Websites for learned societies
bringing your community together online
A website can help bring societies together, either as a purely online meeting place, or more commonly, as a place to organise community meetings and conferences. In 2020, many of these meetings have been online, and your society website can act as a portal for members to access your chosen online forum.
A society website can provide:
- A public section for general announcements and news
- A members section, where members can manage their accounts, and which may additionally permit private communications, polls on professional matters and secret ballots for council elections.
- A management section, where appointed councillors can manage website content, approve membership applications, and review membership issues.
Example society websites built by CookandKaye:
BioMedEng Association, 2021
The BioMedEng Association was founded in 2008. It represents academics from over 20 UK universities and institutes working in multidisciplinary programmes that use engineering tools and techniques to solve problems arising from biology and medicine.
The website is based on our 'off the peg' model, but introduces dedicated conference hosting and management facilities for the first time...
Society for Natural Sciences, 2020
The Society for Natural Sciences (SNS) is a professional body for scientists, educators and students working across the discipline boundaries of science. It offers an accredited degree programme, seminars and conferences to its student and academic membership.
Our blog post introuces some of the security policies adopted for society websites to protect member's data:
UK Society for Biomaterials (UKSB), 2019
The UK Society for Biomaterials (UKSB) is a non-profit organization working to develop novel biomaterials to tackle current clinical needs for medical devices, prosthetics and for regenerative medicine. Their membership interests include medical materials science, biosensors, biomechanics, biocompatibility, tissue engineering, and many other subjects.
The site home page introduces the society and showcases its online presence on the Twitter platform.
Tissue and Cell Engineering Society (TCES), 2016
Tissue and Cell Engineering Society (TCES) has the aim of furthering knowledge, research and dissemination of information on cell and tissue engineering. Founded in 1999 by people coming from many different scientific disciplines and environments (industry, universities, research centres, government agencies) across the United Kingdom, TCES aims to promote the propagation of scientific information, stimulate the creation of research programmes, co-operate with other scientific organisations, and act as a source of expert information related to tissue and cell engineering.
The site was built in WordPress using the 'mobile first' design docterine, with the inclusion of News, Facebook and Twitter feeds in the home page. There is a separate login secured section for membership information and payments.
The screenshot above left was taken from a smartphone.
European Society of Biomechanics
The European Society of Biomechanics is a learned society founded in 1976 to encourage research, disseminate knowledge and promote progress in Biomechanics.
The new home-page design brings together an introduction to the society, alongside a calendar of events, news and a visual demonstration of the work the society is engaged in. It also offers a public platform for the ESBiomech's corporate members, and a private means for other members to get in contact with each other.
The package has been extended to offer conference archival facilities, and to offer secret ballots for members to elect their representatives in the society.
The site design has been updated to make it mobile friendly - the initial design being completed sometime before this bacame important!
Contact us for more information – or read on:
Society website features
Over the last decade we have developed a range of features taylored to our client's evolving requirements. These include:
- Design that focusses on performance; reducing your ongoing hosting costs, whilst providing an online resource for your membership.
- Up to eight custom levels of membership, three of which are reserved for appointed classes, such as Honorary members and Fellows.
- Easy-to-use WordPress content management platform; allowing you to add, and update content easily, keeping the cost of site maintenance to a minimum.
- The WordPress templating system permits relatively simple upgrades to site styling, allowing you to keep a contemporary look and feel inexpensively.
- A Newsletter component; which can be integrated with your membership database, allowing you to contact members with regular bulletins. Members can select whether or not to receive non-essential communications.
- The PayPal payments gateway manages membership and other payments to the society. PayPal offers a safe means for the society to manage financial transactions online. Payments can be accepted from major credit and debit cards, or direct from the payee’s bank account. PayPal fees are extremely competitive for registered charities, and there are no third party fees or commissions.
- Members receive payment reminders when their membership expires. Membership periods can either be ‘free-range’, or run from a set date each year.
- Membership and society accounts are available at-a-glance in the administration section, and also available as CSV (spreadsheet) downloads.
- 2-Factor authentication is available for Councillor’s login, to protect membership data.
- We can offer assistance with the import of existing membership databases.
Many of these are now available 'off the peg', bringing you a significant discount in the development of a new society website to fit your needs.
