My website needs an overhaul

Not this website, but the one I manage for our association.

Today, I went looking for the first association website I set up, for the American Maritime Congress, back in 199X -- it's gone. They've got a nice new one now. The one I set up way back in -- okay, it was 1995 -- was actually a Yahoo store template. Desperate to get ourselves a web presence and hoping to one day transition our weekly multi-page faxed and printed newsletter to electronic delivery, I showed my boss how we could get our own website and email addresses at a fraction of what consultants and freelance "webmasters" wanted to charge us. Compared to some other association websites at the time, it acutally looked impressive. Most importantly, it got the job done. A few minutes of cutting and pasting each week let me keep it current with fresh news, and actually gave me a fully functional, searchable database of all my newsletter stories, position papers and news releases.

In my present job, I've inherited a website that is, to put it kindly, dated. It needs a top-to-bottom redesign and I'm finally getting that underway. The questions I'm struggling with -- how do the members use the website, if at all? -- what functionality do they want and need? -- what really works for us?

UPDATE: C. David Gammel read my post and breaks down the things to think about before a website redesign -- thanks for the advice!

Tagged: Associations, Blogging.