TheRock Hill School District Foundation is a non-profit 501 c 3 organization that works very close with the Rock Hill School District Three.

The core business of the foundation is to support programming that enhances the teaching and learning experience. Grants may be awarded to district faculty and staff for district-sanctioned activities that are outside the financial support of the school site and/or general operating budget. A volunteer board of directors independently manages the Foundation.   Sponsors and volunteers in the community generally give funding through donations. Directors represent all aspects of the Rock Hill Community.

Nature of The Situation

The Rock Hill School District Foundation had a website, but it was a bit outdated and did not represent the vision of the foundation.  They desired a newer and fresher look that would reflect their vision and goals.  They needed a better way to connect with their supporters and the ability to display the activities  they were working on.  Since the foundation relies on donations, they wanted a way to receive donations via the website.

Nature of the Solution

RevenFlo and The Hive students began the process of collecting pictures, information, and content for The Rock Hill School District Foundation. Then, we rewrote the content to make it original and keyword optimized.

We selected WordPress as our technology for the project, and we began the process of strategic wireframing. In this stage we made critical decisions about what content goes where and what functionality exists in the site. We worked with the client to flush out the details.

Next, we moved into the design stage and created graphic designs of the site could look like aesthetically. We explored the color scheme of the logo and added some extras graphical features to make the site visually compelling.

After design, we moved into development and created a custom theme for the WordPress technology that suited both the design and the wireframe (functionality and all). With a fully developed website filled to the brim with keyword optimized content about the Foundation, we began the process of testing, tweaking, and editing. We also began the process of training the staff of RHSDF to manage the content on the website themselves (a critical part of their strategy).

Summary

The new design gives the Rock Hill School District Foundation the ability to better inform their visitors of the events and activities going on within the foundation and district. Visitors can donate via the website, and they can read articles and view images of the various events.

The Vision

The superintendents of South Carolina have put forward a Vision for Education. Not a strategic plan but a guiding vision of the future of education in the state.

After the process of developing and articulating that vision, Dr. Lynn Moody of Rock Hill brought it to Jason in the form of an elegant document and asked him to help them through the next question, what do we do with this vision now? How do we share it in a way that will make it a mechanism for positive change?

We started with “What are the desired outcomes?” and put forward that we want

• People to engage with the vision.
• People to contribute to the vision.
• People to begin to take ownership of the vision.
• People to use the vision to frame conversations.
• People to employ the vision in producing positive change.

The Project

As RevenFlo entered the project, we had a clear mission: To use the Internet to inspire human interaction and discussion around the vision.

We broke the project into two stages:

Stage 1: The Presentation

Let’s create an online experience that presents the vision in a poetically simple fashion.

Stage 2: The Conversation

As soon as the site is up, let’s begin the conversation around the vision. Let’s push outward to students and teachers and parents and beyond, so that the greater population takes ownership of the conversation.

The Presentation

We knew the presentation of this vision would be on the Internet. It would be primarily interfaced with through the internet. So what was that interface to do? What role will the Internet play in that outcome?

We want to

1. present the vision to the public in a compelling way that encourages people to interact with it and understand it and
2. ensure that energy created from the vision will build, not wane, after its presented.

The first part of the project is to create a website that can be accessed by the public and that is compelling. So, what would make it compelling?

We believe the most compelling part of the vision was the series of “snapshots” that showed us images of what education would look like.

Each of these ideas is an engagement point for a single person. Each provides an image of education in which a person could engage because that particular idea is important to them. It is real to them. They can relate.

Each of these ideas can generate a world of conversation and endless opportunity to engage in the educational process.

If we are successful in inspiring people to engage with these ideas and growth them and explore them and use them to affect positive change, then we are successful in this work.

With success in this work, we are a community engaged in educating our children – truly a village raising a child.

First Prototype

So, we decided to make each of these snapshots a single piece of content that was an interface for sharing that single idea through sharing and other social mechanisms and behavior. We had to really focus on the interface. And we needed to do it through an iterative process, a prototyping process.

Interface Design

We believe a lot is riding on the digital interface to stimulate and guide the online communications efforts, and that these communications are ultimately what we are trying to achieve – conversation, interaction, content creation, and collaboration from the citizens of the state.

The idea of the site is to create an interactive launching pad for conversations on and around the vision that is being put forward, but not just on the vision, more specifically on each of the visual snapshots of the vision. Each an opportunity for a powerful conversation in the state of South Carolina and in the world of K12 Education.

We used WordPress as our base technology then integrated Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. We then pushed the boundaries of interface to get beyond this thing being “a website” about the superintendents’ vision. Samir, working with Jason and Chad, really pushed the boundaries of interface to make the project something special.

We look forward to the coming Hive project to allow much more content organization, tagging, optimizing, and engagement.

Why is RevenFlo excited about this project?

Jason, Chad, Michelle, Samir, and Cindy all worked very hard on this project. Great work everybody!

Why is the design team excited about this project?

The design team is made up of district-level instructional and technology staff from a group of districts around the state. These volunteers have guided and contributed great value to the process and the project.

Why are superintendents excited about the project?

The superintendents in South Carolina are doing something serious and significant with the project. Their motivation is a website or an internet marketing campaign. Their motivation is to get the population of the state to engage with education in a way that will shape our future.

Rock Hill heating and air company Comfort Zone provides top notch service in sales, installation, and repair of all major heating and cooling brands while installing American Standard, York, and Geostar.  Their owners and partners have been in the heating and air conditioning business for a combined 40 years.  Comfort Zone of The Carolinas has been in business since 2005.
Comfort Zone’s expert team of heating and air conditioning technicians perform the work for their residential and commercial customers.  Services include routine maintenance, repairs and new system replacements. Their heating and cooling technicians are NATE-certified and undergo constant training and retraining in order to stay on top of their industry. Comfort Zone of The Carolinas is a local name that the people of Rock Hill SC can count on.

