How to create a Club/Society website

This guide has been created to support you in creating a website for your club or society. The guide includes information on pages you might like to create, and hints & tips on how to best utilise your website for your members or supporters.

• Introduction
• Layout Template
• About Us
• Committee
• Club Fees/ Membership
• Groups
• Documentation
• Coaching
• Tournaments
• Booking
• Members area
• Gallery
• News
• Events
• Hints and Tips
• Email Alerts
• Social Media Integration
• Domain Name
• We are here to help!

Layout Template:

About Us

The About Us page can include information on your club or society. This information can include the history of your group and general information, such as how many members you have or what the club has to offer (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Alton Tennis Club - About Us

Comittee

Depending on the structure of your club/society you may have a committee including trustees. You can have a page that includes their information in order for members and potential future members to get in touch with them (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Oakley Bowling Club – Club Officers

Club Fees/ Membership

You can include a page on how potential members can join your club or society. This page could include information about club or membership fees and information on the process of joining (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Lordsfield Swimming Club - Membership

You can add a form onto this page; this will allow you to collect membership information and requests (Figure 4). The forms can either be emailed directly to you, or you can link your Google Drive account to HugoFox; this will means that all membership requests will go into a folder of your choice in your Google Drive.

At HugoFox we are in the process of adding a payment system, this means that you will be able to accept membership money via your HugoFox website.

Figure 4: Membership Form

Groups

If your club/society has multiple groups then you can create a page for all of the groups. This can include sub-pages for each specific group (Figure 5). Creating sub-pages for each group means that your website will remain clean, organised and easy to navigate for visitors.

You can also create a link between your main page and the sub pages; this is done through creating a hyperlink to the sub-page.

Figure 5: Fernwood Residents Association - Working Groups

Documentation

Your club/society may have codes of conduct, meeting minutes and agendas. You can have a page for these needs.

Some clubs/societies have a strict code of conduct; it would be beneficial to your members and potential members to have this information available for everyone to see in an easy to find location.

You can easily upload all of your documents using the Attachment content block (Figure 6).

Figure 6: How to upload a document

Coaching

If your club/society offers any coaching or training of some kind, you can create a separate page for it. This means that new members searching to join can see what support your club/society offers to beginners and more experienced individuals (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Alton Tennis Club - Coaching

Tournaments

At HugoFox we have just developed a new Tournaments Content Block that we think you will love. You will be able to create a variety of tournaments styles (round-robin, league, knockout and double elimination). This new feature has been created to be as simple as possible, but still with the ability for you to create detailed tournaments (Figure 8 & 9).

Figure 8: Creating a Tournament

Figure 9: Creating a Tournament

Booking

We are in the process of developing a new booking system on HugoFox. This will enable your members and supporters to book your rooms or courts.

Here is a preview of what the new booking content block will look like (Figure 10).

Figure 10: New Booking Content Block

Members area

We have developed a new Members area. Simply link your Google Calendar to your HugoFox page (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Linking your Google Calendar to you HugoFox account

You can then create a members area that people can only access if you give them a password (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Members area

The Members area will show the calendar of your choice; enabling your members to view and upload events in private – without a long email chain! (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Members area

Gallery

You can add a Gallery in order to showcase your club/society or your local area (Figure 14).

You can add photos from recent events or general pictures from around your club/society.

Figure 14: Gallery of Photos from Droxford Village Community

News

The news page is added automatically as soon as your website goes live and you add a news story. It is important to keep this section of your website updated. You can create, edit and update your news articles from your Website & Listings page (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Website & Listings - News

When your article is published people who have signed up to your Email Alerts will automatically receive a copy. Your News article will also be shared on the HugoFox News page: this means you will be able to reach a wider audience.

Figure 16: Alton Tennis Club - News

Events

Similarly to the news page, the events page is automatically added onto your website when your website goes live and you add an event and can be accessed from you Website & Listings page (Figure 17).

Figure 17: Website & Listings - Events

It is easy to keep your events page updated; the events page automatically deletes old posts when the event has passed. This means that you don’t have to remember to remove old events which will keep your website up to date. Figure 18 shows what your Events page will look like.

Figure 18: Alton Tennis Club - Events

Not only will all of your events appear on your website, they will also be listed on the local events page and emails to people who have signed up to Email Alerts. Have a look online to see the events going on in your area – HugoFox Events.

Hints and Tips:

Email Alerts

It’s important to get all of your existing members to sign up for email alerts. This means that instead of updating your website and then creating an email newsletter you can send all that information via HugoFox; this will make sure all your members are constantly up to date with club/society news and activities. Events and News items will automatically be sent to people who have signed up for email alerts. Figure 19 and 20 show how easy it is for visitors to sign up to Email Alerts.

Figure 19: Email Alerts

Figure 20: How to set up Email Alerts

Social Media Integration

Your HugoFox account includes Social Media integration. This means that you can link all of your social media accounts (Twitter & Facebook etc) to your HugoFox account.

When you have uploaded all of your social media accounts, they will appear as easy to click links on all of your HugoFox pages (Figure 21).

Figure 21: Your social media on HugoFox

You can also integrate all of your social media accounts into your HugoFox account (Figure 22). This will enable you to create a news article or event and have it automatically post to your Facebook and Twitter accounts; saving you time as you only have to upload it once.

Figure 22: Linking you Social Media accounts to HugoFox

To ensure full social media integration you can place your new website URL onto all of your social media accounts; this means all of your web presence will be easily linked together.

For more online support, please like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and have a look at a variety of videos on our YouTube page.

Domain Name

With your HugoFox account you can keep your original domain name or create a new one. This gives your website a more official and professional feel and also makes you even easier for people to find you in search engine results.

It is completely free to have your own domain name on HugoFox; however you will need to register with a domain hosting company (which has a small fee). We recommend using 123Reg and we have created a domain guides page to support you in creating your own domain name.

Lots of clubs and societies have their own domain name on HugoFox – have a look at the Overton Football Club for an example.

We are here to help!

We hope this guide has given you some ideas, hints and tips to get started creating your club/society page.

If you require any support or advice now or in the future, please visit our Help & Support Page. If you require additional support please do not hesitate to get in touch via team@hugofox.com.

We wish you all the future success with your web presence!