New IOS Website
For the last few months, the website committee has been hard at work to deliver a new website for the Society and prospective members alike, with member feedback at the forefront in planning for new content. Our new website was created to reflect the vibrancy of the Society, make it easy to plan for upcoming meetings, provide orchid growing guidance from IOS experts, and share photos of orchids in bloom from our monthly meetings and orchid shows.
Here are some highlights:
The home page features important reminders, provides information about upcoming meetings, and summarizes news items that are of interest to members.
About features an overview of who we are and what we do, along with links to the past monthly newsletters for members only. The latest newsletter will continue to be sent via email to members monthly.
News is a listing of the articles on the website that have been written for members. The most recent three articles are featured on the home page.
Events is a list of all upcoming events of interest to members, including our monthly meetings and Chicago Judging Center meetings. The Events page provides a summary for each event, with a link to the full detail for more information as it is available. The upcoming three events are summarized on the home page for a quick snapshot of what’s coming up.
Resources contains orchid growing guidance for new and experienced growers. One of the most amazing things about the Society is the collection of specialized knowledge of our members, and now we have a Specialized Topics page, where you can find insights from some of our more experienced growers. This section also includes information on Orchid Basics and Common Orchid Types, as well as IOS-authored Culture Sheets. The resources available in this area will grow over time.
Under Galleries, you’ll find pictures of all the blooming orchids that members bring in each month, including the plants of the month. You will also find pictures of the exhibits from our fall and spring shows, as well as the exhibits from away shows that we participate in.
On the Join page, you’ll find all the information you need to renew your membership.
This new website was made possible by the support of our Board of Directors. For any questions or suggestions, please contact any member of the website committee - Cathleen Daghestani, David Kirk, Diane Mulkerin, or John Hockberger, or past president Kevin O’Rourke, whose guidance and participation was instrumental to the project.
We also greatly appreciate the collaboration with Joan Goodman, who made it possible to provide the monthly show and tell image galleries, and Loren Pollock, who made our new website address a reality.
Finally, we are also very appreciative of our partnership with Judy Cheske of JC Web Studio, who was exceptional to work with and went above and beyond to design a website that meets our needs and deliver it in a way that will allow us to maintain and build upon it moving forward.