How does it work?

How does it work?
RCMS works by breaking up the types of website content into small self-contained content modules. Content modules are simply “building blocks” that each handle a specific type of content, like a personnel contacts list, events calendar, or a list of announcements. Each module contains all the functionality to allow the author to easily specify what the content is, how it should look, where it should appear on the page, and even who should see it. In addition, each content module has all the intelligence it needs to present the content in a professional manner automatically – without any programming or technical knowledge by the author.

Typically, several content modules are grouped together to create a web page, with a wide range of complexity within each. Modules can be as simple as a plain text display or as complex as a full-featured tournament management application that renders a graphical display of tournament draws and results.

Although many of the underlying concepts and tools of RCMS could easily be applied to any website, RCMS has been crafted specifically to address the needs of the racquetball community. In addition to standard website content such as images and text, RCMS also includes over 15 content modules tailored to handle racquetball-specific content like tournament calendars, newsletters, graphical draw sheets, and player profiles.  

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the RCMS system – and racquetball in general – is its sense of community. As more and more website “channels” are added, all of the data contained in each website is unified across the RCMS “network.”  All the information entered into tournament, player, and club/facility modules is automatically shared between every website using the RCMS system.  For example, a tournament entered on the GeorgiaRacquetball.com website is also included on a global tournament listing which can be viewed via any other website using the RCMS system. All data can be sorted for a variety of applications and visitors can quickly search the database for local and national tournaments, players and facilites – and much more – from any RCMS website.

To facilitate improved communication between organzations and their audiences, RCMS offers a number of built-in tools that keeps the process simple. Easy-to-use modules for bulk-email (with opt-in/opt-out email lists), HTML newsletters, and even a unified national discussion forum are just a few of the options already being employed by RCMS founder sites. Even simpler is the shared login for all RCMS websites, which allows visitors to login and interact with every RCMS enabled website at once. No more having to remember dozens of usernames and passwords! 

Features & benefits

Features & Benefits

Online administration of everything – Everything about the website is managed via the web browser. There are no special software or hardware requirements.

 

Easy to use – Absolutely NO need for any web authoring tools or coding proficiency. Anyone with basic word processing skills can do it.

 

Unified racquetball database – Each organization can share its data within the network and visitors to any RCMS website can easily find tournaments, facilities, and players from any RCMS website.

 

Professional quality, unlimited support – RCMS is built from the ground up by a professional web developer and unlimited support is available via email or phone.

 

Integration with TMS (coming soon) – Seamlessly transfer data between your RCMS website and the leading tournament management application (TMS from Sirius Software). RCMS has partnered with Sirius Software to offer the most complete website and tournament management suite available anywhere. www.tennisinformation.com

 

Integration with USAR* (coming soon) – Seamlessly transfer data between your RCMS website and USAR systems. This transfer of data will be easy, seamless and require very little effort from you. *Note: this functionality is dependent on the USAR making these system interfaces available.

 

Robust Content Modules – With over 40 different types of content modules, most of your design work has already been done! You can add any module to a page and alter the layout at any time. RCMS has over 20 modules build specifically for managing racquetball related content such as graphical tournament draws, online tournament entries, player profiles, and much more.

 

Custom Modules – You can have custom modules built for your specific needs and plug them into the system at any time. Any modules that have been custom built just for your website will only be available to your website.

 

Automatic File Management – File management is a powerful tool that allows administrators the ability to upload files and images directly from their computer directly to your portal. An uploaded file becomes instantly available to be utilized on your portal or listed in a module that handles documents or file downloads.

 

Stylesheet Driven – Your website is delivered with an inbuilt style sheet configured to your specifications. Style elements such as font type, color, bullet points and background colors are automatically applied to any new content added to your portal. This ensures a uniformed look and feel is maintained across the website.

 

Password Protected Content – You have full control over who can access each area the site. One site can feature a number of password protected areas allowing different access to buyers, suppliers, members, or resellers, depending on your main contact groups. You can even include a staff-only Intranet Area.

 

Site Settings – Your site Administrator can control all aspects of the site through the site setting page: title of site, search engine description and key words, user welcome messages, vendor banner advertising, and more!