About the Situation

Comfort Zone of The Carolinas needed a clean professional and functional website that optimized their brand.  They wanted to increase their presence on the web, increasing and generating leads.  Another goal Comfort Zone wanted to accomplish was to develop a way to interact with the traffic coming to their site.

About the Solution

The finished product is a CMS (Content Management System) built in WordPress.  The WordPress platform offered the desired aesthetic as well as the ability for Comfort Zone staffers to make updates and changes to the site with relative ease.

We selected the elegant theme to meet the fresh web 2.0 look and intuitive navigation that Comfort Zone was seeking. The  web team designed a downloadable coupon as well as integrated an online pre-approval process for Comfort Zone customers’ convenience.

We also wrote optimized copy for the site pages, entered company information into relevant directory listings, such as Merchant Circle and Google pages to increase Comfort Zone presence on the web.  Taking advantage of growth opportunities for Comfort Zone, our web team added a  Rock Hill Geothermal section to the site.  Another great feature of the open source format is that it integrates well with SEO and optimization efforts.

The site went live and right into use for active Internet Marketing by the RevenFlo Web Team.

The Hive serves real clients to bolster the success of those organizations while using the work as curriculum to train students.

During their normal class time, Hive students presented the work they have worked on for their clients since the Hive kicked off in January.  Designing info graphics, creating color pallets, posting promotional videos, their experience working with a content management system and conducting interviews were just a few executed items the students discussed in their presentations. The students are expected to deliver completed projects to their clients in May.  Check out the Herald’s article on The Hive and the students’ presentations.  For more information go to hiveu.me.

The Hive is a collaborative program that includes York Technical College, Winthrop University, The City of Rock Hill, Comporium Communications, a group of enrolled students, and RevenFlo.   Located on the 3rd floor of the Citizen’s building in Old Town Rock Hill, The Hive puts students right in the middle of downtown action.

The Hive is a collaborative program that includes York Technical College, Winthrop University, The City of Rock Hill, Comporium Communications, a group of enrolled students, and RevenFlo.   Located on the 3rd floor of the Citizen’s building in Old Town Rock Hill, The Hive puts students right in the middle of downtown action.

The Hive is a collaborative program that includes York Technical College, Winthrop University, The City of Rock Hill, Comporium Communications, a group of enrolled students, and RevenFlo.   Located on the 3rd floor of the Citizen’s building in Old Town Rock Hill, The Hive puts students right in the middle of downtown action.

About Catawba COG

Catawba Regional Council of Governments was originally formed as Central Piedmont Regional Planning Commission in 1970.  Early work included regional planning in the areas of health, historic preservation, and land use.  During the 1970s, the Planning Council became involved in establishing senior citizens programs in each county, created programs in highway safety and public safety, and worked in recreation planning and water and sewer planning.  The Planning Council also developed skills in helping local governments write and administer federal and state grant projects.

Catawba Regional COG became increasingly involved in planning initiatives covering the entire Charlotte urban area.  In May 1995, the agency moved to its new home at 215 Hampton Street in Rock Hill.  The Catawba Regional Center provides a permanent home for the agency and also represents an investment on behalf of the member governments.  In 1999, the name of the organization was changed to the Catawba Regional Council of Governments to better reflect its role and function.

For over thirty years, the COG has provided a broad vision and strong partnerships to make local government work for the people of Chester, Lancaster, Union, and York counties.  The COGparticipates in a host of activities that contribute to the quality of life for the region.  The work of the COG has been recognized with a number of awards at the state and national levels.

Nature of the Situation

The Catawba COG had issued an RFP seeking a solution to update their existing website.  They wanted a fresh looking site with a web 2.0 feel as well as functionality that allowed COG employees to update and maintain the site.  Another important aspect was to be able to convert substantial amounts of content from the old site to the new site.  The COG also wanted a site that had aesthetic appeal with the balance of text and visual graphics.  One element that was crucial was to develop a site that facilitated continued growth and presence in the community.  This meant the updated site needed to be SEO friendly as well.  RevenFlo needed to design and build a site that could accommodate the COG’s needs as well as promote their brand in a consistent and accurate manner.

Web Strategy and Planning

The RevenFlo Web Team had strategy meetings with the some of the COG staffers to make sure we had a strong grasp on their goals and objectives prior to the redesign and development initiative.  We also had to ensure that the site met ADA Requirements, which are federally mandated.  To ensure we met requirements and achieved their vision, we kept open lines of communication throughout the process.  The main strategy was to develop a clean web 2.0 site in open source so the COG could make updates and maintain the site with relative ease.

Web Design and Development

The finished product is a CMS (Content Management System) built in WordPress.  The WordPress platform offered the desired aesthetic as well as the ability for COG staffers to make updates and changes to the site with relative ease.  e selected the Sandbox theme to meet the fresh web 2.0 look and intuitive navigation that the COG was seeking  The web team designed a header was complimentary to the existing COG logo.  The redesigned site also features an area to disseminate commonly requested documents and an events calendar that showcases upcoming events.  We also inserted a marquee with rotating images that can be changed by COG staffers.  The site development also addressed the needs of the COG staff and Board of Directors with a staff login for access to internal documents and information.  Another great feature of the open source format is that it integrate well with SEO and optimization efforts.

Web Maintenance and Training

The RevenFlo Web Team provides maintenance service for the COG based on any request they have to make changes and upgrades to the site.  We also offer training  on an as needed basis to ensure they leverage all of the features their site offers.  GO HERE to visit the live COG site!

Summary

If anyone is interested in learning more about our practices and methodologies feel free to email us at info@revenflo.com or call 803.328.6033.