How to Create a Lions Club Homepage

LionNet encourages all Lions Clubs to have a presence on the Internet. To that end we offer these guidlines to those who may feel they haven't the experience or know-how necessary to create their club's web page. Sure you can !

Our Prototype Lions Club page is available either as a guide or to use as your first page - it's ready to go as soon as you substitute in your own club's information and move it to your own server. Here's how you would create such a page.

First - organize the page by sections. What do you want to include ? The minimum sections would be club name and Lions logo, meeting time and place, officers and how to contact them, and a link that allows response to the webmaster. The prototype page also includes a notice that it's under construction. Most pages remain under construction all the time but if you have sections with incomplete information, it tells the visitor you're working on this and that more will be added. When you feel that your page is reasonably complete, you would probably remove the construction notice.


Here's how the section organization would look for the prototype page (annotation is in italicized red)::

<!-- page set-up and formatting -->

Text and color information were entered by the HTML editor used to create the page. Front Page from Microsoft and Netscape Gold will automatically enter codes as you visually select color and font. You can also find a page you like, download it so you can view it in Notepad and use copy and paste to duplicate the effects.

<!-- title with Lions logo and under construction graphic -->

Graphics can be sized to your preference. If you download graphics from clipart files or other Lions Clubs, you may adjust their size to fit your page.

<!-- section on meeting information -->

The above is a standard horizontal rule adjusted to 60% of full page width. It is helpful, both to you and to page visitors, if the sections are separated by a simple graphic. Usually you will use the same graphic between all sections. On this page we have chosen to use the same horizontal rule, but at 100%, before the closing section.

If it doesn't involve excessive download time, it is very nice to include a simple map to your meeting site.

<!-- section on officers and contact information -->

If you're using the prototype to make your page, you would here substitute the names and contact information of your officers, changing or deleting titles as necessary. If you need to add lines, use copy and paste and then substitute the pertinent data.

<!-- section on links -->

This link would probably appear on every club in a LionNet node area. You would substitute in the name of the node for your area instead of "State/Province/District". The parenthetical description is optional but again you would replace the "Xxxxxxxxx" with your region's name. If you're not in a LionNet node area, please see What Is LionNet? at the LionNet International site and consider becoming one yourself !

Local clubs often list other area clubs on-line and a link to the first level LionNet node. That node in turn lists the next level up and so on. Using this guidline helps keep pages from being cluttered or confusing. If you prefer to list all the LionNet links, it is suggested that you use the graduated sizes to clarify your structure.

There is a variety of Lions logos available. Since you are an official Lions organization, you are entitled to download and use any that you see on other Lions pages. See also the LionNet Finland ftp download site for a representative sampling of Lions logos.

<!--- closing section with e-mail to webmaster --->

<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%"></P> <CENTER><P><IMG SRC="flag_array.gif" HEIGHT=140 WIDTH=291></P></CENTER>

Graphics for e-mail links can be found atnumerous clipart sites and are usually free for personal or non-profit use. Your link for e-mail would be set up like this <A HREF="mailto:name@server.ext">.


As you work on your page, you might want to ask for advice or suggestions as you try out different ideas. Please feel free to contact the LionNet NodeMaster in your area; it is part of the LionNet mandate to encourage and assist Lions Clubs to join the Internet.

If you are not in a LionNet area, we urge you again to read more about it (What I LionNet?) and consider becoming a node yourself. Please contact a LionNet site administrator for advice and information.


Finally, here are some general things to keep in mind when starting a club homepage: