Sunday, January 15, 2006 6:19 PM
BY CHRISTINE PALMA, christine@LApressclub.org When asked for her wish list, Executive Director Diana Ljungaeus put e-commerce,
mailing list management, and revamped website at the top of immediate needs. The challenge for this one-person office has always been not having enough hours in a day.
Last year, hackers forced the Press Club to shut down its online payment system. The new e-commerce site using Ebay’s Pro Stores engine will provide security and save the Club hundreds of manhours by making Quickbooks reconcilliation easier, and by managing member enrollment and order tracking. The bottom line for members is faster
turnaround time for memberships, press ids and tickets.
The Press Club will also migrate to Constant Contact for e-mail list management. Contant Contact, a partner of AOL, boasts an email delivery rate of 98%. Its prefered partner status means that AOL, Earthlink and other ISPs are less likely to bounce Press Club e-mail with their spam blocking technology.
Without a fulltime webmaster, the current website with its slick backend programming is a graveyard of old news. The new site will simply be a blog and will sit on Word Press, the most popular blogging solution. Opensource, easy to update, easy to support, it promises a more professional look for the Press Club.
