A Website Plan for the University of Maryland’s

Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta

Delivered to Carlin Bokal

Advisor, Lambda Pi Eta

University of Maryland

By Katherine Sylvester

May 13, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...........................................................................................3

Problem.................................................................................................3

Current Website..................................................................................4

Current Information Sources................................................................5

Prospective Members..........................................................................................5

Current Members.................................................................................................6

Solution.................................................................................................6

Similar Organizations..........................................................................6

University of Maryland Organization Websites....................................................6

Lambda Pi Eta Chapter Websites.........................................................................8

Website Development............................................................................9

Platform.............................................................................................9

How to create the website...................................................................................9

Website outline..................................................................................................11

Benefits...............................................................................................12

How to promote the website..............................................................12

measuring success............................................................................13

student position................................................................................13

Conclusion...........................................................................................13

Bibliography........................................................................................14

Appendix.............................................................................................15

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INTRODUCTION

As an honor society for communication majors, it is essential that Lambda Pi Eta does a successful job at communicating with students. The organization is a place to foster the skills and professional development of communication majors across the nation and these goals should be showcased through a successful recruitment and communications system1.

PROBLEM

At the University of Maryland, the Lambda Pi Eta (LPH) chapter does not have a distinct way of communicating with current or prospective members. The communication problem creates a large obstacle in the organization’s recruiting process as well as its communication with current members. The lack of information available to the general student body hampers the organization’s recruitment efforts.

The first major problem the organization has is that it does not currently have its own website. The organization has no website of its own to display current information about the group and its membership. Information about Lambda Pi Eta is only available through a stagnant page on the College of Arts and Humanities website. This information is not easily accessible to students and only provides limited information. The information available from this website is identified further below. The website does not provide information for current members about upcoming meetings or to prospective members about the application process.

The second major problem the organization has is that its recruitment process is not effective. The communication barrier created by the lack of information available to students who may want to join makes it difficult for students not involved in the group to learn more about joining. In most semesters the organization only has a few new members, despite the large size of the undergraduate communication major at Maryland. Last fall the organization only had a few new members join the organization.

The final problem the organization has is that is lacks a clear and effective channel for communication with current members. Current members have no place to go to for updates or reminders about the upcoming events or resources for the group. The only source of information for current members are the advisor’s emails notifying them of upcoming events, such as induction ceremonies or meetings; however these emails only come once or twice a semester. Further, at the organization’s last meeting for current members only two members showed up for the meeting.

There needs to be a proactive solution put in place to solve these problems so that the organization can do a better job at recruiting new members and involving and informing current members of what is going on throughout the semester. A clear solution to this problem would be the first of many steps to improving the organization’s membership numbers and activity during the semester.

Other chapters of Lambda Pi Eta across the nation utilize websites and social media to connect with both current and prospective members throughout the year. These outlets enable members to be updated with pertinent information without having to attend meetings.

1 I referenced the Lambda Pi Eta handbook to find this information about the organization’s mission and the member qualifications.

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CURRENT WEBSITE

As previously mentioned, the only information available online about Lambda Pi Eta is available through the Department of Communication’s website2. This website, however, is a stagnant page meaning the information does not change weekly or even yearly. The information listed on the website is simply a statement of what the organization does nationwide and the contact information of the advisor. The information on the Department of Communication website about LPH includes a link; however, it is a link to the nationwide LPH website, not information specific to Maryland. There is not information on the website about the membership requirements or how to get the application itself. The information listed on the Department of Communication’s website is below.

“Lambda pi eta (LPH) is the national communication

association's official honor society at four-year colleges and

universities. They strive to recognize, foster, and reward

outstanding scholastic achievement in communication

studies; stimulate interest in the field of communication;

promote and encourage professional development among

communication majors; provide an opportunity to discuss

and exchange ideas in the field of communication; establish

and maintain closer relationships between faculty and

students; and explore options for graduate education in

communication studies.

For more information, visit lambda pi eta's website:

http://www.natcom.org/aboutlph/ or contact Carlin Bokal at

cbokal@umd.edu or 301-405-6519.”

