ONLINE FORUMS

An exciting option for staying in touch with your community is an online forum. With a forum you can encourage dialog about park district issues or restrict discussion to recreation topics. Forums can be set up to require login to ensure responsible discourse!

A typical forum would be set up with several sections for various topics to be discussed such as,

• Fitness/Wellness
• Adult or Youth Athletics
• Early Childhood
• Crafts & Activities
• Official Park District Announcements
• a multitude of other topics!

You can choose to appoint a staff member to moderate each forum or they can be moderated by volunteers from the community.

An active forum will be a welcomed addition to your web site and can be used to build community and actively support your patrons.

JOB POSTING SYSTEM

Depending on the size of your agency you may have from one to dozens (or more) of job openings at any given time. Updating these on your web site can be a real pain.

Our online job posting system allows you to manage all of your job listings without any prior HTML experience! You can set up a closing date to ensure the job listing is not displayed after a certain date. You can include a variety of fields most of which are optional and would only be displayed if you chose to use them. These fields include,

Our system also includes an option to integrate your complete employment application into the job posting system so applicants can fill out the application online and submit it to you. When you receive it you can import it into Word and easily print or file it electronically.

FAQ SYSTEM

You get lots of questions and you provide lots of answers each and every day! We can help you automate this process to both save you time and make finding answers a lot easier for your patrons. Our FAQ System provides an easy-to-use online resource for your patrons where the most frequently asked questions are answered. And you can maintain the questions and answers easily with no prior HTML experience.

Web site visitors can browse the Q&As or they can search on keywords you have embedded. Also, they can view a concise index or table of contents to find the answers to their questions. If their question is not answered there is a facility to allow them to easily submit it. You can track usage of the system to see what questions are most popular. This will be a very popular addition to your web site!

SEASONAL GRAPHIC SETS

A great way to keep your web site looking fresh and up-to-date is to change the design for each season or to correspond to each of your brochures. We work with our customers to design seasonal sets of graphics that can be changed out in a matter of minutes making your site match the new season or brochure. These sets can be as simple as a header graphic or as complex as an entirely new design complete with new stylesheet for a comprehensive change!

PHOTO GALLERIES

We've heard it many times, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and it is certainly true! When you really want to show your patrons how cool the new aquatic center is or show them how much fun everyone had at last year's outdoor concert series, you need to do it with pictures! Ditto for when you really need to convince your corporate neighbors that they should hold their next company outing at one of your facilities!

We have a variety of options available to help you feature your events and facilities in pictures. From a simple online photo gallery, to a Flash-based animated photo tour to dynamic virtual tours, we have solutions that will make you successful in this area!

GAMES & GREETINGS

As more and more of your patrons stop by your web site you have the opportunity to provide them with information and interactivity such as online registration. We believe you can do even more and turn your web site into an online destination! By incorporating "sticky" web content like games and greetings you can keep visitors on your site longer and also enlist their aid in getting others to come to your site.

Examples of this sort of viral marketing include,

• online games that mirror one of your facilities (how about offering an online version of your mini-golf course!)
• web games that have high-score tables and leader-boards to encourage players to return and complete for scores
• online activities such as drawing and painting where the user can submit their "masterpiece" to an online gallery for viewing by all
• "official" park district greeting cards that your patrons can send to their friends and family via email ("the water's fine - wish you were here at the park district aquatic center!")
• downloadable screen savers featuring your facilities
• downloadable wallpaper for your patrons' desktops