[Disbanded May 2019 after implementation of new SPNHC website]
Function
This Sessional Committee was established by President Ford in Fall 2017 to investigate the redesign and moving of the SPNHC Website to a new platform to allow greater functionality and interaction with other SPNHC activities.
Leadership and Composition:
The committee is chaired by the President-Elect. Members include multiple SPNHC members with first-hand knowledge of functions, goals and initiatives of the Society.
Duties
A new SPNHC website is needed since the current website company we use charges high prices for every change made with a lower performance than expected. In addition, the membership database component is clunky and does not allow flexibility that we need. It’s understood that that a new website with all the functions needed will require a significant financial investment; however, the initial investment will give long-term savings to the Society.
Activities identified for the sessional committee:
- Develop a set of use cases, including feedback from SPNHC Committee Chairpersons
- Do some comparative analysis – how do similar organizations manage their websites?
- Develop a set of requirements – prioritized
- Format the above into an RFP and find some potential providers (see Appendix)
- Compare Web developer proposals. select one and get SPNHC Council approval for expenditure
- Work with the approved Web developer to implement the new SPNHC website in collaboration with the SPNHC Webmaster
Calendar items
December 2017: Establish Sessional Website Redesign Committee, agree upon objectives and timeline
Spring 2018: Use Cases and Comparative Analysis; Prioritize list of requirements
May 2018: Establish RFP; Solicit proposals
June 2018: Select proposal; Sign contract; Commit funds with Council approval
Fall 2018: Work with Web designer for new website
Spring 2019: Implement new website
May 2019: Present report on website at annual meeting
Appendix.
Request for Proposals for the Redesign of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections Website 1 May 2018
Table of Contents
- Guide to this RFP
- Project Overview
- Background
- Project Goals
- Proposed Sitemap
- Scope of Work
- Technical Requirements
- Budget
- Project Timeline
- Criteria for Selection
- Specific Requests
Guide to this RFP
Our expectation is that this document will convey our vision for the new Society for the Preservation of Natural History website site and specific challenges with the existing one. It includes a background section about our organization, suggests an outline for organizing the content of the new site, and desired technologies. In providing these details, our intent is not to convey that we have all of the answers in creating the best possible site. The ideal and preferred vendor will bring its own ideas and vision based on industry expertise, technical capability, and client relations, guiding us to incorporate our goals into that vision. Please feel free to email Barbara M. Thiers, Chair (bthiers@nybg.org), Website Redesign Committee with questions or comments.
Project Overview
The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) wants to move its website to a new platform and to add some additional functionality. The current website can be found here: http://www.spnhc.org/
We are looking for vendors to prepare a proposal to accomplish the task that includes timeline, cost, and deliverables. The following RFP includes a background of our organization and describes the purpose of the redesign, its desired functionality, and specific requests relating to the proposal. We understand that details may be subject to change upon vendor recommendation and/or research of more optimal solutions. In your proposal, please feel free to suggest alternatives where noted.
Background
SPNHC is an international organization of more than 600 members devoted to the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections. SPNHC takes a leading role in promoting collections care issues to the academic community, governments, and the general public. Our members are dedicated to training and mentoring the next generation of collections professionals. The Society hosts an annual conference and maintains an active roster of publications, including Collection Forum, a journal that accepts submissions on all aspects of natural history collections management and conservation, a bi-annual newsletter, and books that examine various aspects of natural history collections care, development and management.
Our core values include communicating the value of natural history collections to scientific research and education and best practices for the proper care and sharing of data from natural history collections. We are strongly committed to educating the next generation of collections professionals and helping collections with specific challenges that they face. We are the only international organization with this mission.
Originally a North-American-centric organization, we have expanded our membership and scope of activities to include Europe, and are interested in developing a broader worldwide membership. We hold conferences outside the U.S. and Canada regularly, and are interested in providing services to collections professionals worldwide.
Project Goals
- Make the management of the SPNHC website and membership functions easier for our volunteer society workforce by converting the current content to the WordPress platform, and a comparably user-friendly membership database.
