Kentucky-Tennessee Society of American Foresters

Annual Report - 2001

Membership Information Committee - Newsletter

Four issues of the KTSAF newsletter were prepared and copies sent to all

KTSAF members, SAF officers in all state societies and at the national

level, and newsletter editors of other state societies. Newsletters

contained all material that was submitted by KTSAF members for publication.

Membership Information Committee - K-T SAF Web Site

Use of K-T SAF's Web Site continues to grow. However, it is not clear how much of this use is by K-T Members. There are currently only minimal amounts of material being provided to the web developer for inclusion on the web site, resulting in most of the "K-T SAF News" material being biased either to East TN regional information or national issues covered by the Knoxville-area papers.

CD Archives have been produced that document the status of the web site as of July 2001, November 2001, and January 2002. A budget request has been submitted for $450 ($240 for web hosting; $70 for domain name renewal; and $140 for software & misc. expenses).

According to the site statistics reports, monthly use of the site in terms of "sessions served" climbed from around 1000 in September to over 2000 in December. Statistics prior to September are unavailable.

In July of 2001 our web hosting provider abruptly went out of business without any notice or explanation. As a result, our service was interrupted for about a month or so. Near the end of August, a new provider picked up their accounts and resumed service. A search of some of the current service providers has revealed that there may be better options available, thus we may be switching to yet another service provider this Spring. Any such change should not provide any problems with accessing the site, however, and would only be done if it can improve the management of our web site.

Suggestions for improvements to the site for the upcoming year include increasing our exposure by listing it on various search engines and expanding the "Members Only" section. A critical need exists for greater involvement by K-T members in providing materials for inclusion on the site (such as local news issues, requests for input, meeting announcements, etc.), and encouragement by local chapters to their members to use the site as a source of updated information. In this regard, I would like to request that each Chapter Chair nominate someone from their group to serve as an "information contact", responsible for collecting news from their area and sending it to me for inclusion on the web. I would also appreciate any other help or suggestions anyone would like to provide about how we can improve our web site.

Submitted By: John Rennie (jrennie@utk.edu); 865-971-7126) & Mark Young (jmyoung@utk.edu; 865-483-3571)

Date: January 23, 2002