The European Regions of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) are excited to announce the launch of their new joint regional website – WE Connect.
This article gives an overview of the features of the new joint regional website.
What is WE Connect?
WE Connect (https://weconnect.eu.com/) is the new and improved joint digital platform of the European Scout Region of WOSM and the Europe Region WAGGGS. A Joint Volunteer Team worked together in developing the website since autumn 2017.
WE Connect is a digital hub to communicate joint work and share best Guiding and Scouting practices, resources, news and opportunities for Member Organizations of both Regions.
WE Connect is the successor of Europak (http://www.europak-online.net/), which was the joint platform since at least 2010, when it had followed a regular joint postal mailing, also called Europak.
Who is WE Connect for?
The main target audience of the joint website remains the same: the two Regions primarily want to reach the key volunteers of the Member Organizations of both Regions and, through them, any relevant other members of the Scout and Guide associations in Europe. WE Connect complements the respective websites of the two Movements (WOSM: scout.org; WAGGGS: wagggs.org).
How is WE Connect different from EUROPAK?
The Joint Working Group has updated design elements and improved the user-friendliness of the website. Any post on WE Connect is now published in one of five categories: Opportunities, News, Projects, Events, and Resources, whereas in Europak, all posts were essentially either published in a central feed or in the Events section.
Direct one-click links to relevant regional projects and actions now figure at the bottom of the website under the title “We love…”.
95% of the content presentation on WE Connect is dynamic. The only static content is the information users see on the landing page under the heading “About us”.
Which content is published in which of the five categories?
According to the Joint Working Team’s concept all dynamic content on WE Connect is allocated to one of five sections. No post will appear in more than one category.
- Opportunities : Here, you will find Calls for Volunteers, job vacancies, Calls for Participants (event invitations), Calls for Partners, and similar opportunities.
- News: In this section you will find actual news and stories about work and activities in and of the two Regions with a focus on work in partnership.
- Projects: Any projects of the two Regions, either individually or jointly, for example: Roverway, The Academy, Time to be Welcome, My Europe My Say.
- Events: This page provides an overview of all events of both Regions, including any related documents and contact details. (Very similar to the Events section on Europak).
- Resources: This is the place for all current resources of both Regions and complements existing libraries on the respective websites of both Regions.
The first couple of months will show whether this strict categorisation in five different content areas makes sense and indeed meets the needs of publisher and reader.
What happens with content published on Europak?
There is currently no plan to transfer all or parts of the content published on Europak to the new joint website. However, Europak will remain accessible to the general public at least until the end of 2019.
(Regional Circular 21 2019)