The new website of the IAG was launched today. It has been completely redesigned by Electronic Productivity Solutions (www.eps.com.au), a Melbourne web development and design company. Much of the content will be familiar to members as it has been imported from the old site, but we have taken the opportunity of a redesign to add new material. There is much more information on the Institute itself, including items on the establishment of the IAG (appropriate in our 50th year), a page on the awards conferred by the Institute, and a list of all recipients of an award. The section headed About Geography is intended to provide information for non-members on Geography as a field of study, and may eventually contain material for school and university students. The role played by postgraduate students in the activities of the Institute has been recognised by giving them a separate heading on the Home Page. The site is fully searchable.A members-only section is still being developed. This will contain minutes of General Meetings, reports from Council, submissions by the IAG, news on research projects, and a searchable membership directory. The directory will be part of a new membership database with the following features:
• online membership application and renewal
• automatic generation of receipts
• automatic notification of study group interests to convenors
• the facility for members to update the information in their entry
• the facility to send emails to all members
This will make it much easier to communicate with members. In the past we have used the IAG-List as a medium of electronic communication, but only one-third of members subscribe to the List, while two-thirds of the people on the List are not members. We now hope to be able to send members items of news and information each month.
Membership renewal for 2009 will be done online, with members filling in their personal details and areas of interest to add to the database. You will be sent an email late this year explaining how to register to login to the membership system and enter your details.
The photos on the main pages of the new site were taken by the following members of the IAG: Clive Forster, Arthur Conacher, Richard Baker, Jim Walmsley, Amity James, George Curry, Iain Hay and Alaric Maude.
Some areas of the new site are still under development, and more material will be added over the next few months. If you have suggestions for additions or corrections to the content please contact either the Secretary, Alaric Maude, or the Web Secretary, Julie Kesby, whose contact details are on the Contact Us page.
The URL remains the same: http://www.iag.org.au