Catena Creations has breathed new life into the Web site for the Nebraska Society for Respiratory Care (NSRC).
The site was originally built in Joomla 1.0, which Joomla quit supporting in 2009. Catena Creations updated and maintained the site for a year, then was awarded the contract to rebuild the site in October 2011.
The site had to be completely rebuilt. We were able to copy and paste text over from the old site to new. All photos, graphics, PDFs and other media files had to be reuploaded and reinstalled.
We chose the Entrepeneur (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) theme by Ollie McCarthy for the site template. The theme options we liked included a customizable footer and sidebar, a photo gallery and portfolio feature, and the great rollover/highlight effects in the menus. Ollie provided excellent customer service and response when I had questions while building the site.
The NSRC wanted a look that reflected their evolving roles in respiratory therapy: high tech, modern, up to date. Catena Creations updated their logo and the site graphics. Through the use of Typekit, we changed the site’s font to DDT. A touch of red enhanced the purple of the original logo.
Site enhancement required the addition/upgrade of several features. These included:
[unordered_list style=’circle’ number_type=’circle_number’ animate=’no’ font_weight=”]
- An events calendar.
- Contact forms for each board member/committee chair.
- A blog on the home page for publishing latest news.
- A contact form in the footer that appears on every page.
- A photo show feature and gallery portfolio.[/unordered_list]
The site went live on Feb. 1, 2012. The NSRC sent out a notice to all of their colleagues in the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) to announce the change.
My relationship with the NSRC started while I was campus Webmaster at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. While working there, I had the privilege of writing grants for asthma research with Jenny Bush, RRT.
Jenny, now past president of the NSRC, invited me to submit a proposal for maintaining the NSRC site. I was happy to get involved. My son and I had both struggled with asthma, and working with this group was a great way to thank those who had kept us healthy.
Plans for the site update have been in progress for about four years. After losing their volunteer Webmaster, the group made a commitment to hire a professional to maintain their Web site and post updates regularly to keep the site current.
Their efforts paid off last year when the NSRC won second place in the Summit Award competition sponsored by AARC. State organizations submit their information on their goals and accomplishments for the year, and their success is reviewed and scored by AARC panel members.
Jenny said that one of the reasons the NSRC did so well was due to their efforts in keeping their Web site updated.
“The site looks great! . . . I’m excited to see this roll out to the respiratory therapists across the state. It’s a long time coming,” said board member Candy Ryan.
“My two cents, for what it is worth, is WOW!!! It looks GREAT!!!” added board member Bruce Campbell.
Now that the site is complete, Catena Creations will continue to maintain it for another year for the NSRC. The board is reviewing priorities for further upgrades.