Additionally, the information given on the Department of Communication website is not easily accessible to students. Students first have to go to the College’s website, then click on the undergraduate program section, then select ‘student organization’ and scroll down on a page to get to the limited information about LPH. These steps are highlighted in the images that follow.

1. Go to the University of Maryland’s Department of Communication website and select the ‘Undergraduate Program’ menu option.

2. From the ‘Undergraduate Program’ menu select the ‘Student Organizations’ section.

2 I got the text for this pull quote from the UMD Department of Communication’s current website and the screenshots are from the Department of Communication website as well.

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3. Once on the ‘Student Organizations’ section of the website, scroll down to find the information about Lambda Pi Eta.

As you can see, the steps to get to the information about Lambda Pi Eta are not simple. There is also not very much information available on the website about Lambda Pi Eta. The paragraph about Lambda Pi Eta simply describes the purpose of the organization, gives a link to the national website and gives the advisor’s contact information. It does not provide any information about membership requirements, upcoming events or current members and officers.

For students to find this information they would need to actively be searching for information about Lambda Pi Eta or student organizations in general. For many students they would not go searching online to find student organizations or honor societies to join.

CURRENT INFORMATION SOURCES

There are not any clear ways for current or prospective members to currently get information; however, the current options are outlined below for each group of students. The ways in which current and potential members find out information about the organization are very different. It is hard for students to find a concrete way to find out information about the organization from the current information sources as can be seen below.

PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS

For prospective members, the only way to get information about Lambda Pi Eta is to contact an advisor, visit Maryland’s Department of Communication website or see a flyer around campus. These tactics lack any simple way for students to find out about the organization or its application process without seeking out the information. Students are forced to find the information about the organization themselves, which requires them to already know about the organization. Advisors often do not give out information about Lambda Pi Eta unless students solicit it. Students can also find out about the group from friends or classmates who are current members; however, because there are not very many members or events many students would not even know if they know someone in the organization.

In addition to the department website or advisors, the only other available source of information about the organization is the recruitment flyer3. These flyers are typically hung up throughout Skinner Hall. While Skinner Hall is the home to the Department of Communication, it is not where all communication students have their courses so many students do not see them.

CURRENT MEMBERS

3 Lambda Pi Eta Flyer can be found in the appendix section (item 1).

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For current members there is not anywhere online to look at to find information about the organization’s events or upcoming schedule. The only way to get information about the next meeting or induction ceremony is through emails sent out by the advisor. The infrequency of emails does not keep members involved or up-to-date on the organization throughout the semester.

The lack of clear communication to members results in a lack of attendance at meetings. If there was a website, it would give students somewhere to look to see when the next meeting was and also to get updates from the meetings they missed. The website would be able to provide current members with a list of upcoming dates and events that they could consistently check. It would also provide a place for students to look to for updates about the meetings they missed.

SOLUTION

In order to solve Lambda Pi Eta’s current problem the organization needs to develop its own unique website. The website would provide a comprehensive place for all current and prospective members to be directed to in order to receive the most up-to-date information about what is going on in the organization. This proposal recommends that the organization use Weebly4, a free website creation service, to create a preliminary website this summer so that it can be live online before the fall 2014 semester begins.

After the creation of the Weebly website, the organization could pursue getting the website hosted by the university or as a page of the Department of Communication’s website.

In order to understand what Lambda Pi Eta needs to include on its website, preliminary secondary research was necessary. This research focused on evaluating what other honor societies on campus include on their websites and what other Lambda Pi Eta chapters across the nation put on their websites.

SIMILAR ORGANIZATIONS

In developing the new website for the organization it needs to provide information essential to students on the University of Maryland’s campus as well as to those students eligible for Lambda Pi Eta.

Many honor societies throughout Maryland’s campus have simple websites, created using WordPress, Weebly or CSS5 to keep current and prospective members informed of the organization’s news.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ORGANIZATION WEBSITES

The following websites from University of Maryland honor societies and organizations highlight key website elements that Lambda Pi Eta could incorporate into its website.

