FWWS Website Revamp

Once again, your web mistress Sally, and technical ninja Alex, have used their awesome computing skills for your benefit. The web site has been revamped to provide you with new features, as well as to refresh existing functionality. Peruse the list below (and don't worry if some stuff is technical sounding and you don't really understand what it is; it's still cool):

1. Front page of web site has been redesigned into a "news" style front page, which includes:

• Winery of the week! Each winery member will get a dedicated column, with active hyperlinking and a blurb.


• News feeds via RSS which includes up-to-the-minute news from: Wines & Vines, FWWS (aka us), Wine Press NW, Wine Spectator, Seattle Times Wine Adviser, and WAWGG.


• Sponsor of the week! Designed especially for our industry members, who we encourage all winery members to do business with.

2. An FWWS blog! All of our news will now be posted in blog format rather than in an e-mail newsletter. The blog allows members to comment on posts, it is publicly available in the blogosphere, and it provides a subscribable RSS feed which is also displayed on our web site front page.

3. A navigational link to an embedded page where we display the login into our electronic member mailing list. All winery members are automatically part of this electronic mailing list. Now you can easily find the page that lets you view the archive and set personal options.

4. A navigational link to an embedded page where we display our online bulletin board. Use this board to discuss topics, sell equipment, whatever.

5. An updated "Join Now" page with membership types and dues defined.

6. A new "Legislation" page with links to all of the legislation that FWWS is working on.

7. The new "Maps" feature which is described in the first blog post.

8. An updated "Additional Resources" page with a slew of new and pertinent links.

9. Updated "Board Members" page if you want to know who your board members really are.

10. The web site also has an updated navigation bar, and updated footer, and now uses "Server Side Include" technology which permits us tech-types to make global "look and feel" and navigation changes almost instantly.

As a result of all of these updates and changes, we will no longer be sending out periodic newsletters via e-mail in PDF format. Instead, we will post news on our blog and send an alert out via e-mail. We hope you like this new system!

We have one remaining new feature which will be deployed in the next 1-2 weeks. We will be able to process dues payments via PayPal and major credit cards! This should make it much easier for our members to pay their dues.

Thanks again and we hope you like the updated site.