 

Bulk Email – RCMS includes a bulk email feature that allows you to choose the mailing list to receive the email. Users have the ability to opt-in/opt-out of any mailing list in compliance with anti-spam regulations.

 

HTML Newsletters – In addition to the Bulk email service is an HTML Newsletter module that allows you to create, send and archive newsletter. Newsletter can be assigned to any group of users you desire, allowing powerful targeted marketing

 

Advertising Revenue – Receive payment for banner advertising and manage sophisticated advertising campaigns. The system automatically tracks the number of times an ad was displayed and tracks the number of click-throughs. Ads can also set to randomly display based on desired CPM and even set to expire on a certain date.

 

Search Engine Submission – Submit your website to the leading search engine Google directly from your web administration page. The RCMS has been specifically designed to supply Google with relevant information that will attempt to place your site in the best position on the Google search results. These important details that include the sites description and a list of keywords can be updated at any time via the Site Settings page.

 

Roles Based Security – Set the access and editing rights for each individual user. The user then simply logs in to the website and can immediately edit the content they have permissions for. Editing rights can be assigned across the whole website, a single page, or down to an individual module on any given page. You can configure any number of security groups with editing rights to different areas of your website. Each individual can then be assigned to multiple roles.

 

Website Analytics – The Site Log includes a number of reports on you site statistics including site hits, page views, browser information and more. A number of reports are available covering everything you would need to know about your user trends. Reports include: Detailed site log, Page popularity, Page views by day, Page views by day of week, Page views by hour, Page views by month, User frequency, User registration by country, User registration by date.

 

WYSIWYG Editing – Many of the modules use a built-in “WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet” editor assist in helping to layout the content. Advanced users also have the option to view the actual HTML code used in the presentation; however no HTML knowledge is required

 

Site Skins – Choose from a selection of pre-designed template site skins. Skins can be changed at any time, without the need to alter any of your content. Skinning allows a variety of alternative design options, giving your site a completely new look at the click of a button!  You can pick your look and feel from a pre-defined list of free skins or have a custom skin designed for you by a professional graphic artist.

 

Recycle Bin – The recycle bin automatically keeps track of any deleted content so you easily restore it in the event of error.

 

eStore (coming soon) – Built-in ecommerce store. Your visitors will be able to shop at a customized eStore branded just for your website in partnership with a racquetball product fulfillment partner. Revenue from the eStore will be split with the state association.

In addition, you will be able to setup your own private store front for selling any other type of goods or services directly to your visitors.

 

Mobile device support (coming soon) – Allows users to view the website content on their PDA or web enabled phone.

 

Current module list

Content Module List
Standard Website Content Modules

Account Login

• This simple module provdes the ability for the visitor to login to the website. 
• Once authenticated, registered users may be given special access to restricted areas of the website or content may be customized for particular user groups.
• Registered users are also able to interact with your website via online pools, posting messages in the Forum, maintaining their own Player Profile, maintaining court facility data, and much more.

Advertisements

• RCMS offers an integrated vendor and advertising management system, which includes the deployment of banner advertising.
• A simple vendor management interface gives administrators the ability to set the display period, size of advertisment, cost and number of impressions as well as managing the complete billing process. Banners can be any size and can be added to both the standard header banner or to any web pages on your portal. 
• RCMS can be configured to automatically email reports to your advertisers showing the number of times their advertisment was displayed and/or clicked on.

Announcements

• Announcements allows the author to display regular announcements to the visitor. The announcements module shows a portion of an article allowing the user to scan for content that is most relevant to them.
• Each announcement can be linked to either a local link (e.g. another page in your website), and external link (e.g. a page on a external site) or to a file (e.g. a PDF document that can be downloaded).
• Each announcement can be set to expire on a certain date. Setting an expiration date can be vitally important when posting specials offers or date sensitive material and the announcement will automatically disappear after the expiration date.
• The module also offers the option to syndicate the content (via RSS), allowing you to feed your announcements to other websites.

Contacts

• Allows you to display a list of contact information related to your website.
• Each contact includes name, position, email address, and two telephone numbers.

