Gateway Off-Road Cyclists (GORC): March 2013

OK, I'm having a party to celebrate the launch of GORC3.0 as I like to call it.

I've invited the Spry Digital team down for drinks - they are the developers that did all the major programming, functionality, process logic and theming for the new site.

This is an informal gathering... do not wait for long-winded speeches as they will not come easily after a drink or three. This is a celebration of a very long 6 months of my life dedicated to taking GORC to the next organizational level.

I truly believe our new site will surpass 90% of all mountain biking club / organization sites. I am very proud of it.

That said, let's all gather and hang out at Civil Life. They have a loft, they have dart boards, they have tours of the the place.

Civil Life is awesome. It is also a cash only establishment. The people are great, the beers are amazing. It's by far my favorite brewery. The partners are cool.

Even if the website is a little late to the party I'm still having it THIS COMING FRIDAY STARTING AT 5pm at

The Civil Life Brewing Company
3714 Holt Ave.
St. Louis, Mo 63116
Planet, Earth

SEE YOU ALL THERE. MATT HAYES

Since August of 2012 GORC has been quietly building its new web site behind the scenes. The large project is being managed by GORC's web administrator who has been working long nights to ensure the new site is both functional and usable.

GORC submitted two grants which were both awarded. One is an Every Day grant from the National Environmental Education Fund (NEEF) which is made possible by Toyota. The other is an REI grant that is focused on non-profits that are making it a goal to get more volunteers out to local 'giving back' events such as our trail building days. We are very thankful for receiving these major grants as this project would not be possible.

We have partnered with the local web development firm, Spry Digital that specializes in non-profit site building and the Drupal/CiviCRM platform. This content management system was extensively researched and is currently the best open-source membership-focused system. This platform allows for decentralized content management and a feature-rich contact resource management (CRM) system that will allow GORC to attract new members, track volunteer activities and report to land agencies. CiviCRM is the same platform IMBA has chosen to use in its Club Chapter program and overall membership tracking.

It has been our goal to showcase the development going on in the background but it hasn't been until this past week that time could be devoted to anything else but the development of the new GORC site. We have included only screenshots of the back-end management system and not the public domain web site as it is still currently being themed by Spry Digital.

The tentative launch date is March 21st but that is dependent on several factors. Think of it as a floating launch date. GORC is planning a website launch party at the Civil Life March 23rd (tentative). Stay tuned for additional details - and once we know the site will be up and running.

Project Summary:
Site Platforms: Drupal 7, CiviCRM 4.2.0, IPBoard 3.4.2
Other Platform Tie-Ins: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google Business Mail, Mailchimp, Paypal
Development Time: About 7 months

Funding Sources:
NEEF Every Day Grant made possible by Toyota
REI Gives Grant
Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ)
Other private monetary donations.

Screenshots of the Back-End Administration and Contact/Membership System: