On April 3^rd, the Founder’s District Public Relations Team convened to evaluate entries for the Spring 2011 Public Relations Contests. During judging of the Diamond Web Award, the room filled with excitement as soon as the Eclectic Dialectics Toastmasters Club’s webpage came up. The website stood-out from the rest!

For starters, it complied with all the promotion, member, and administrative content as specified in the Diamond Web Award judging criteria such as the calendar was up-to-date, the photo gallery was filled with smiling faces, acknowledgment of Toastmasters International copyright, and a membership application was available for download. However, the kicker was the inclusion of dazzling features – Twitter feed featuring all Toastmasters related tweets and a Google Voice feature to contact the club!

As many of you may know, the Eclectics’ website won the Diamond Web Award. Recently, I sat down with the website’s creator, Marie Trinh, over lunch to discuss her journey to creating a fantastic website.

Q: How long have you been with Toastmasters?
A: Since November 2010.

Q: So, you are a brand new member and already you took on the role of VPPR and designed this website?
A: When I first joined, the election was a month away. When I was recruited, I was surprised, but didn’t refuse the challenge. It was a lot of work to create this website from scratch. The previous club website used Freetoasthost and lacked individuality and innovation. This competition pushed me to complete the website. The prize definitely made the effort worthwhile.

Q: Do you have prior experience in designing websites?
A: No. This is the first website I created. I took a class in high school on media design. I heard and was inspired by the web design catch-phrase: “Ready, Fire, Aim”. The concept is just get started then fine tune later. So that’s what I did - I just started developing and then perfected it as I moved along. I did a whole lot of Googling as I designed.

Q: What is your favorite page on your website?
A: The Contact the Club page. The Google Voice number setup for the club allows for a consistent contact method and information despite the semiannual change in the club leadership. Also, the club officers do not have to give out their personal contact information.

Q: What other secrets would you like to share with your fellow Toastmasters website designers?
A: Obtain club web design evaluation from fellow Toastmaster Matthew Kleinosky. He reviews your website and gives free suggestions. To contact him join the Toastmasters International Members Group and search for MKwsr1, MKwsr2 or MKwsr3 on LinkedIn. He gave me a lot of helpful recommendations.

To all you aspiring website designers out there, I hope Marie’s suggestions inspired you on your next website project. To learn more from Marie visit the Eclectic Dialectics’ club website at https://sites.google.com/site/eclecticdialecticstm/