Discussion

• This module is a simplified version of a Forum module and allows very quick and easy communication on any subject.

Documents

• This module allows you create a document repository on any web page. 
• For example, you may wish to post hardcopy version of tounament applications, etc.
• The module include fields for document owner, last updated, etc.

Events List/Calendar

• This module resembles a calendar and allows you to add important information related to events or meetings .  The calendar can easily be switched to a list view depending on which best suits your purpose. You are also able to define repeat events across the calendar year.
• Management of this module is through a simple administration interface for both the List/Calendar display options as well as input fields for the following: Title, Description, Icon (optional), Occurs Every, Start Date and Expiration offer the following set to expire on any give date.  
• Note: this module is not intended for Tournaments as there is a special module just for Tournaments.

eStore (coming soon)

• This collection of modules will setup a virtual store online and handle all the products, categories, cross-selling, customer management, etc for selling things on the website.
• Revenue from any products sold through your website will be split with your organization

FAQs

• This module gives you the ability to add a list of Frequently Asked Questions to any part of your website.
• Questions and answers can be added, edited or deleted in relationship to customer feedback and requirements.

Feedback

• This module can be added to any area of the site to gather feedback related either to the overall website or to a specific subject.
• The module canbe configured to send the Feedback to any valid email address.

Form Creator

• The Form Creator module is an extremely flexible tool allowing you to create just about any type of online data driven form within a few minutes.
• Forms can be used to gather information from your visitors such as player profile data, court facility data, or even for conducting secure online voting procedures for things like board elections.
• All results from user-submitted forms are stored in the data base and can even quickly be exported to an Excel spreadsheet for analysis.

Forum

• The Forum is shared discussion area available to every organization on the RCMS system.
• Visitors to any website using the Forum will be able to see posts and talk to visitors to any other website using the Forum. This helps to build a sense of community both with your organization and also within the racquetball community as a whole.
• The Forum includes all the administrative functions you would expect including the ability to set up polls and even ban abusive posters.

IFrame

• The IFrame module allows you to quickly embed the entire content of another website directly into your website.
• For example, you could easily embed “www.espn.com” within a window on one of your web pages.

Image

• This module simply displays an image with the option to add a suitable description which is visible on mouse over.
• Images can be generated at any particular size, from the high resolution original stored on the server.
• The ability to generate thumbnails on the fly, improving the end user viewing experience especially over a slow Internet connection.

Links

• This module displays a list of hyperlinks to either external or internal content.
• Links can be created to any internal content located on any internal, stored as an image or file on your local server; or to a file, image or web page any external website.
• Links can be configured to display either vertically or horizontally on the page, or as a drop down box.
• Links will appear alphabetically by default, or you can manually set the order as required.
• A suitable description or summary of the link can be set to appear either on mouse over, or when the link is clicked.

MapQuest

• This module renders a map of any address via the MapQuest API.
• The module will also render driving directions to the location if the user is logged in.

Message Board

• This module is similar to the Discussion module except that it renders threads in a slightly different format.

Multipage Content

• This module allows the author to easily create an automatically indexed multipage content.  Each page has all the edit abilities of the basic Text/HTML module and pages can re-ordered quickly and easily.
• The module includes extensive view options to customize the appearance of the index and the layout of the pages.

NewsArticles

• The module is very similar in concept to the Announcements module except that it also allows for website visitor to submit their own news (with optional approval by the website admin).
• The module also includes full search and syndication ability (via RSS)

NewsFeeds

• Renders news feeds on your site (via RSS). News feeds provide your visitors with up-to-date, topical information on any range of topic.
• The addition of automatically updating news feeds ensures your web site is a place worth visiting again and again! In addition, this module can be configured to listen to content (such as Announcements) that are syndicated by other websites.
• For example, you could set a NewsFeed module to listen for news from the USRA and this module would automatically update your website content whenever the USRA publishes “News” to their website.

Newsletters

• Author can create an HTML formatted newsletter, which can be emailed to mailing lists.
• The module automatically stores the newsletter for later reference. Also allows saving of rough drafts and templates.

