Background
Alpha Phi Omega (APO) is a national service fraternity. For 2 years I have served as the webmaster and VP of Administration with the UC Berkeley chapter.
My responsibilities include creating new websites, managing newsletters, and other logistical roles. You can check out our current website here.
Public Website
Collaborator: Audrey Tsai.
As the Fall 2015 webmaster, I created a new public website using HTML/CSS, jQuery, and Bootstrap. This was my first semester as webmaster and my attempt at a self-taught front-end project. It includes pages describing our organization, service projects, and contact information.
Fall Fellowship Website
Collaborators: Edson Romero, Jeffrey Li.
As the Fall 2016 VP of Administration, I led 2 webmasters to create a temporary "Fall Fellowship" website. Fall Fellowship is an annual event hosted by a university in Northern California. This semester, UC Berkeley hosted it. The template was inspired by our public website. However, hosting it involved creating a new subdomain and configuring it through Git.
Member Website
Main Collaborators: Audrey Tsai, Benjamin Le.
For 2+ years, I have helped manage the APO member site. Here, members can view service events, manage their own service hours, and arrange other social events with fellow members. However, the old website's interface is less appealing and the backend uses PHP. Meanwhile, the new member website is in-progress, includes better organization flow, and uses the Python Flask framework.
Takeaways
- SQL: Our member site includes years of membership information. As webmaster, I have learned to use MySQL and manage membership data. I also now know how easy it is to mess up a SQL query through firsthand experience, along with the fallout that can ensue...
- Communication: When members have website issues, they refer to me or fellow webmasters. As such, it is important to know exactly what their issues are, in order to resolve them quickly and efficiently.
- Intuitive design: Nevertheless, some members have issues with the website simply because they don't know how to access something. For example, members wanted to learn about reimbursements after paying for events. However, the "Reimbursement" tab was originally not a part of the website. After conducting a survey with the active members, we decided to include the "Reimbursement" tab as part of the main website.
Alpha Phi Omega has taught me valuable lessons about leading an organization and has provided me some of my closest friends. Through ups-and-downs, I am thankful to have contributed to the organization in a meaningful way.
