High Societies Community Website Goes Live

30th March 2009

Clubs, groups, organisations and societies in the Highlands can now register on The Highland Council's new free community information website www.high-societies.org that was launched on Monday 30th March 2009 at Dingwall Library.

Developed by the Council's library service, High-Societies is designed to signpost members of the public to essential contact information for not-for-profit organisations and to their existing websites where appropriate.

Councillor Bill Fernie Chairman of The Highland Council's Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: "This website brings together extremely useful contact information and gives a very positive picture of all that is happening in communities across the Highlands."

The site was developed in response to requests at libraries and service points from locals and newcomers for up-to-date information on what was going on and what there was to do in local areas. Highland Library staff have always striven to provide this sort of community information but often found that the information they held went quickly out of date.

Almost 2000 clubs are already listed on the new site and now these groups are invited to check and update their records. Clubs not already registered can now request log-in details online. The website is interactive and clubs can nominate a representative, to register and manage the information, who will be prompted to keep it up to date.

Visitors to the site can select their favourite groups and bookmark them using the 'My Societies' option. Finding organisations of interest is easy as the site can be searched by area, town or village, name of organisation, keyword and postcode. Postcodes are linked to Google Maps to help people locate each venue.

Community groups can also be found by categories including: business and trade;
community life and leisure; council and government; education and learning; planning and the environment; law and licensing; social care and health; and tourism and visitor attractions.

Photo
Councillor Bill Fernie (5th from left), chairman of Education, Culture and Sport committee of Highland Council with library staff and Plexus Media rep (far right)

www.high-societies.org