Photo Gallery

• This module allows the storage and presentation of albums and sub-albums of digital photos, movies, and sound files.
• The module can be set to render images in a slideshow format and it also allows for captions and descriptions of each item.

Private Message / Message Count

• These two module work together to allow RCMS user to send private message to each other.
• The Private Messages module can be set to automatically formward messages to a permanent email account.
• The Message Count module simply reports the number of message the user has.

Random Image

• This module allows you to specify a list of associated images and the module will randomly select on image every time the page is loaded.  This is good to creating a sense of fresh content for the visitor.
• The module includes options to specify the height, width, and cpation for each image.

Search (coming soon)

• This search module can be added to any page and customized depending on the page content.
• The search module will find content ANY where in your website including hard copy documents you have stored in your file system

SiteMap

• This module automatically generates a SiteMap based on the page hierarchy of your website.  The navigation tree is built for you so there is no need to maintain a list of links.

Survey

• Allows you to add an online poll to your website.  Any number of questions can be set and the results displayed.
• The survey can be configure to allow multiple votes per person of a single vite per person.
• Results can be kept as private or publicly viewable.

Text/HTML

• Design content in a browser based visual editor using either straight text or html.
• Images are easily uploaded to the server an then added via the same visual editor.
• This is most basic of all the modules but perhaps also the most powerful. Any standard HTML can be placed in this module and it will appear just as you would expect to see it from a web editor like FrontPage or even Word.

URL Redirect

• This module will automatically redirect a visitor to another URL.
• The module includes option to conditionally redirect based on user profiles, dates, and many other options.

User Account

• This module provides the basic interface for the the visitor to register and maintain their RCMS account. 
• The module also includes the functionality for the user to opt-in/opt-out of any public mailing lists available from any RCMS website.

User Defined Table

• This module allows you to create a custom data table for managing tabular information.
• Data can be arranged and defined in a manner that best suits your requirements, and there is also and option to filter the displayed data either A-Z or Z-A.

Users Online

• Displays a timely list of all the RCMS registered users currently online.
• This module is shared by all websites using RCMS so you can easily see and contact people in other state associations.

Weather Network

• This module will show the weather conditions of a given location via an API to the Weather Network weather service

XML/XSL

• For advanced users, this module displays the result of an XML/XSL transform. XML and XSL is a useful way of handling text based information that does not require the use of a database.
• Using XSL style sheets the XML data can be rendered in any manner that suits your requirements. The modules configuration setting i.e. location of the XML/XSL file either internal or externally are stored in the database. 
• This module is also very useful for displaying data that comes from an outside system (such as the Rankings system)
  

Racquetball Specific Content Modules

Player Management

• These modules handle all the player profiles
• These modules could be configured to use the USAR membership database if/when available.

Players List

• The modules presents a list of players, complete with sort, filter and search capabilties.  
• The player data is unified across all RCMS websites.  Visitors to any RCMS website can easily see player data from any other state without having to leave your website.

Player Detail

• This module presents the detail information about a player.
• Registered users can maintain their own player profile and specify which data to show/hide to the public.
• The module can also show the players rankings from eithe a custom ranking algorythm or the USAR ranking system (if/when available)
• The module also includes the ability to email the player directly without revealing the players email address publicly.
• Also includes alist of Court Facility the player has indicated they play at.

Facility Management

• These modules handle all the player profiles
• These modules could be configured to use the USAR membership database if/when available.

Facilities List

• This module presents a list of racquetball court facilities, complete with sort, filter, and search capabilities.
• This data is unified across all rCMS websites so visitors to your website can easily see the court facility data from other RCMS websites without having to leave your website.
• Coming soon! Interactive court finder that will allow the visitor to input their address and the Court Finder will find the closest X number of court to their location and also provide a map showing the relative location of all the courts facilities, with driving directions.

Facility Detail

• This module presents the detail information about the court facility.
• Includes an interactive MapQuest map with driving directions if the user is logged in.
• Also includes a cross index to the players who have specified they play at this location.

