In 2013, the Friend of the Court Association (FOCA) partnered with Courtland Consulting to redesign and repurpose its website. There were two main goals in this project: to reestablish the web presence for the public; and to create a more effective communication tool for membership. Members collaborated and gave input on the website layout, purpose, and functionality. By all accounts, this has been a tremendous success.
The first step was to rebrand FOCA’s domain to make it clearer that there was a Michigan focus. Prior to this rebranding, it was unclear that FOCA served the needs of Michigan’s children and families.
The next step was to develop a new website, which was released in two phases. Now, the new website includes an interactive and user-friendly design that provides information to the general public and includes a private portal for members. Within the first year, FOCA saw a 28 percent increase in unique visitors.
The private portal redesign is the most important part of this effort. Within this portal, members can post job opportunities, update member directories, register for conferences, post events and meetings to an online calendar, and participate in news and discussion blogs. The conference registration and discussion blogs have been noted as the most important and successful changes. FOCA members are now able to register for upcoming conferences online and apply for fee waivers for those conferences with great ease. According to Trisha Andrzejewski, the addition of conference registration and materials has become a great resource tool. In addition, the automation of documents has sped up the registration and documentation process, therebyenabling volunteers to save time and focus on other issues. Documents are also posted for board meetings.
The discussions blog revolutionized how members communicate. According to Judah Garber, Washtenaw County Friend of the Court, “Communication among members is key to all FOCA’s missions and is perhaps the Association’s most important function as an end in itself. Members possess a great deal of collective knowledge and experience. It is interesting and valuable to share that knowledge and learn how our counterparts conduct business in our diverse offices throughout Michigan.”
Prior to the revamp, a listserve was used for members to pose questions to the group. Unless emails were saved, the listserve was unsearchable and did not allow members to review prior questions and answers. Mr. Garber stated, “The blogging application, in particular, has increased the number and variety of group discussions and participants. The website allows members to post discussions (blogs) by topic so users can participate in or read discussions of interest to them. It is much easier to find old discussion threads, sorted by topic in the archives, than it was to search through old emails. Committees can have their own sub-lists and/or discussions.”
Because of the public resources available, clients are finding the forms and contact information they need for their local friend of the court office. Members are able to easily communicate and receive answers, register for conferences and review conference materials. Overall, the redesign has been a large success.