OMICRON DELTA KAPPA HONOR SOCIETY

UMD’s Omicron Delta Kappa website,6 shown to the right, includes a ‘newsletter’ section that would also be applicable to the Lambda Pi Eta website if a

4 Weebly is a free website design program found at Weebly.com5 CSS refers to cascading style sheets.

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newsletter was started. It would also be useful to incorporate the Twitter and Facebook links as this website does on the right side of the page. The organization also includes a history section that would be applicable and interesting to include on Lambda Pi Eta’s website.

PRIMANNUM HONOR SOCIETY

The Primannum Honor Society’s website7’s ‘Prospective Members’ section of the website is a very important section for the Lambda Pi Eta website to have. This section is important because it provides prospective members with essential information about joining the organization.

PI SIGMA ALPHA HONOR SOCIETY

The Pi Sigma Alpha website8’s use of the ‘next upcoming event’ section on the home page is useful to keep current members updated on the latest events. It would be useful to have a small section like this on the Lambda Pi Eta website so members could quickly see what events are happening each month.

PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENT SOCIETY OF AMERICA

The PRSSA website9’s easy to find link to the membership application is something Lambda Pi Eta definitely needs on a website. The tabs at the top of the website are also very similar to what Lambda Pi Eta needs to have on its website.

6 The Omicron Delta Kappa organization used WordPress to create their website.7 Primannum Honor Society used a website hosted by a separate domain for their website.8 Pi Sigma Alpha used a website hosted by the Department of Government and Politics.9 UMD PRSSA also used a free Weebly website.

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LAMBDA PI ETA CHAPTER WEBSITES

Similarly, many Lambda Pi Eta chapters across the country are utilizing websites to get their information out to members and prospective members in an efficient way.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: LAMBDA PI ETA

The USC Lambda Pi Eta website10 incorporates many elements that would be useful on UMD’s Lambda Pi Eta website, particularly the ‘about,’ ‘events,’ and ‘joining LPH’ sections of the website.

AUBURN UNIVERSITY: LAMBDA PI ETA

Although Auburn University’s Lambda Pi Eta chapter does not have its own unique website, the information it has posted on the communication school’s website11 is very thorough. The website includes links to a brochure about the organization as well as the link to the membership application. The website also includes the application deadlines for each semester, which would be useful for the University of Maryland’s chapter to have as well. Auburn’s website also includes information about the history of LPH at the school that is very interesting and useful to include on the website.

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY: LAMBDA PI ETA

Baylor University’s Lambda Pi Eta webpage12 is also not a unique separate website, but it includes useful information for prospective members that can be integrated into the University of Maryland’s website. The webpage includes the application deadline,

10 USC Lambda Pi Eta uses a free WordPress website to host their website.11 Auburn’s Lambda Pi Eta website is integrated into their university’s website.12 Baylor’s Lambda Pi Eta website is hosted by the university.

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application materials, a photo gallery and induction ceremony, which are all unique aspects Maryland could include on the website. The website also includes typical information like the membership requirements, history information and the executive board.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

In order to create a live website for Lambda Pi Eta the website will need to either be hosted on a server or created through a free website. The best platform to use for Lambda Pi Eta’s website, until it can be hosted on a university server, is Weebly.

PLATFORM

Weebly13 allows users to create free or premium websites, but for Lambda Pi Eta a free website would provide the functionality needed. Despite providing free website hosting, Weebly provides all of the benefits necessary to building a successful and user friendly website. Weebly also provides fast site speed and reliability. It uses a “cloud based hosting infrastructure” for its websites, allowing website visitors to have an easy and reliable website experience.

Weebly’s drag and drop website builder makes designing and building the website simple even for someone without a coding or computer science background. The Weebly website builder allows users to select an original website name, website components and website design elements.

The Lambda Pi Eta website could include all of the essential website elements through Weebly including a customized theme and layout

HOW TO CREATE THE WEBSITE

Creating the website using Weebly would be simple. It would require the user to have the information, photos and links they want to post to the website before creating the website. The user would then create a free Weebly account and decide on a free subdomain name for the website, such as umdlph.weebly.com.

ACCOUNT CREATION

The steps to creating a Weebly page are simple. First, the organization would need a Weebly account and then would need to select a domain name. The free subdomain names from Weebly include “.weebly.com” after the domain name selected by the user. The website name can later be upgraded to an actual domain name if the user chooses to register a new domain through Weebly or to import a domain name from another domain provider.

