external pages on the menu, have your own link to the interactive map, and much, much more.
As sites are brought on line and activated, they will be reachable by the url… http://Unit.CowetaDistrictBSA.org or the default of http://www.cowetadistrictbsa.org/unit .
There is another option that is available as well, and that is registering your own domain , such as pack55ga.com . This is a separate charge of 30.00/yr for the domain registration and admin of the domain. If you want to register , or have already registered your own domain, that is fine too but you will be responsible for the admin of that domain.
If you have any questions about how to activate your scout account, please contact mwilson@arkentechnology.com.