Czech and Slovak Association of WA

In Western Australia we have a rich multi cultural society and when people choose to settle their lives in this country it doesn’t mean abandonment of their own culture. Such is the case of the Czech and Slovak Association of Western Australia. It had its beginnings in the 1950’s with some of the first post war migrants from the Czech Slovak region and has kept alive the rich traditions of the Czech and Slovak communities. They celebrate their heritage and share their culture and wanted a website as a hub for their members and for a place that new migrants could feel welcomed.

Challenges

There was a need for the website to have multi layers and functions and for everything on the website to be available in 3 languages. This website was funded by Lotterywest and the Czech Slovak Association committee met with us to delve in depth of what they wanted this new site to be. It was to bring together information, history, memberships with payments, events with a booking system, promotion of language and education, publishing of their regular magazine as well as encourage involvement in other vital parts of their organisation.

It was a long list but we were excited for the challenge and required much consultation and planning.

Evolution

One of the challenges was to make the website multi-lingual for English, Czech and Slovak languages. The option chosen was to install a plugin that would switch the pages between languages. A mixture of client given translation and Google translate was used.

A fun feature was created on the home page with the association magazine brought online and displayed as a flip book for easier and fun naviagtion. A library of past issues in tht same format was compiled on a dedicated Klokan page ensuring historical and accessible preservation for the community.

Automation of membership was requested. Members could now sign up online, membership fees collected and a subscroiption style membership initiated so fees were collected automatically annually. An important time saver and more efficient process for the committee.

Result

The completion of the Czech Slovak website was a celebration for the association who had been without a website for years after it had finally ceased to function. As is often the case with voluntary organisations lack of funds can mean a website is hobbled together on a shoestring regularly resulting in a site that does not do the job hoped for or required. The CSA members were thrilled to have a site that now does it all and has our ongoing support when they need to undertand how their site works and how to edit it.

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