Sample record from the experimental lodge database created in 2001
At our Stated Meeting for March, discussion was held on the current status and future development of our Lodge website. At the end of the discussion the Worshipful Master directed WB Buda to go ahead with the separation of the public area of the site from the tyled Members' Section.
Background: The Lodge's first tentative steps into the computer age took place in the mid-90s, when the Secretary, WB Hodges, installed a custom-made Masonic application on an MS-DOS Toshiba laptop computer and used it for maintaining membership records, generating monthly and annual Grand Lodge reports, and printing out dues cards.
The next step was to take the Lodge online. In 1999 a cheap Compaq desktop computer was purchased from the Yokosuka PX and, after much consideration, Global OnLine (GOL) was chosen as our Internet Service Provider (ISP). The main reason for selecting GOL was its bilingual support, which proved invaluable when technical problems were experienced with the initial setup.
Unfortunately the Masonic database application which had proved so useful to Bro Secretary would not run under the Windows operating system, and its developer had long since left Japan. WB Buda created an alternative database application (see screenshot below) that was able to duplicate approximately 90% of the functions of the original application, but was never able to completely automate the generation of Grand Lodge reports.
Sample record from the experimental lodge database created in 2001
Within weeks of going online, full use was being made of our new email address to send notices of meetings and respond to queries from Brethren, and MWB Watanabe created a small lodge website to take advantage of the 25MB web space provided by our GOL account.
The Far East Lodge No. 1 website grew rapidly, especially after the creation of a private Members' Section for lodge minutes, members' directories, and photo albums.
In 2002 the Lodge moved to the new Yokohama Temple in Honmoku Midorigaoka and a new computer was installed in the Secretary's Office. Consideration was given to upgrading the dialup account with GOL to high-speed fiber-optic access, but this proved physically impossible because of limitations in the NTT cable network. With the Secretaries of both Yokohama lodges doing more and more work from home, it was decided to stay with the cheapest dialup account and preserve our familiar "lodge1@gol.com" address.
Problems: This decision placed three limits on our website:
All of the above problems could have been solved by switching to another provider, but the monthly cost of our account would have increased dramatically.
Proposal: Against this background, WB Buda suggested a compromise solution:
The work of separating the two sections of our website was completed in mid-March. The public area files continue to be located on gol.com servers in Japan, but the Members' Section is now hosted on servers in California. However, thanks to the efficiency of the modern Internet, switching from public to private areas is almost instantaneous and many Brethren will perhaps never notice the difference in setup.
However, if any Brethren have bookmarked pages within the Members' Section, they may be surprised to find themselves asked to provide an ID and Password. They need do this only once, as the system will remember that they have permission to browse within the tyled section.
The division of the two sections required changes to several thousand links. It is highly likely that a few old or broken links remain, and Bro Secretary would welcome reports of any such links.
The new arrangement will give us almost unlimited expansion space for our Members' Section and make possible the use of discussion forums and searchable databases.