PAGE AND DESIGN SELECTION

13 Weebly features and information about creating the website is found at weebly.com.

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Weebly allows users to select the style and colors for their unique website. For Lambda Pi Eta’s website, the style should be a relatively simple style and a color scheme that matches the University of Maryland’s colors. An example of the layout, style and design is included later on.

In creating the website, users will need to select the title for each website page. Based off of the research from similar existing websites and website design trends14, the suggested page titles are as follows:

Home About Membership Events Executive Board Resources Contact

These basic pages can be expanded upon later with subpages; however, to start only the essential pages are necessary for the website’s preliminary format.

LAYOUT CREATION

Further, Weebly website builder’s drag and drop style is very user friendly. First, users can create each page that they want to include on the website. Then users select the elements to include on each page of the website. These elements include photos, slideshows, videos, PDFs, text, maps and contact forms.

Weebly allows many different types of content for websites, including the creation of contact pages. The contact page allows users to send in there contact information and questions or messages to the website owner.

PAGE CONTENT

The unique content needed on each of the seven pages is outlined below.

Home pageo This would include a picture of members at the most recent induction ceremony, a brief

description of the organization and a button for the membership application. About page

o This would include information about Lambda Pi Eta nationally, including a link to the national website, as well as information about Lambda Pi Eta’s mission and history.

Membership page

14 I referenced “The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide to Themes, Trends, and Styles in Website Design” when determining what design style to use for my website.

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o This would include a list of the membership requirements for joining LPH as well as the application due dates, application link and induction ceremony dates

Events pageo This would include a list of all of the upcoming events for LPH, particularly induction

ceremonies and general body meetings. Executive Board page

o This would include a list of all current members, their year, semester of induction and major(s). It would also include the bios and pictures for all of the officers.

Resources pageo This would include links to all of the information send out in emails. It would also have

links to the minutes taken at meetings as well as other LPH resources. Contact page

o This would include the contact information for the president and the advisor as well as the mailbox address for information.

WEBSITE OUTLINE

The website homepage for Lambda Pi Eta will include the website elements outlined in the preliminary website design. The elements of the homepage would be text introducing the organization, a group photo, a link to the membership application, the website title and the page headings.

The mockup design of the Lambda Pi Eta website15, shown to the right, created using Weebly includes all of the elements described above. The website is based off a collection of elements from the other websites researched in the process of creating this proposal.

BENEFITS

The website will enable Lambda Pi Eta to communicate more efficiently with current members and to make information more easily accessible for prospective members. The main benefit of the website will be improved communication to both prospective and current members. The website will hopefully improve the recruitment process for the organization in addition to promoting the organization to communication majors. Additionally, the website should assist in increasing member turnout for events because members will have an easy way to check when events are and where they have to go for them.

The website will also help make Lambda Pi Eta appear more professional to both current students and alumni. The website is just one of the first steps in improving the organization’s networking potential with alumni.

15 The mock website I designed for Lambda Pi Eta was created using Weebly.

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HOW TO PROMOTE THE WEBSITE

The key to having the website be useful to Lambda Pi Eta is to have people use the website. In order to get people to use the website people first need to know that the website exists. There are three key ways to promote the website.

The first way to promote the website is through the Department of Communication’s websites, blogs and listservs. The department can announce and feature the link to the new Lambda Pi Eta website on the homepage of the website. Additionally, the website could be linked and posted about on the undergraduate communication major blog run by Dr. Waks. The website link can also be send out on the various undergraduate communication major listservs, such as Julie Gowin’s internship listserv.

The website can also be promoted by department professors. LPH students can email the link to website to the professors of popular upper level communication courses, like COMM400, COMM401, COMM351 and others. Hopefully these communication professors could email out the link to the website and a short summary about the organization to their classes via Canvas. Additionally, LPH members could make announcements about the organization and the new website in their classes in addition to sending out Canvas messages about the website to their classmates. The hope would be that students would see the link and information about LPH and be intrigued by the honor society and then visit the website and apply for membership.

