Guidelines for Hosting Pages at ASA

ASA is ready, willing and able to host pages for Committees, Sections, and Chapters. This can be an advantage for those official units of ASA needing a stable platform, and can assist ASA in archiving historical material. Alternatively, units can link to official records about their unit (current officers, charters, etc.) while maintaining their own pages. A third alternative is being developed at www.amstat-online.org, a public domain server with extended capabilities for adventurous units.

In order for this to function smoothly, both parties (ASA Staff and Section or Chapter representatives) need to adhere to modest guidelines. This document covers the following topics:

Guidelines for Hosting

The following are common guidelines for all web pages, whether members or staff. These should be followed whether pages reside at www.amstat.org or an offsite location. It is expected that ASA members and staff communicate cordially, and that all recognize that many new, emerging issues will arise as we move into more use of electronic media. Some of these may take some time to resolve in a manner that suits all.
  1. Maintain up-to-date pages, especially with regards to dated material and hyperlinks.
  2. Review each page carefully to ensure quality of content, spelling, broken links etc.
  3. Use relative links throughout so that cleanup time is minimal.
  4. Make pages easy to read and accessible to the majority of browsers.
  5. Adopt aspects of the Amstat Online "look and feel" as appropriate.
  6. Respect liability issues that may concern ASA, as the web is a legal form of publication.
  7. Adhere to ASA policies on electronic publication. For instance, send job announcements to the Job Site since they would otherwise compete with paid advertisements. Further, avoid links to commercial sites unless inclusion primarily benefits ASA members.
  8. Respect privacy of members and the public. This includes notifying visitors of exactly what information is being gathered while they visit web pages.

Committee/Section/Chapter Responsibilities & Contacts

The committee/section/chapter units have certain additional rights and responsibilities when publishing on the Internet. These are especially pertinent if ASA physically hosts a unit's pages. These include the following:
  1. Identify an Assistant Editor to liaze with the appropriate Associate Editor for Committees, Sections or Chapters. This person should be the primary contact for questions about web content.
  2. Coordinate with ASA Staff, through the appropriate Associate Editor, on electronic publishing matters relevant to the unit.
  3. Link unit's home pages to Amstat Online (www.amstat.org).
  4. Link to the Current Officers Page for the unit, which is maintained by ASA. This has current data on officers/members, mission, and charter, if relevant.
  5. Keep file transfer password secure (see FTP below).
Contact the appropriate Amstat Online Associate Editor if you have further questions. This person is your primary contacts for web site deployment and development. However, should broader questions arise, or should you experience unnecessary delays, please feel free to contact the Amstat Online Editor directly. For the current members, visit the AO Editorial Board.

ASA Staff Responsibilities & Contacts

ASA Staff (Webmaster, System Analyst, etc.) have dual responsibility of physically maintaining the web pages at www.amstat.org and developing content for members and subscribers. These are in addition to the common responsibilities outlined above.
  1. Arrange a method to put pages up on the server (see FTP below).
  2. Add links to other areas to highlight material on pages of chapters/sections/committees.
  3. Work with Associate Editors to ensure unit pages are of high quality.
  4. Publish these guidelines so that units can use the hosting service smoothly.
  5. Publish the legal responsibilities and liability of web pages published by any unit of ASA.
  6. Publish a privacy statement.
  7. Keep Current Officers Page for each unit up to date (under development for Chapters & Sections).
  8. Identify potential quality or integrity problems with material in unit pages and work with Editorial Board to address concerns (see Ensuring Quality, Privacy and Integrity of Posted Material below).
The ASA WebMaster (webmaster@amstat.org) is the chief staff and member contact for technical issues, such as FTP access, page integrity, links, etc. In some circumstances, the WebMaster will draw on the Information Systems Manager (e.g. FTP problems, databases, etc.). More complicated technical issues may merit an Amstat Online Advanced Internet Request Process.

The ASA Director of Programs can address substantive issues (e.g. membership lists, current officers, etc.), often referring members to other ASA staff for further assistance. For a complete list of ASA staff, see the ASA Staff Directory.

Technical Guidelines for Pages

This section is under development. For the most part, simple is better in page design. Please avoid Java on your main page as many sites do not allow it; JavaScript is OK, but is also turned off by some institutions. It is best to avoid Frames, as these can give different responses on different browsers, and can have undesireable side-effects such as multiple nesting of pages.

