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The Not-for-Profit Webmaster Round Table was started by
David Milner in October 1999. He had
spent a few years working as The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals' Webmaster, and at the time was employed as the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America's Web Site Producer.
The first meeting took place at the headquarters of The ASPCA.
Along with
The ASPCA and Planned Parenthood, the organizations represented were the American Museum
of Natural History, Amnesty International, The Museum of Modern Art, Planned Parenthood of New York City, the
Natural Resources Defense Council, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Queens Borough Public Library and The Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Both technical and
non-technical issues were discussed. Among the issues given the most
attention were conducting outreach via the Internet, accepting donations
online and outsourcing work.
One of the more innovative ideas raised during the meeting
was sending volunteers armed with Palm Pilots and keyboards to concerts, street
fairs and other public events in order to gain subscribers to electronic newsletters.
Subsequent meetings of the Round Table have been held on
a quarterly basis at the offices of The ASPCA, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other not-for-profit
organizations based in Manhattan.
Among the issues discussed at the meetings have been
Internet security, marketing, browser compatibility, HTML editors, Web design,
volunteer use, Web-based publishing systems and disaster recovery.
Since August 2000, many of the meetings have featured brief
presentations given by Web development, hosting and/or marketing firms that
provide services either primarily or exclusively for not-for-profits.
Since the beginning of 2001, attendees have had an
opportunity at each of the meetings to offer comments about one or more not-for-profit
Web sites in order to compare their thoughts on design, navigation, technology
implementation and other related issues.
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