FMS - The Fluorescent Mineral Society

The FMS is website is entering a new phase of development. It will soon be coordinated by a committee of FMS volunteers and administered by
stakeholders. Now is the time to step forward if you have any interest in the direction that the FMS will be heading with future site changes.

Dick Shields has volunteered to take over responsibilities as admin, but the task is not a simple one. This is an SOS call for help with various tasks of
the web project.

When I volunteered over 12 years ago to create the FMS website, I was taking a break from high tech startups and had lots more time on my hands. Expectations for a website nowadays are much higher, and the recent focus on accelerated development of the FMS website has created demands well beyond my current availability. The remaining time I have to offer is already shrinking, and I look forward to handing over all responsibilities for the site in the coming months. That makes this a very key moment, and I am hopeful that our most skilled and web-savvy members will join in to ensure the survival of the FMS website.

Technically, this website is a open-source fusion of Drupal-6 and Gallery-2, both based on php and mysql. Anyone with html experience is invited, but even that is not necessary for content development. More pressing needs are for volunteers with 'nix shell skills for updating the modules, and php scripting ability to turn Drupal's database content into nice presentations of listings of members, dealers, and public exhibits (already compiled).

The FMS will be moving away from managed spam filtering and email forwarding for its officers, perhaps simplified by using Google Apps for email hosting. Setting up a new opt-in email list for FMS members (and committees) might offer better communication than the current forum. Anyone?

Diplomatic and patient volunteers are needed with skills in customer support, and also writing online tutorials if FMS members and visitors are to fully utilize any advanced features of the website.

The CSS driving the look and feel is all encapsulated within the Drupal "theme", so further customization means finding (or hiring) someone who
can cherry-pick the best features of the many thousands of Drupal themes available, and integrate them into a new custom FMS theme.

The current site has the foundations of everything that the FMS has asked for - and then some. Drupal is now the most popular dynamic Content
Management System, expandable with dozens of contributed modules. There are calendar and event modules installed, but not fully implemented. File search modules need debugging, too, for finding gems in the online UVWaves. An interesting extension called "Organic Groups" might be a good fit for the new Chapter reorganization of the FMS. A Content Construction Kit is useful for customized data fields, and is the foundation of the new (and still invisible) listings.

The FMS wants to move forward with making items available for sale, and some modules are available for interfacing with shopping carts and merchant services like Paypal, but it will require planning, integration, and maintenance.

Contrarily, Drupal is not the only option, and the website committee will consider whether to revert to a more traditional static site redesign
presumably requiring less skilled maintenance (and cheaper hosting).

The task of managing a modern website will encompass knowledge of security issues, respect for member privacy, and quick response to issues as they arise. Shared responsibility will hopefully ensure that the FMS presents itself in a respectable manner without being dependent on any individual.

Opening up the development process to more members will hopefully generate even more interest in getting projects rolling such as the Henkel glossary and a geolocation database for finding members and fluorescent minerals.

The current site is already designed to be collaborative, and now is the time for any and all volunteers to participate in the planning sessions of
the FMS website committee.

Sincerely,
Ed Anderson - FMS web ad-visor