Committees have areas that are automatically set up. See www.amstat.org/comm and click on your committee. It is possible to have separate committee home pages that cross link to this facility. Sections can now have a direct link to a list of current officers. See the Current Officers Page for Each Unit.

Units that have registered their own domain names can ask their DNS contractor to change the web forwarding. Usually this can be done via the web; see for instance capabilities at www.namesecure.com. You may want to use some sort of "URL gripper" which makes it appear as if you are actually on a separate machine. This could be useful if ASA changes the way it hosts pages in the future.

See Mechanics of File Transfer (FTP) for details on FTP and FrontPage Extensions. Below are some links that may have some useful guidelines and tools.

Mechanics of File Transfer (FTP)

The Guidelines for Hosting above should be read carefully before considering how to transfer files. The www.amstat.org server does support FrontPage Extensions (currently version 2000).
  1. Each section/chapter/committee can establish a FTP login. Email webmaster@amstat.org to request FTP access. Be sure to indicate your unit (e.g. SPES Section) and your office (e.g. Chair or Webmaster or ...). You will receive a FTP login authorization (set to your MembersOnly login and password) within 10 working days from ASA Staff.
  2. Units with FTP access must maintain password security to protect their material as well as that of ASA.
  3. The Associate Editor for your unit (Sections/Chapters/Committees) may be able to help you with style and content. ASA Staff (webmaster@amstat.org) can help with technical issues.
  4. While ASA can make changes, we (ASA Staff and Amstat Online Editors) prefer and expect that you maintain your own pages.
  5. Small sites with few web pages and infrequent changes may request the WebMaster to install pages with either (a) pages attached or (b) a URL to pages on another server. Changes are usually made within 10 working days.

Ensuring Quality, Privacy and Integrity of Posted Material

It is easy to put up web pages, but it takes a lot of work to keep them current. The Editorial Board of Amstat Online oversees the intellectual content of www.amstat.org. The oversight of sections, chapters and commitees is organized through Associate Editors for Sections, Chapters, and Committees, respectively. Each unit should supply the name of a contact person, to serve as Assistant Editor for that unit. Assistant Editors work together with their Associate Editor and ASA staff to maintain quality pages. These teams are responsible for oversight of the intellectual content of contributed web pages.
  1. Develop an Editorial Oversight procedure for content based on periodic review, such as:

  2. Develop technical information pages about useful tools for building and maintaining pages, including:

  3. Coordinate linkage with and content of Current Officers Page for each unit.
Please realize that while each unit has local control of its content, the ASA is legally responsible for material associated with www.amstat.org. In addition, this is largely a volunteer effort with a limited budget; informed contributions on process and content from unit WebMasters and Assistant Editors will be much appreciated.

Current Officers Page for Each Unit

The ASA maintains lists of current officers for chapters and sections, and members of ASA committees. The ASA office also maintains current versions of visions, missions and charters, as appropriate. ASA's IS Manager, in conjunction with the Amstat Online's Associate Editors, has been developing a dynamic way to build pages with this information for committees, sections and chapters. This is NOT fully functional for all units at this time (see below). In the meantime, you may consult the ASA Organizational Roster for the current roster of officers.

For some units, this new system may ultimately be the focal point for minutes, archiving, etc. For other units, these new dynamic pages may serve as a convenient list of current officers and repository for administrative material, while the unit's home page reflects the true character of the members. It is expected that units that have their own home page will link to the Current Officers Page, with a reciprocal link provided by ASA staff back to that home page.

This dynamic system is fully operational for ASA Committees at http://www.amstat.org/comm/, allowing optional links to other pages maintained by each committee. These pages have a mechanism to edit/view minutes, budgets, plans, etc.

A sample prototype for ASA Chapters now have automated pages of officers as well as online submission of annual reports. While some chapters have had their own home pages for some time, others do not. Feel free to model your page after another that you like, or consider the following sample chapter page: http://www.amstat.org/chapters/sample.html.

Every ASA Section has its own home page. Some are now housed at www.amstat.org, while many are maintained at dispersed sites by section webmasters or publication officers. There is now an alternative public domain hosting site at www.amstat-online.org. Dynamic pages for current officers are now available at http://www.amstat.org/sections/info/