Tournament Management

• These module handle all the promotion, pre-event, and post-event activities for your tournaments.
• Coming soon! Integration with TMS, the industry leading tournament management software for all your during-tournament activities (scheduling, court management, etc)

Tournament List

• This module presents a list of tournaments to the visitor, complete with sort, filter, and search capabilities. 
• This data is unified across all RCMS websites enabling visitors to any RCMS website to easily see the tournament data from any other RCMS website.  Tournaments are only editable by the organization that created them.
• View options include the ability to only show past or future tournaments and also to set the default list format (List / Calendar)

Tournament Detail

• This module allows the tournament director to set the tournament name, start date / time , end date / time, and signup deadline and time.
• Includes fields to specify the primary contact person for the tournament
• Includes functionality to specify if the tournament is USAR “sanctioned“
• Include the ability to force the tournament to show up in any search reuslts regardless of location specified (useful for regional or national tournaments)

Tournament Facilities

• Allow the Tournament Director to choose Facilities from the database which will provide a link to the Facility detail

Tournament Entry Management

• These modules control players entry into the tournament

Tournament Entry List

• This module presents a list of entrants to the visitor
• View Options include list format or drop down box.

Tournament Entry Detail

• This module shows the detail information about an entry
• Any new entries or changes to existing entries are automatically emailed to tournament director specified as the primary contact in the Tournament Detail module.
• Includes a cross reference to all of the Tournament Events the player is entered in so the visitor can see the other entrants to the event.
• Coming soon! Ability to download entrants directly to TMS
• Coming soon! Ability to collect credit card payments for entry fees via PayPal

Tournament Event Management

• These module handle pre-tournament event setup

Tournament Event List

• This module presents a list of offered events for the tournament.
• View Options include list format or drop down box.

Tournament Event Detail

• This module shows the detail information about the offered event. 
• Includes a cross-index list of all the entrants in the event.

Tournament Draw Management

• These modules handle post-tournament draw results reporting

Tournament Draw List

• This module presents a list of played draws to the visitor
• View Options include list format or drop down box.

Tournament Draw Detail

• This module presents a graphical draw sheet reprenting the actual draw.
• The tournament director has the ability to edit the draw sheet in place and post the results immediately.
• Can be used for both doubles anbd singles as well as round robin ans stright draw formats.
• Includes ability to specify times and/or scores for each match in the draw.

Tournament Results

• This module summarizes the results of each Tournament Draw (first place/second place)

Rankings

• This module represents custom algorythms to rank players based on the results entered via the Tournament modules. 
• Each organization can have their own custom rankings process.
• Can be integrated with the USAR rankings system if/when available

What does it cost?

What does it cost ... ?
Nothing. $0.00  Nada.  Nil.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  It's true. RCMS is absolutely free for use by any organization that wants to build thier own racquetball-oriented website. This includes state associations, high school clubs and college teams, individual players and pros, instructors, local clubs and leagues, promoters, long-running annual events, manufacturers, vendors ... anyone. 

Often, the cost and complexity of building a site can be daunting, but RCMS tools make it easy for even the smallest website “presence” to get online and begin promoting the sport. The RCMS project is intended to foster the growth of the sport by building a sense of community between everyone involved in any way – by improving communications and providing the most complete set of racquetball resources found anywhere. All at no charge to the user.

How can we do it?
Of course there are costs for maintaining this system, but in this start-up phase, they are very low and we are happy to absorb them. But as the RCMS network of websites grows, we anticipate the need to upgrade our servers to provide better performance and increased capacity. When that happens, we have already made provisions to keep RCMS paying for itself.

Some of those methods include:

• Online Advertising – We'll seek advertisers who would be interested in “RCMS-wide“ advertisments which would be racquetball-related and placed in a selected spot on your website with full approval from you. Revenue from advertisments would be split with the organization on a per impression basis. 
• Online eStore – RCMS is in the process of developing a built-in eStore module, which will supply products fom all the major racquetball manufacturers. Revenues from the eStore will be split with the organization that generates the sale. It is hoped this deal will be better than any existing “affiliate“ arrangements you may already have with existing online vendors. In addition, you will be able to set up your own private storefront for selling any other type of goods (tournament souvenirs, posters, etc.) directly to your visitors.

