Report of the communications committee chair re https://casdwacr.wordpress.com/

CASDW-ACR WordPress.com blog has 1 administrator (Amanda), who controls the design and formatting of the site, and 3 active editors (Doug, Roger, Margaret Procter), all of whom can add and edit posts. The site has had over 10,400 views since its creation in 2011, but only 28 comments. So while it’s working well as an information source, members aren’t yet using it much to comment on posts or initiate discussions.

At last year’s AGM, it was moved that all information from the legacy sites be moved to the new site, and the old sites be closed down. Materials on the old U of Manitoba site are still accessible via the “CASDW-ACR Archives” menu: https://casdwacr.wordpress.com/casdwacr-archives/ It is possible to transfer everything to the current site by creating new WordPress pages, copying each of the archive site pages as HTML or source-version, then pasting those contents into each WordPress page. These pages then have to be assigned to a menu on our CASDW site.

None of this is hard; some of the old materials has already been converted. However, it is time-consuming as long as we’re still using the free blog-style version of WordPress (wordpress.com). The free version also limits us to certain templates and font styles.

The domain name casdw-acr.ca has been renewed for 2012 – 2014 (a domain name has to be renewed periodically).

A motion was also passed that CASDW convert the test site to a permanent site. If this means converting the site from wordpress.com to wordpress.org (as Inkshed has done), then I recommend CASDW considering contracting the person who created the Inkshed site. At that point, it may be possible to import everything from the U of M site en masse and discontinue linking to the U of M site.

I’m happy to continue as the administrator of our current wordpress.com site as long as needed and to help with the transition to a wordpress.org site if CASDW wants to go that route.

~Amanda Goldrick-Jones