How Can I Help???


Updating the website with all the cool whistles and bells is a very long and arduous task for any one person, but just about anyone in the club can help in some way or another!


If you want to help, email me at "myancey AT vt.edu"


Pictures   Having nifty pictures of VTFC tournaments and official club socials makes the website fun! Example: USACFC 2004. All you need to do is bring a camera (preferably digital) and shoot some pictures! Note: all pictures must be of an official VTFC (ie. "family-friendly") nature. You can donate them to the website (or the yearbook) by just piling them all up on a CD/DVD/FlashDrive/etc. and give them to the webmaster (or one of the officers, with instructions to give to the webmaster).

If have a photo-editing program, and you *really* want to be awesome, you can not only give the originals to the webmaster/officers, but you can make edited website-friendly versions of them as well. Usually this involves a bit of cropping, shrinking, sharpening, and auto-leveling/auto-contrasting... see any of our current galleries for examples of appropriately-sized/edited images. Doing this makes the webmaster's job soooooo much easier, as we can just take those edited images and stick them up on the website without having to run them through an editor. And of course you'll be credited at the bottom of the page forever for having donated the pictures and making the website more awesome!

 
HTML   If you know HTML decently, you have the ability to be invaluable to website development! Just look through the website and see how much is missing! And even some of the pages that aren't missing could be *greatly* improved upon. Email me if there's something in particular you'd like to update :) As long as the code is good, I'll put up your code and sign it with your name at the bottom!

And if you happen to be really good at designing websites... it's been a while since the website has undergone a general facelift. I'd like to re-design the front navigation page to something a little more modern. It's just so blah right now, with the standard orange/maroon font with very little in the way of pictures. I feel that the main page should probably have a fencer, or epee, or something on it. Maybe a more sophisticated nav bar.

But just as a warning, not all submitted pages may be posted. If for any reason the new page doesn't look right, seems to be a blatent ripoff of another website, or isn't superior to the older version (as determined by the webmaster), the page may not be posted. But, it will remain on file so that it can be used in the future, if needed.

 
Graphic Design   If you're good with designing graphics, just look around! There are tons of places on the website where a graphic would look so much better than standard type. Perhaps you could even work on something pretty on the main page so that it looks a lot less boring (see above HTML section for rant on the main page).

 
Stories   Sometimes a mere photo gallery just isn't enough... see VTFC Children of The Corn or Maloy's Cop and Donut Story. If you'd like to add a more interesting touch to a photo gallery (and you were actually there and not making stuff up!) feel free to add your own personal synopsis of the event! And even if you're not too familiar with HTML, just let me know where you'd like to have the photos in your story and I'll make sure the formatting works out. You can donate your own photos, or use the ones already in the photo galleries.

Also, if you have a fun story that isn't connected to any photos, feel free to donate that as well! As long as it's a 'family-friendly' story, it should be fine to post. I'll even sign your name at the bottom so that everybody knows how you contributed to life in the VTFC :P

 
Scanning   Currently I'm working a pet-project of mine: 'Virtual Yearbooks!' Pretty much I'm just scanning in our current yearbooks for prosperity, and eventually posting a smaller version of each of them online for everybody to view. If you have a decent scanner and wish to help, I'd love it if you scanned in a yearbook (or two!). And even if you don't have a scanner, there are many available on campus that you can use.

But if scanning isn't your thing, and you still want to help with the Virtual Yearbooks, you can always be responsible for shrinking/editing the scanned files into a smaller, web-based version.

 
Old School   It's sad, but true -- the club has been notoriously bad about keeping records over the years. I don't even think we have the old yearbooks (before 2000). This is a terrible, terrible crime. I'd like to ask very much for some of our alumni to donate whatever they possibly can to fill in the void of the "Old School" fencing section of this website. You can donate photos, officer lists, or even fun stories or memories you have of the club! As long as they're "family-friendly", I'll post them and sign your name at the bottom!

 
NEW FENCING VIDEO   A lot of the newer VTFC members may not know this, but we actually do have a Fencing Demo Video that the club made back in 2002-3 (thank you, Ryan!). I have converted the tape to DVD and donated it to the club, but many people still haven't seen it. So, I uploaded it into Facebook here. Enjoy!

Also, Sarah and I are currently working on a NEW FENCING VIDEO! This requires *a lot* of work, so please, if you want to suggest ideas, donate pictures/video, play with editing software, etc... Please let either of us know!

Any questions/comments about our page? E-mail fenceweb@vt.edu
3/15/09