Downloads Web Page

Sponsored by GWRRA PA District

What is the Downloads Web Page?

The Downloads Web Page is a site on the Internet that provides a procedure for Chapters to distribute newsletter and flyers electronically. There are two components to the Downloads Web Page. The first component is the listing of published documents. Documents that have been received are published on the Downloads Web Page in Adobe and Word format, along with a Web version. Anyone that has access to the Web can retrieve these documents. The second component is the Notification List. The Notification List includes all individuals who would typically have an interest in receiving the documents. The Notification List includes officers from each Chapter, newsletter editors, safety educators, District officers and Regional Officers. The Notification List also includes Chapter members who would like to have access to the newsletters and flyers. Each time a document is published on the Downloads Web Page, each individual on the Notification List receives an email telling them the document is available for review. With this process, we can provide timely distribution of printed material.

Why should chapters participate?

The objective of this process is to reduce costs and increase availability of documents that are prepared and distributed by each of the chapters and the District. There are a number of reasons why this is a good idea. Chapter PAU will be used as an example.

Money: By using this process, Chapter PAU now distributes forty (40) newsletters electronically that otherwise would be mailed to GWRRA officers, other Chapter officers and Chapter PAU members. The annul cost to produce and mail a newsletter is approximately $9.50. Therefore the savings for Chapter PAU is approximately $400 per year. Multiplying that savings by 24 Chapters, the potential savings is $9,600 per year.
Time: In Chapter PAU's case, they have reduced the number of newsletters that need to be printed, collated, folded, stuffed, stamped and mailed by almost 40%. Tell your newsletter editor that his/her production time for distributing the newsletter will be reduced by 40% and see if they get excited.
Timely Distribution: We can notify any number of people in any Chapter that the newsletter from another chapter is available. This will save each Chapter from passing around the newsletters to each of the officers, rider education officer, etc.
Availability: By posting all newsletters and flyers in a single location, people will know where to get the documents when they need them. Those individuals who typically do not receive newsletters from other Chapters will now have access to them.
Remove Duplication: When a stack of chapter newsletters is reviewed, what becomes readily apparent is that there is a significant amount of duplication in each newsletter, namely District, Region and National News. Assume that each chapter publishes two pages of GWRRA news in their newsletter every month. If each chapter then sends every other chapter a newsletter every month, over the course of a year, we will have sent each other over 12,000 pages of GWRRA news. With this process, we can download each newsletter and then only print the pages that are relevant.
Virus Protection: One of the problems with sending and receiving things through the Internet is the possibility of getting a virus on your PC. Since running the Downloads Web Page, there have been four instances where viruses have been discovered in email attachments from GWRRA members. All documents published on Downloads Web Page are scanned for viruses before they are published.

Some chapters are already using the Web and email to distribute their newsletters. They should be commended for this because they are already improving access and saving money. However, this process can still be advantageous to those Chapters. One of the major complaints of sending newsletters by email is that it takes a long time to download the documents and the recipient does not know it is coming. The recipient checks his/her email only to find a five minute delay because a newsletter is being downloaded. This process addresses that in two ways. First, the size of the documents on the Downloads Web Page tend to be smaller. Because we convert the documents to an Adobe format, the published files may be 25% of the size of a typical word processing document, so transfer times will be significantly reduced. Second, with this process the recipient, and not the sender, will determine when to tie up the PC. We do not send the document directly to the recipient, but rather a short email notification indicating the document is available. The email notification is short, so it takes less time to transfer, and then the recipient retrieves the document when it is convenient.

How does this process work?

To activate this process for your Chapter, four steps are necessary.

Prepare your newsletter or flyer using some computer program; e.g. Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, CorelDraw, PrintMaster, etc. Every attempt will be made to publish any document format. Publishing documents using Microsoft technology have been most successful.
Submit your document for publication on the Downloads Web Page. Documents can be submitted by email to the Web Page Coordinator at jimmc@adelphia.net or jcm@nb.net. If the documet is too large for email, then we can provide an alternate transfer method. Once the document has been received, it will be published on the Downloads Web Page within 24 hours. Unless there are technical difficulties, all documents will be published as received.
Check the Notification List to see who will be receiving an email notice from the Downloads Web Page. If there are people that should be receiving notices from you Chapter who are not on the list, then submit their names to be included on the Notification List. Remember, participants on the Notification List receive notification of all published documents, not just your Chapter’s documents.
Prepare an email notice to all those people who should receive your documents who are not already on the Notification List. This would typically be Chapter members, sponsors, etc. Your notification should link to the Downloads Web Page using http://www.gotomra.com/gwrra/default.asp as the address.

Who should be on the Notification List?

Every time a document is published on the Downloads Web Page, an email notice is sent to every individual on the Notification List. Therefore, only individuals who want to receive a notice for every Chapter’s documents should be included on the list. However, anyone can be placed on the list simply by submitting their name, email address and GWRRA affiliation. Typically officers, newsletter editors and safety educators should be included.

Who can submit documents for publication?

Any Chapter, District or Region that is affiliated with GWRRA may submit articles for publication. The documents published must pertain to events and/or activities sponsored by GWRRA or its affiliates.

How well is the Downloads Web Page working?

Since its inception in mid-July, there have been over 500 documents published on the Downloads Web Page. There are currently 127 people on the Notification List and eighteen Chapters are submitting newsletters for publication. There have been over 15,000 visits to the Web Page since its inception.

Check out the Downloads Web Page at http://www.gotomra.com/gwrra/