- Increase the reach, and specifically the membership of the organization through more timely content and quicker response to external incidences that affect collections (e.g., natural disasters, government regulations). We believe the greatest source of new members will be non-North American and emerging collections professionals.
- Make it easier to manage our membership database and hold special fundraising campaigns for our fellowship programs
Scope of Work
- Migrate all current website content to WordPress so that going forward, it can be managed by SPNHC organization members (or someone hired on our behalf to do this work). For the most part, we would like to keep the organization of the website as is, although we are open to suggestion for improving the organization. The migrated site should be optimized for search engines, and the migration should be extensively tested to be sure that all content has been transferred and all internal and external links are functional.
- Redesign the SPNHC opening page to make it more engaging through the use of photographs of people working in collections and with links to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
- Add a new calendar that can be more easily viewed and updated
- Migrate the membership database to one that is compatible with WordPress and that is flexible enough to add additional membership categories, and add extra funding categories for voluntary fellowship contributions.
- We hope to have the work completed by 30 October 2018, with edits made up until the go-live date of 1 December 2018.
Deliverables
- All current website content transferred to WordPress, all content checked to be sure that no pages have been left out and that all internal and external links function properly. All style sheets, code, etc., transferred to SPNHC website committee so that they or someone hired on their behalf can manage it going forward.
- A redesigned SPNHC opening page, developed in consultation with the SPNHC web committee to make it more engaging with photographs of people working in collections and with links to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
- A new membership database, with all current membership data transferred to the new database; ready to accept new memberships
- A new calendar of events for SPNHC that can be more easily viewed and updated.
Technical Requirements
Content Management Software. We wish to use WordPress for our content management software, because some of our content is already in a linked WordPress site, and the current website manager for the site prefers to use this platform. We anticipate that maintenance of the website will be done by a team of SPNHC officers and committee chairs, and so we want to have a platform that is easy to use, and that many participants may already be familiar with.
Web Host. We prefer to use Blue Host (www.bluehost.com) as the web host vendor for this project. We will consider comparable alternatives, if sufficiently justified.
Accessibility. We would like our website to follow Section 508 compliance, if it can be done within the budget limit for the project.
Mobile Responsive Design. We would like to have a mobile-optimized version of the website, if it can be done within the budget limit for the project.
Budget
We have an upper limit of $13,000 for the website redesign project. This total will include all costs associated with the website redesign.
Proposed Timeline (all 2018)
1 May: RFP for website redevelopment issued
1 June: Deadline for RFP submissions
30 June: successful vendor selected
30 September: First version of new website completed, presented to Website Redesign Committee for review
15 October: comments, requests for changes submitted to vendor
1 Nov: soft launch of new website
1 December: Official launch of new website
Criteria for Selection
The successful proposal vendor will have previous experience building interactive, responsive websites, can manage the project independently, and pursue and meet established timelines without monitoring or prompting. The successful vendor will act as a partner in the project build by involving our website redesign committee but also taking the lead when needed. We are looking for a vendor who can adapt to unforeseen project changes, provide ideas for the project beyond what is presented initially, based on expertise in the field, and who can make enhancements to the design that help to convey the broad range of activities our society is involved while also allowing the user to find the information they are seeking.
Please include in your proposal:
- Letter of Intent
- Resume or CV
- Examples of similarly-complex projects that you have completed (please include URLs)
- Names of referees and contact information (email and phone number)
- Proposed project timeline with major tasks and milestones
- Project budget by line item
- Plan for membership database implementation
- mobile / responsive design
Format & Proposal Details
The proposal should be submitted as a .pdf file, attached to an email and sent to Dr. Barbara M. Thiers (bthiers@nybg.org), Chair, SPNHC Website Redesign Committee. The deadline for submission of proposals is 1 June 2018. Final selection to be completed
Revised by Barbara Thiers and Linda S. Ford, May 2019
Submitted by Barbara Thiers, November 2017