In early 1998, Ashley Munroe, the Society’s Executive Director Emeritus decided to embark on what was to be one of the most important episodes in the Society’s history: the creation of our website.
At a time when the Internet was just beginning to boom, the Society hopped on the bandwagon with a bang. Our first website, launched in March 2000 with the vision and forethought of Ms. Munroe, yielded over 2000 high-caliber membership candidates in less than a year. The cream of the crop of this talented group were harvested, and nearly 800 of these candidates were granted membership in the Society. Our inaugural website provided a plentiful amount of information about the Society and Lincoln Park in general, as did the the first incarnation of our weekly TrixieUpdate Newsletter. In just the first six months of operation, we had over 1000 email recipients. The first site was designed by current webmaster Brian O’Halloran (an alumni of the consulting firm that was originally part of one of the big six accounting firms). The board relished in presenting the Society in a somewhat whimsical tone, with yellows and oranges and emphasizing the cherished Trixie Star in rather a funky font.
The board quickly recognized the site as an incredibly successful communications tool, and a redesign effort was launched. Many new features were added, including an online advice column entitled “Ask Ashley” and an online membership application. Later in the year, the Society would also make history by being the first not-for-profit social organization to allow its members to participate in board member elections online.
A new new executive board was elected in the Fall of 2000, and among the incoming members were Abigail Kendrick O’Rourke as Executive Director and Ashley Seper Burke as Director of Communications. The dynamic combination of Ms. Burke, accurately self-described as a new media goddess, and Ms. O’Rourke, an accomplished socialite, accelerated the Society’s inevitable march towards success. Ms. Burke’s first chore was to enhance our already stellar web presence and provide additional functionality to Trixies all over the village. Ms. Burke’s first concoction was the Trixie Holiday GifterTM, which allowed Trixies to casually and anonymously instruct their significant others what they wanted to be given during the holidays. Ms. Burke went on to develop an entirely new web presence for the society, including a sleek new design which was cutting-edge at the time. Ms. Burke’s design, which was influenced by professionals at such prestigious firms as marchFirst, EnterAct, Xpedior and Metamor, was unveiled during the 2000/2001 holiday season at a Society Gala Party at the East Bank Club. The new design bestowed a host of innovative features to facilitate Trixie-computer interaction, such as a weekly poll, an events list, society press releases, access to past issues of the TrixieUpdate Newsletter, and free email under the TrixieMail.com domain. Ms. Burke’s new design and exquisite functionality immediately won a host of awards including: best design from the Female Internet Professionals of America (FIPA); Most Inovative Site from the marchFIRST Social Class Distinction Group; Best Website for a Not For Profit Organization from the Silicon Valley Internet Guru Club (SVIGC) and was commented on throughout the high-tech media and gossip cicles.
In January, 2002, the Society again decided to take the leap to make our website even easier to use and most importantly, as attractive as possible for our elite Society members to look at. Since the majority of our membership works downtown in the offices of major corporations, we chose to apply a decidedly corporate feel to the site. The board felt that this action had become increasingly necessary to distinguish the Society from other less-than-professional organizations constantly attempting to complete for our limelight (and membership too!). The current site reflects the return to professional dress for many Trixies and TrixieMales, many of whom had several years of play-time in loft-like settings before being forced to return to not-very-casual work environments. In addition to the design changes, the site features a online discussion forum and highlights picturesque illustrations of Village lifeon the top of each page.
For additional information, please contact board member Ashley Munroe.
