The Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario (PPBSO) has been busy working to improve its communications media, in order to keep its membership better informed on the comings and goings of the Society, the Ontario Games circuit, and the various branch initiatives, as well as to get important feedback from Pipers and Drummers in Ontario. We are pleased to formally announce a number of initiatives in support of these efforts:
1. We have established a Facebook page, on which we will post notices, pictures, videos and other relevant and interesting information. We encourage you all to “Like” this page, and to visit often in order to stay informed on what is going on! This is an interactive page where you can share information and photos, videos and links. The more interactive this becomes, the better it will be for everyone! Click here → [FB][visit the page now!
2. We have joined Twitter, and will be tweeting on a regular basis, including pictures, videos, and links to order of play, results, and other important information either on our Facebook page, or our website. If you have a twitter account, be sure to follow us by clicking → [Tw] ]to stay up to date!
3. We have created a Youtube channel, on which we will be posting videos from around the various Games’ and branch events. Don’t worry, we will be sure to check with you prior to posting any band or solo video to ensure that you are ok with us posting it! If you have material that you would like us to post on the channel, please send an e-mail to ppbso.comms@gmail.com. Click here → [YT] to visit the channel!
4. Over the past year, we have been working on a New Website for the Society, located at www.ppbso.ca. This new site, will include the following features and improvements over the current site:
A fresh, new style
More intuitive and user-friendly navigation
A perpetual news stream where visitors can read about interesting PPBSO news and events
Periodic surveys in order to get feedback from the membership on important issues and questions
Complete Games and other events listing through a convenient calendar view
Access to a member login area where members can join, or renew their memberships, and sign up for contests
Access to forms, contest rules, society bylaws etc.
Order of play for each Games
Results posting for current and prior years’ contests
A countdown ticker for all the Games – not just Maxville!
Convenient links to our various Social Media outlets
The PPBSO twitter feed
Much, much more!
Please note that we will be phasing in our new website over time throughout the first month or two of this season. We simultaneously rewrote our database in order to be more flexible in the future.
Phase 1
We are now live with most of the “outward facing” parts of the site, allowing visitors to navigate the site, review the news feed, gain access to the social media links, review the calendar of events, forms etc. We encourage everyone to visit the site and take a tour, and to provide us with any feedback you may have, good or bad!
Phase 2
We will be testing the new database (registration and Games’ Management elements) of the new site in parallel with the existing (old database) site during the first few Games of the season. We recognize that it is vitally important that this part of the system, which drives things like order of play and results, be completely functional and accurate before we go completely live with it. In the meantime, we will be keeping the existing website (www.ppbso.org) live, so that our members may continue to have access to registration services, order of play, and official results.
We are excited about these new developments, and we hope you are too! Please be sure to take a moment and let us know what you think, and stay tuned to these new outlets for upcoming information about your PPBSO!
Yours in Piping & Drumming,
Duncan MacRae
President – PPBSO