Question : Is your Sports Society website neglected because the members use Facebook?

Answer : Yes
But there is an alternative from NJR Partnership.  We have developed a simple to administer website specially for sports clubs, brass bands and other voluntary groups that features all the interactivity of social network sites but within the private and moderated area of your own website.

The security starts with the web site registration which is only possible if the applicant has the correct password supplied by the site administrator i.e. club secretary.  When a registration is received it can be accepted or denied.  All members activities are moderated and can be blocked.

 Once registered the User has their own home "profile" page where they can quickly navigate to

• photo galleries (both private and public) - with image tagging options
• a members chat forum
• members internal instant messaging service
• real time shout-box
• each member can have a private blog page - the chairman's or team captain's blogs can be made public.

Question : What advantages does a private club website have over a Club Face-book page ?

Answer : Many

1. New members are not asking to join a club via a private invitation only face book club page.  All clubs need a separate identity on the web.
2. The networking functions are all part of the wider social web but within the closed environment of a private area of your club site; the perfect place for younger players to learn web DOs and DON'Ts about uploading silly photos and making potentially offensive comments on-line.
3. For the more organized club it is possible to have a Project Coaching zone which is restricted to coaches and individuals.  Training tasks and milestones are set and progress monitored.

Question : It sounds great but won't it be too expensive for a not for profit club

Fortunately, the majority of the work (testing components, server configuration, club site map design etc) has been completed and can be applied to a new web site.  This work has been done once and NJR Partnership understand that times are hard and is making this developed project available for a nominal charge.

So sports clubs and other societies have the option to upgrade their web site to a state-of-the-art 100% Content Management System. The key feature of this offer include :

• unlimited pages and content on the club site
• public area – club news, history sponsors page etc.
• All your current site content moved to a new database driven site
• A members area (for team sheets, private notices and many social web functions
• A committee only section
• e-mail accounts for all club committee members.
• The site template modified to your club colours
• The site can be updated easily from any Internet connection

The options for additional features are almost unlimited. NJR Partnership has tested and used many Joomla extensions in production sites and can give your club site

• face-book integration – people can write comments about your web site articles to their Facebook accounts
• RSS feeds for your club news
• a private chat forum or comments blog (restricted to registered members)
• RSS Aggregator that converts external RSS feeds to content for your site.

The hosting service includes :

• Skype internet message / chat support to help with real time website development
• regular updates and upgrades of the joomla core website and components
• a weekly back-up of your site

 Contact NJR Partnership for a quotation for your club, group or society.

Photo of brass band by permission of Little Red Star Photography