Fully developed, both of these initiatives should pay for the costs of maintaining the RCMS systems, plus generate revenue for your organization. It's another win-win.

Who is using RCMS?

Templates and Startup
Using the “founder sites“ shown below to identify common elements, RCMS has developed templates to assist with quick startup by any other state association that wants to sign on. But RCMS is not limited to just “official“ state organizations –  anyone with an interest in promoting the sport online is welcome to use RCMS at no cost. This includes school teams, individual amateur and professional players, instructors, local player groups, even special interest groups. You can use your own domain name or you can build your website as a subdomain of Racquetball.com (or both!).

Racquetball.com (in development)
Coming soon, this will be the premiere racquetball-related website ... anywhere on the internet.  "Racquetball.com" is scheduled to go live soon, with the goal of providing "one-stop shopping" for anyone who needs information about the sport ... from where to find/buy equipment and accessories, to promotional/marketing tools, to player instruction/rules. No more exhaustive internet searches ... this site will quickly become the first/best "gateway" for anyone looking for information about racquetball. Find out how you can get on board with your website, titled “Racquetball.com/yourwebsite“ (or your own URL) at no cost!

Georgia Racquetball Association
The official website for the Georgia state association, this was the first site built using the RCMS, which was developed in response to the need to divide the responsibility of website maintenance among other volunteers.  This site is maintained primarily by Otto Dietrich, former USAR president and current USAR rules commisioner.

North Carolina Racquetball Association
The official website for the North Carolina state association.  This site is maintained primarily by Lynn Stephens, president of the NCRA.

"We've been using the RCMS in North Carolina since January, 2004 and we love it! It's as easy to update as using a Word Processor and we're able to have different people edit specific areas of the website easily. All the modules are easy to learn, and we really like the way many areas of the site (tournament calendar, players, facilities, etc.) are interactive with the other states using the system. Now there's no more delays in getting information to our members by having to go through a webmaster to make our updates. "
Lynn Stephens | President- NCRA

Virginia Racquetball Association
The official website of the Commonwealth of Virginia state association.  This site is maintained primarily by Curt Rettke, president of the CVRA.

"Before RCMS, Virginia had an excellent website, which we were quite proud of having maintained by our Webmaster, Corey Fritz. He was working his butt off coming up with ideas and creating all kinds of great new functionality. But what we realized is RCMS provided everything he was doing out of the box and it was ready today. Plus, more importantly, now we can distribute the workload not to just one webmaster (who eventually may get burned out or move), but to many people, none of which have any technical skills.  And each person is only doing a little, instead of one person doing a lot. This is the real power of RCMS. It puts the power in the hands of anyone who has an interest in maintaining the site. Plus the functionality and interactivity of RCMS is incredible. I highly recommend it to any state.“
Curt Rettke | President, CRVA

Colorado Racquetball Association
The official website for the Colorado state association.  This site is maintained primarily by Linda Mojer, former Associate Executive Director of the USRA and Editor of Racquetball Magazine.

“In my experience (being self-taught in building – and then single-handedly maintaining – the first websites for the USRA and Racquetball Magazine), the ability to share simple upkeep responsibilities among board members and other interested contributors is a major plus to RCMS. At its simplest, anyone can cut-and-paste text into a module. At the high-end, an experienced web-ster can find all the advanced tools they need to create a dynamic site with all the bells and whistles. Keeping websites up to date is a crucial component to building a professional image for the sport, and RCMS makes that task easier than ever.”
Linda Mojer | CRA web-ster

Oregon Racquetball Association
“This is a great thing that you have done for our sport. After talking with Lynn Stephens at last year's summit conference I was so impressed with the tool that I came back to Oregon and began to implement the change of our web site over to this platform. I am looking forward to the new ORA web presence and integration with other associations and the racquetball community across the country. Thank you for all that you have done with us in making it all happen.
Paul Maduell | President, Oregon Racquetball Association
 

New Hampshire Racquetball Association
The official website for the New Hampshire state association. 

---