The NAPA website has gone on a crazy journey over the past 10 years.  What was once an AOL website with the beginnings of Academy information, created by an insightful Board member, has evolved into what some have called “the Hummer of all websites.”                                                                                     

We have embarked upon yet another website journey, the complete redesign and recreation of the NAPA website.  WHAT!  Stop the press… what is THIS all about? You read it right, a brand new website.  So what’s the scoop… since our current website is only 5 years old.

When we changed to Association Management last year, we were quick to learn that we needed different website function in order for our professional staff to meet our Academy needs and desires.  We had spent large time and money on the website, which houses a very large amount of data and history on our members.  Unfortunately, our website was underutilized by our previous staff and did not meet the needs of our new management staff.

As a result of our dilemma, the NAPA Board was faced with two choices.  We could either “fix and update” our current website to be more compatible with the office staff’s needs, or we could completely redo the website to be more durable.  The “fix and update” was a very pricey proposition and would still land NAPA with a website that may need to be completely re-vamped in about 3-4 years.  The other option was to completely rebuild.  Rebuilding?  Why yes, that doesn’t come cheap either.

To all those computer gurus, our current website was designed in a language that met our needs 5 years ago, but is growing obsolete.  A new website could be designed with a durable language that would last 10-15 or more years.  The trick was to land ourselves with a durable website that the members found a good professional resource but still included all the “bells and whistles” that we are used to having in a website. The website committee collected several bids for new sites (and considered the bid to “fix” the current one). The Board weighed all its options, reviewed the web committee’s proposals, and selected Rebel Interactive, an Omaha-based development firm, to re-create a website for NAPA.

As of November 21st, NAPA will have its new spiffy website to peruse and admire.  Preliminary “peaks” have left this author with “wow”.  It’s professional, functional, and “smooth”.  Staff and website administrators will probably see the biggest benefit.  NAPA will be able to maintain all its member’s information on its website and still allow it to be with seamless function for staff.

The NAPA website has been an interesting ride.  We need to thank Michelle Dibaise for being a pioneer with NAPA  Joe Crum was brought in and truly made us a custom website from scratch, weathering every change and tweak we requested (when we didn’t even know what we really needed or wanted).  Without Joe’s patience and insight, we would not have the foundation from which we have been given a great website. From there, we were able to direct Rebel Interactive to develop and design our now new website with features we can truly enjoy and utilize, and serve our members with. website design and creating the first website for our Academy.

A large goal of the website committee is to make this new website even more of a professional resource than the most recent website.  We are committed to having it link to more effective tools for everyday PA clinic use as well as professional resources.  Have something you think the website can offer to make it more functional? Drop us a line.  We are constantly looking to make the website more useful to NAPA members.

The members should also see some general benefits regarding look, organization, functionality, ease of use.  It’s only as good as the members make it.  Nothing on the calendar?  Let us know what we are missing.  Is there a big PA issue that should be on the home page?  Well, drop a line… we’ll get it there.  Have interest in posting ideas, keeping the website looking fresh?  Help us out.  It doesn’t need to take much time at all to make this one of the greatest Academy websites. Welcome!