posted on Thursday, February 09, 2006 7:56 PM
by
Alberto Fonseca
Webmaster
Here is some information for those interested in running for the
Webmaster officer position. You can also refer to the SHPE Constitution
available online
here.
Responsibilities:
Maintain and update the SHPE website at least weekly to highlight
upcoming events and make updates to the events calendar. Additionally, the
Webmaster is responsible for maintaining user accounts, eg. disabling
old accounts, creating new accounts for members when they join SHPE,
and creating alumni accounts. Maintenance of both Officer and Member
blogs includes creating new blog accounts for members as well as
disabling inactive blogs. The Webmaster also maintains the Forums,
creating new discussion groups as needed. This position works closely
with the Historian who manages the Photo Gallery section of the
website.
Contribution to SHPE:
This position offers the officer a great opportunity to interact with
most everyone on the board throughout the year. You'll help promote
events on the website that the other officers are responsible for as
well as working closely with the president and coming up with ideas to
keep the website content compelling for it's members. This position
offers you the opportunity to not only build your resume (It's on my
resume and have talked about it at interviews) but also to put USC-SHPE
on the map as we did this year at NTCC. As the webmaster you help
provide value for paying members as they have access to exclusive
discussion groups which foster community amonst SHPE members.
Challenge:
SHPE-USC has won the NTCC 2006 Website competition and I would like to
see this become a new tradition for our organization. This places upon
the webmaster the responsbility to enter the yearly contest and make
any necessary modifications to the site to win the competition. This
takes some planning and hard work as you'll have to make design and
technology decisions that will not only fit the timeline for the
contest but make our website stand out from the rest. Entering the
competition is not without it's own
rewards which includes national recognition at NTCC (with accompanying
job offers) as well as a $1000 award which I received this year.
What I learned:
I learned that part of the experience of being a webmaster is not just
technical but one that also helps you develop communication and
leadership skills more than I realized. You'll have to encourage member
participation in the online community, which includes educating members
about web technology as needed. According to our statement of
values
SHPE exists to "improve the equality of all people through the use of
science and technology" and this task isn't always easy. Even as
engineers, we are sometimes hesitant to try new things and it becomes a
challenge to involve everyone in the process. But the importance of
reaching this equality as Hispanics in engineering is both very
motivating and satisfying.
I would definitely suggest to anyone interested in this position to
run. Although a great fit for CS or CECS majors, any major would do
well and no experience is necessary. You can ask Marisa who encouraged
me to run for this position, I had no experience doing this before I
started. Just the desire to learn, contribute, and grow along with the
rest of the board will make you a successful webmaster.