Chapter Website Evolution
CCIM chapter websites continue to evolve and will move to an open-source content management system this fall.
The current CCIM chapter websites can be considered Version 3 in a series. The first chapter sites were hosted by LoopNet. In 2002, the sites were moved to Catylist. In January of 2007, we took them in house and into their current configuration.
Our design externally resembled the Version 2 look and feel. The big changes were in the back end tools for administrators and integration of the chapter membership with the CCIM membership database. As a direct result of this process, we’ll be piloting chapter dues billing as part of the national CCIM dues billing this fall.
Since that initial rollout in January, we’ve been tweaking, revising, and rewriting parts of the site to fix bugs and improve functionality for both chapter members and administrators.
The big news for chapter websites is that we’ve begun working on the next version, based on Drupal, a flexible, open-source content management system. In just a couple of weeks, we’ve been able to mock up the basics of a chapter site and identify a number of off-the-shelf modules that will provide the chapters with a better communication and marketing tool.
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Drupal
Any idea if a blogging section will be part of the new Chapter sites? I would strongly suggest adding the option!
Daniel Del Real
DelRealProperty.com
Daniel Del Real
27 Jul 07 at 11:25 pm
Blogs could be a part of the new sites on a case by case basis. The key, of course, is a commitment from someone (or a group of people) to maintain the blog. There’s nothing worse than a site with no recent entries. There doesn’t have to be something every day, but there have to be updates. I guess it really would depend on the chapter leadership and the chapter’s administrator.
Steve
28 Jul 07 at 7:52 am