2011 High-Tech Society Award Nominees!

Each year I think we should give an award to the society that most effectively utilizes technology to help facilitate their mission. Doing so will help other societies become more aware of what internet based resources are available to them.

The following is a list of societies that I would like to nominate for the award. If you know of any other tech-savvy societies please nominate them and describe their use of technology.

eNewsletters
There are still some societies that remove members from their e-mail distribution list if they haven't paid their dues! Yikes! Here are a couple societies that make it easy for anybody to join their e-mail distribution lists...
South Bay Orchid Society
Sacramento Orchid Society

MagCloud
MagCloud is a website owned by Hewlett Packard that allows people to publish their magazines for free. The Orange County Orchid Society is the first society to take advantage of this resource. Each month a photo of the Judge's Choice Award winner is used for the cover of their newsletter. For the cost of postage, the editor of the magazine receives one proof copy which she presents to the award recipient at the following month's meeting.
Orange County Orchid Society

RSS feeds
RSS feeds allow people to subscribe to websites. On one central webpage (feed reader) people can see relevant new content from their favorite websites. Orchid societies can easily create an RSS feed by starting a group on flickr for their orchid society. People can then RSS subscribe to the feed for the group's discussion section.
Discussion Section for Orchid Society of Southern California

Facebook
Not sure which society was the first to create a page on facebook but the most "liked" (258) society on facebook is by far the New Hampshire Orchid Society...
New Hampshire Orchid Society

Once a society receives enough "likes" they can customize and simplify their URL. For example... http://www.facebook.com/TriangleOrchidSociety

Flickr
With 58 members and 1,225 photos, the Orchid Society of Southern California by far has the greatest presence on flickr...
OSSC on Flickr

Flickr API
Taking advantage of the Flickr API allows societies to display dynamic photo galleries on their website...
OSSC Photo Gallery

Badges/Widgets
Badges/Widgets allow content from one website to be displayed on another website...aka syndication. This is generally a mutually beneficial arrangement because the "borrowing" website receives relevant content and the "loaning" website receives links/traffic from the website that is borrowing its content.

For example, here you can see that the Orchid Society of Santa Barbara has a badge that dynamically displays the OSSC flickr discussion section...
Orchid Society of Santa Barbara

YouTube
The St Augustine Orchid Society most likely has the most videos on YouTube...
Keiki Club for Orchid Beginners
March 5, 2011 Ace Repotting Clinic
St Augustine Orchid Society Meetings

Google Ads
Google Ads can provide an additional source of revenue for an orchid society...
Southern Ontario Orchid Society

Affiliate of Amazon
Affiliating with Amazon can also provide an additional source of revenue for an orchid society. Before I purchase any product on Amazon, I first click on the Amazon link displayed on the OSSC website. That way the OSSC receives a portion of the revenue.
Orchid Society of Southern California

Paypal
Paypal is a very convenient way to make payments online. I believe the Sacramento Orchid Society was the first society to setup a paypal account...
Join the Sacramento Orchid Society

Two other societies that allow you to pay your dues via paypal are the...
San Diego County Orchid Society and the
Orchid Society of Greater St. Louis

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free and very helpful way for society webmasters to keep track of where visitors to the society website are coming from. This information can easily be shared with the person in charge of publicity. For example, if you click on the above links to the society websites...if those websites utilize Google Analytics...this forum will be listed as a referrer.
Google Analytics Report for the OSSC

Google Library
The OSSC is the first society to add their library to Google Library. This allows people to search the contents of the OSSC library via Google.
OSSC Library via Google