New Web Site Preview!

The staff at the Skagit Valley Family YMCA are hard at work creating a new YMCA web site.

"The time is now because we need to reorganize our activities and change our look to match the new national re-branding guidelines," Marketing Director Vanessa Harrington said.

The new web site, planned to launch in mid-march, will have interactive calendars for each department/program that will allow users to see what activities are coming up filtered by each day, week, and/or month. It will also allow users to search for specific activities within that department. For example, someone interested in trying the Boot Camp fitness class, will be able to search for just Boot Camp classes on the fitness calendar. This will be the case for all registration deadlines, classes, special events, closures, and more!

The staff are very excited about the web site because it will allow them to make changes as they come up, post their own flyers/registration forms, and add events to the calendars without going through another person. This should reduce the amount of time it takes to update information on the web site...and the program directors will have no one to blame but themselves if the appropriate information isn't on the web site.

"We're so grateful for the web site we have right now; it was a huge improvement from the one we had before," Membership Director Cindy Lindquist said. "Before our current web site, we couldn't even put registration forms or flyers up without an ordeal. But now it's time to change again and we're hoping members and the general public will respond."



Users will notice programs and information is organized quite a bit differently, which all has to do with the re-branding that took place in July of 2010. The web site is organized in a way to emphasize the focus and impact of the Y...not just the services we offer. Visually, users will see white space, bright colors, and beautiful pictures that are now a part of the Y brand!

"It's all very exciting," Vanessa said. "It's taken a lot of work to get everything organized and we're still making changes, but it will improve the experience of members, make information more accessible, and look like 'the Y.'"

Even after the new web site launches, it will not be complete. In the not-too-distant future, we are also hoping to add the capability for online registration of activities. But first things first...