LAA web site - We're really sorry for the inconvenience

[Pete]

That in case you care is from the LAA web site front page. Is the editor of the web site completely nuts?

What is the point of the web site? What should be the point of the web site?

Having just looked at it, I am embarrassed at the image the LAA gives to the online world.

Let's look at the message it conveys

Zenair CH601-XL incident in Holland 30.10.08
The Dutch Authorities have recently grounded their fleet of CH601-XL aircraft following a fatal accident.

There's been an error at the printers during the run of our magazine for November, with eight pages from last month's

The LAA are looking for an Engineering Administrator ...

Exactly what message are we trying to give people, to sum up it seems to be that

• people get killed flying light aircraft,
  the LAA send out rubbish magazines
  the LAA need a new clerk

Is that what the LAA is about,

Whilst this is all important stuff, it's a complete waste of the web site, the site of a few years ago was much more professional looking, to be frank this is utter rubbish.

The web site is viewed world wide, what chance do you really think there is off finding a new Greta via the web site - none, so why waste readers time with drivle like that on the front page.

The web site front page is a great opportunity to get new members, it should say ONE and only ONE thing - "heh flying is great fun, and here is your chance to join in" To do that we need a clean simple design showing folks what they can fly and how they can get involved with flying. All the other stuff should be moved off the front page.

Think of the front page like the front page of a newspaper - get your viewer's attention.

I am quite happy to see if we can make the LAA front page fit for purpose.

[John Dean]

Sorry Pete but I cannot agree with your interpretation of the web site but you are entitled to your opinion, of course. My understanding is that it is there to provide information to the wider community and also to communicate with members.

Zenair owners will have received a separate communication from HQ but there is much interest from others as to why the LAA have not followed the lead of the Dutch authorities. Jon Viner's note gives a full and cogent response to that query and Francis Donaldson's magazine article gives lots of background information. Inclusion of this on the web site should also ease engineering's workload in answering phone enquiries.

The printer's serious error is also something that members have a right to know about and I would have been very disappointed if an explanation had not been clearly visible on the web site. The procedures used by our magazine staff and the publishers is no different to that used in the large magazine publishing houses. Mistakes like this happen but very very rarely and it will cost the printer many thousands of pounds. They will not want a repeat.

Why should it be wrong to advertise for new staff on the web site. We need to get the message that there is a vacancy to the widest possible audience to ensure we have good quality applicants. Seems a very reasonable thing to do to me.

[Jim Gale]

John. I tend to agree with Pete on this. The LAA front page is, at the moment, broadcasting too many negatives, very rarely publishes the positives and loses time and time again the tremendous benefit of good, continuous, punchy, informative PR (both press releases and public relations). To the general GA UK populace the Association just doesn't seem to be able to project itself in an eye catching and dynamic way.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a staunch supporter of the LAA and hope to be for many years more but since I've served on the NC (for nearly 15 years, gosh how time flies), time and time again I've talked/written to the EC asking for a more professional attitude to PR. The LAA staff and EC do superb work but do we shout about it in the GA press, commercial aviation press, special interest mags, local and national media? Apparently not.
Time and time again we have "appointed" a press officer; time and time again that person has quietly fallen by the wayside and with it the opportunity to keep telling the world how good the LAA is and what it is doing for the Light Aviation fraternity.
The Association needs a good, professional, paid, (could be part time), permanent PR officer, now!

Jim Gale.
Devon Strut.

Youth Build a Plane Project.
"Creating Aviation Education for Youngsters"
BaP2 will be exhibiting at SPLASH, NEC, Nov 29/30th 2008, LAA stand.

[Bob F]

Although I feel the main LAA web site should be available to members & non-members, for certain matters I feel there should be a members log in, similar to the BB, for LAA business that concerns members only. In the case of the mag printing problem, it needed to be on the site as I am led to believe the mag is on sale to the general public who would need the explanation as to the "deja vu".

As an example the EAA site is there for all to see but for certain info you have to log on. It might even get a few new recruits if they think they are "missing out". Just a thought.

Bob Farrell

[Mike Cross]

Very easy to implement on this Forum, and not simply a "log on" requirement.

In PHPBB you can define groups and put users into them. You can then define which Forums (Fora?) each group is allowed to read, or post on. Ergo you can have Fora that are invisible to people who are not members of the groups allowed to see them.

You could for example have an "ask about LAA" Forum, open to anyone to post. members or not.

At the other end of the scale you could have an EC Forum that you couldn't even see unless you were an EC member.

[Bob F]

Mea culpa, I got it wrong about the mag being on sale to the general public, although I feel it would easily stand comparison with the others on the shelf.

Brian Hope contacted me and explained that it is still a members' only mag & will remain so for the foreseeable future. I received my "reprinted" copy on the 1st November - not bad going.

I hope Brian will reconsider his decision to stop posting - it can get a bit boring without him.

Bob F

[Pete]

That's the lunacy of it - we have a fantastic ( private )mag, that would stand general circulation and we have a crap web site that is visible to the world

[Dave Hall]

Brian explained to us at NC that selling the mag to the public through newsagents eg simply doesn't work commercially for the numbers we would be likely to sell. You have to guarantee tens of thousands of sales for the distributors to bother handling it.

I suppose some flying clubs might agree to sell them on a substantial commission basis. I believe the major magazines send airfields a bundle for sale at cover price when they have a free landing voucher, with the airfield keeping the money. Something like that might work - say 20 free copies plus a display holder to put them in. I don't know enough about the actual cost of extra magazines to use this way to know if it is a viable idea. It might be a little sweetener for the airfield.

For the non-member, the LAA Today is a better publication as it outlines the whole range of things we do in a more general way, and is given free at various events.

[Rod1]

If you have a look at;

http://www.bmaa.org/

You get lots of colour pictures of people having fun in micros and zero bad news. If you are under the age of 45 you will almost certainly research an organisation on the web first and then decide to find out more or not. The home page is the modern shop window for our association.

There is also a link to the BMAA forum off the home page, so you might want a quick look at that as well.

Rod1

[John Dean]

I may be in a minority but I like the front page of the web site. I find it dynamic and always worth visiting to see the latest news. I find the index pages of too many web sites are boring and static and some are just plain irritating.

I like the analogy to a newspaper where the front page has all the latest news and the comment restricted to the inside pages. The days when the Times had its classified adverts on the front page are long since gone.

However, I am neither a web designer nor a marketing expert just an ordinary member and if enough members feel the web site ought to change then, no doubt, it will.