Initial Lionspride Site History

 

LIONSPRIDE SITE HISTORY
 

Hello LIONS! I wrote this initial history of our site  below based on some discussions in our Message Forum the 23-27 week of March 2009.  :> Mrs. Terry 'Tez' Nunnally Gutman  

Earlier in the Message Forum we spoke of the development of this site ..... Many of you have recently shared exactly what I was thinking and feeling as I faced the aftermaths of brain aneurysm strokes, brain surgeries, and subsequent disability retirement. I felt extremely lonely and wanted a circle of friends...

I first reached out to my Baker Class of 73 as 2008 was our 35 Year Reunion. Needed a reunion website – searched the web - found several but decided to “test” www.classcreator.com. I was extremely WOW'D! AND at that time it was FREE except for the $19 per year domain cost. The website, via interactive-like video, walked me through creating an “individually styled” website. I was thrilled! (My background: 15 years as a Systems Analyst at Ft. Benning, GA – launched via an intern program).

I answered questions to configure the site to the “style” I was looking for. Once the website “sketch” was in place, I purchased the Domain name www.bakerlions73.com and went to work learning how to use the system/site. There wasn't much material at that stage of Classcreator to learn from but lots of OJT and TRIAL&ERROR and asking questions does wonders for learning! PIONEERING! Is fun! I configured and customized a lot from the sketch – added Plug-in Programs, input all 73 classmate data available at the time and invited 73ers to join the site..... Wow! We used the site for Reunion preparations: organize, monitor, receive reunion payment, show off photos, etc.... Great!

WWW.BakerLionsPride.com :   Reggie Liparoto Richards '73 approached me with “Hey, we need a way to centralize Baker High School information. The info about selling the school and about memorials is coming in and going out in all directions. Folks are getting confused....” I responded ... “Well, Reg..we could create an ALL CLASS website for this AND it will also be an opportunity for LIONS to, once again, get together and “Fellowship” together!” “YES! DO IT!, says Reggie....

I proceeded with similar steps as I did with the 73 website except this site would be a Multi-Year website! I had to configure a bit differently and ask lots of questions. Believe other High Schools around the world must have done the same because later in 2008 Classcreator re-programmed the web software to make it much easier to accommodate Multi-Year sites.

Classcreator now has a Help Forum for Site Administrators that helps tremendously for “staying on the edge” of technology and learning from “Lesson Learned” from other sites. Of course, we still have to implement the technology or “lessons learned” using our knowledge and experience.

I worked on customizing the site AND establishing Classmate Administrators and later in this time frame Admin Assistants (thanks to Bob Hight for this idea!) to assist with providing SITE SERVICE TO BAKER LIONS!!!! Now Gini is the main Home Page customizer – in fact she is the Home Page Administrator! {Since Jun 2010, Gini is no longer an administrator - we miss her!}

I searched around to discover points of contact for Baker Class Years to find LION CLASSMATE DATA! Good “networking” throughout the “Lions Pride” community – started tallying-up "points of contact" names; signing them up; they either had or reached out in their “class community” to get class lists or sent emails out to their classmate email distrbution lists inviting them to the new website. Myself and others went out to Classmates.com and introduced/invited Baker Classmates to join LIONSPRIDE! We've looked for every avenue available to provide a MAP back to LION COUNTRY for BAKER LIONS!

Paula Gross Lamm '74 encouraged us to Mirror the first Baker website www.baker.hs.org! Thanks Paula and Bob! Bob Hight still leads this project and his team of Admin Assistants and some of the Classmate Administrators have accomplished much in inputting almost all Classes 45-79 LIONS registered in the first BAKER website. Their next “Plan of Action” is to input Classes 80 - 94! Thanks to Bob Brown '65 and the Class of 65 - the first Baker site has much data archived and retrievable to the new site. Heavy workload to copy it over to LIONSPRIDE but nothing LIONS can't handle!!!! :>

Janurary 2009 Classcreator.com determined they needed to begin charging subscription fees for the web software, technical support, and server usage. The Baker Alumni Association, LEO, Lambda Epsilon Omega voted unanimously to pay for a $349.00 5 year subscription from LEO funds. Wow! Thanks LEO! This amount was paid on 26 Feb 09 and the subscription is in effect until Feb 2014. Let's all become a member of LEO! More info to follow soon on how...

ROAR ON MIGHTY LIONS!!!