Finally, a last strategy for promoting the website is to utilize social media. A social media strategy is key to promoting the website because students need to be on the Internet to get to the website. If the link to the website is posted on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in related UMD undergraduate communication groups students will be more likely to click the links. LPH can reach out to the popular undergraduate communication student groups in the department, particularly PRSSA and UCA. If LPH could encourage PRSSA and UCA to promote the website through Facebook and Twitter posts on their accounts more students would get involved. Many communication students already follow these social media accounts and would be more likely to follow a link to something they post. Additionally, the College of Arts and Humanities and the Department of Communication could post about the new website and the opportunities in LPH on their social media accounts, particularly Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

MEASURING SUCCESS

In addition to promoting the website to students, another important benefit of the website is that you can monitor the site traffic. Weebly allows users to monitor site visits and data from their profile. This information will allow LPH to see how active their website is and how much website traffic they have each day. The website statistics feature allows Weebly users to see how much traffic their website gets each day and at what times. This information will be useful because it will allow LPH to evaluate whether or not the website is effective and being used. LPH can use the

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information provided through Weebly’s website statistics16 to see what strategies of posting the website link are most effective.

STUDENT POSITION

One key element of creating the website is that the purpose of the website is to provide members with updated information. In order to ensure the website information is always updated there will need to be a Lambda Pi Eta member in charge of the website. This person needs to be a current member and preferably someone who has experience editing and updating content on a professional website. The student does not to have a computer science or coding background if the website is created using Weebly.

The student position should be a new elected position on the Lambda Pi Eta executive board. This student would be elected by the current members and would then be responsible for updating the website with new information throughout the semester. The student would need to update the membership list and the due dates for the membership application. The student would need to ensure all of the event information on the website remained current throughout each semester.

By creating this student position, Lambda Pi Eta would ensure that the website would not get forgotten year to year. It would also ensure that the Lambda Pi Eta advisor would not get stuck managing the website after the student who creates the website graduates.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the website will be implemented this summer so that it can be used in the fall recruitment process for Lambda Pi Eta. A communication student, who is also a member of Lambda Pi Eta (hopefully an executive board member), should take ownership of the website design project over the summer so that the website can be created and tested over the summer. The goal is to have a website go live before the fall 2014 recruitment process begins.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Mello, Brad, and Justin Danowski. Lambda Pi Eta Advisor Handbook. N.p.: National

Communication Association, 2013.

2. "Department of Communication.” UMD Department of Communication. University of

Maryland, 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.

3. Lambda Pi Eta Flyer. University of Maryland. January 2014. (see appendix)

16 Weebly can show a chart similar to this one for a website you have created.

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4. “Weebly.”Weebly.com. N.p. 2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

5. Casel, Brian. "40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners." Mashable. N.p., 23

July 2010. Web. 13 May 2014.

6. "Omicron Delta Kappa // Sigma Circle." Omicron Delta Kappa Sigma Circle. WordPress, 5 May

2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

7. "Primannum Honor Society." Primannum Honor Society. University of Maryland, 2013. Web.

12 May 2014.

8. "Home." Pi Sigma Alpha: Alpha Zeta Chapter. UMD Department of Government & Politics,

2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

9. "UMD PRSSA." UMD PRSSA. N.p., 2014. Web. 13 May 2014.

10. "USC Lambda Pi Eta." USC Lambda Pi Eta. University of Southern California, 20 Feb. 2014.

Web. 12 May 2014.

11. "Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society." -School of Communication and Journalism, College of Liberal

Arts, Auburn University. Auburn University, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

12. "Lambda Pi Eta." Baylor University || Department of Communication ||. Baylor University,

2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

13. “Features.” Weebly.com N.p. 2014. Web. 12 May 2014.

14. McNeil, Patrick. The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide to Themes, Trends, and

Styles in Website Design. Cincinnati, Ohio: HOW Books, 2008. Print.

15. “UMD Lambda Pi Eta.” Umdlph.weebly.com. N.p. 2014. Web. 12 May. 2014

APPENDIX

1. University of Maryland 2014 Lambda Pi Eta Flyer, see next page.

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