Fresh NMN website features new nameplate.

National Masters News has been a part of our lives since 1977. In print. Its online portal quietly surfaced around 1999. Over the years, the website has gotten pretty unpretty. Too old-school and messy. Recently, the site got a refresh. Now it matches the slick, glossy magazine it promotes. Nice job. But as a USATF-subsidized media outlet, NMN should do more than list how to subscribe, renew and buy All-American Athlete gear. It should share news. Yeah, I know we already have a USATF Masters official website, but it’s basically useless. It never fulfilled my hopes. But with so much happening in our sport, NMN can serve as a resource beyond my daily rant. At the least, it should post selected columns, enticing more print readers. And how about a blog for publishers Amanda and Tish? I’d love to hear their takes!

NMN website in its first year (left) and in recent, overly cluttered, incarnation.

In 2009, my old co-webmaster Dave Clingan wrote a wish list for USATFmasters.org. I’d like to see its mission revisited.

USATF MASTERS WEB SITE REPORT

Submitted By Dave Clingan 10/14/09

APPROVAL & SITE CONSTRUCTION:
During the sixth month period of January – June of 2009, I designed and implemented a comprehensive masters track and field website for the USATF Masters Track & Field Committee. The site was based on the content and functional design which was presented in great detail and approved by the masters committee at the 2007 USATF annual meeting in Honolulu, HI.

The terms of compensation for web design and implementation of the site were approved by the USATF masters chair and executive committee in 2008 and included in the 2009 budget. The site was constructed under the guidance and supervision of the masters website committee chair, Jeff Brower.

SITE REVIEWS & FEEDBACK:
On February 8, 2009, a very preliminary version of the website was presented via email to Gary Snyder and Jeff Brower. Based on positive feedback from Gary, work continued on the site. In Mid-June, the nearly completed website was presented to all the MTF Region Coordinators and Subcommittee Chairs. Feedback from those individuals was incorporated into the website.

On June 28, 2009 the new website was presented to an ad hoc committee for intensive review and feedback. The committee consisted of Ken Stone, Becky Sisley, Andrew Hecker, Jeff Brower and Randy Sturgeon. The comments received from this review process were favorable and suggestions made were incorporated into the design. (A few suggestions are yet to be implemented).

In July, 2009, the website was discussed at the MTF Executive Committee meeting in Oshkosh, WI. The website was approved and endorsed by the Executive Committee. Mike McNees, USATF Chief Operating Officer, attended that meeting and arranged an additional meeting with me in Oshkosh. We met and agreed to move forward with implementation of the website, pending some issues and concerns that Mike identified regarding the format and hosting of the site.

On August 11, 2009 a conference call occurred between me, Mike and Katie Landry, the USATF webmaster. We agreed on the concept of integrating the masters website into the USATF website framework. My concerns were expressed and heard, namely that the adaptation of the masters site into the USATF format retains the purpose, content, navigation and functionality of the masters website and will enable the MTF webmaster to directly and independently edit all aspects of the masters site in the future.

Katie agreed to take two sample pages from the website and adapt them to the USATF format, in order to demonstrate and evaluate the feasibility of this approach. As of October 14, 2009, this task has not been accomplished.

PROJECT STATUS:

The masters track & field website is currently on hold, pending the following:
1) USATF incorporates the new masters site into the USATF website in a way that satisfies our needs and expectations, OR accepts the website as-is and approves the site for immediate release to the masters track & field community.
2) Payment of $4500.00 is received by me for work accomplished in 2009.
3) A written contract is established for future work and payment on the website.

MAINTENANCE WORK TO BE DONE IN 2010:

1) Update news page with current newsworthy events
2) Codify email addresses to prevent web spiders from gleaning spammable addresses
3) Update Region and Subcommittee pages with latest (2009) annual reports
4) Create blogs for any MTF officer or committee chair who wants one

DESCRIPTION OF NEW MASTERS T&F WEB SITE FEATURES

The new masters website has designed to meet the needs of the USATF Masters Track and Field Committee and all athletes seeking information about the sport of masters track and field. The following features are provided by the website:

SPECIFICITY

This website contains extensive information of interest to masters athletes, administrators and organizations, and does not contain unrelated information or advertising.

EASE OF NAVIGATION

This website makes a vast amount of information about masters track and field readily available. It provides, in most cases, three-click access (or less) to any particular information sought by the user. The site is divided into seven major topic headings, each of which contains a display of subordinate choices to lead the user to increasingly specific information. The seven major headings appear on all web pages and are therefore are always available for selection. Subtopics are generally displayed in a sidebar to the right. Primer frames (“About such and such”) appear on many pages as background introduction to a topic, to be covered in greater detail elsewhere on the page.
A site map lists every page on the entire website, and a search engine provides access to desired information via key words typed in by the user.

PORTABILITY
With the exception of the home pages, all web pages on the site are encoded in basic html. They are easily modified using a web editing program, so that extensive internet design experience is not required to edit or maintain the website.

CONTENT DEPTH & BREADTH

This website covers the gamut of information to interest to masters athletes and administrators. For athletes, there is a comprehensive A to Z index, which contains 27 different of topics of interest. For administrators, or anyone interested in organizational aspects of the sport, there is a comprehensive governance section. The web incorporates over 100 internal and external web pages to broadly and extensively cover all aspects of the sport.

MULTI-LEVELED UTILITY

This website will satisfy the needs of users ranging from individuals with no previous exposure to the sport to those with extensive experience or familiarity. A section entitled “Getting Started” is aimed specifically at the curious browser who may be totally new to masters track and field. The objective is to provide basic information which will pique the users interest and promote the sport at the grass roots level.

BLOGS

This website contains blogs for masters track and field administrators who are interested in communicating directly with athletes. A blog will be provided to any MTF official or administrator who requests one.

NEWS
The site contains headlines of recent news events pertaining to masters track and field. The headlines are linked to various news sources for the complete news story, and are updated on a regular basis as newsworthy events occur.

TIMELINESS

The website will be updated no less than weekly, to insure that content is kept up-to-date. Each December, following the USATF annual meeting, a substantial update of the Governance section will occur to include all decisions and reports produced in conjunction with the meeting. News will be updated on a regular basis. All links will be checked quarterly to insure that linked websites are still viable.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The webmaster accepts full responsibility for the website, its content and accuracy, under the direction of the Chair of the Masters Track and Field Committee and the Chair of the MTF website committee. The webmaster will respond to all comments, suggestions, questions, etc generated by users of the website.

COSTS

Development and design: $4500
On-going maintenance/webmaster: $1000 quarterly (every 3 months)