new members on the bloc bloc exeuc tive bo ard

www.businessleadersofcharlotte.com
SEVENTEENTH EDITION, MARCH 28, 2007 great rule of thumb to make your
website more user friendly is to have
everything on your website accessible in
three mouse clicks or less. Yes, that’s
right, three clicks or less. This is accomplished by having consistent navigation
throughout your website.
Your website should contain a primary
navigation pattern that end users can
follow. This primary navigation pattern
should include a ‘home’ page. It should
allow end users to navigate to the
primary section header pages from any
page. This is helpful should visitors get
lost browsing your website. It’s also
helpful because end users often enter
your website through a page other than
your home page if they’ve accessed you
via a search engine.
• Give pages ‘titles.’ These titles appear
in your browser description, which help
end users browse your website and also
help in search engine placement. You
can add your logo here as well.
• Make your logo a link back to the
home page of your website. This
technique is growing in popularity and
many frequent website surfers and
professionals are accustomed to it.
• Utilize dropdown menus, particularly
for large or multileveled websites. Dropdown menus are an extension of your
primary navigation pattern, listing each
individual topic in a section as its own
web page and allowing users to access
information quickly.
• Links to outside websites should always
open in a new browser window. Implement this technique so the end user will
not lose your site should they decide to
close the window to a linked site.
• Use Flash Animation with purpose.
Moving images and text can certainly be
used (sparingly) throughout your website
as long as they serve a purpose. Using
animations ‘just because’ can distract end
users and turn them off.
• Even if you have a contact form on your
website, it is a good idea to list your
address, telephone number, and fax
number on your website so end users can
get that information quickly.
• If your website does contain a contact
form or an e-Commerce system that
requires end users to complete a series of
field requests, make it easy for them by
having the cursor jump to the next field
after each field is completed.
• Include a text-oriented “Site Map,”
linking visitors to all content areas within
your website.
Always remember that your website is
your welcome mat to the world. You have
no idea when or how a person will find
you online, nor will you have a second
chance to make that first impression. So
give your navigation and your website
functionality careful consideration.
Browse your website as if it’s your first
time visiting, or find an unbiased source
to do this for you. You may be surprised
at what you find!
For questions about ways to make your
website more user friendly, please contact
Loretta at [email protected].
President
Scott Donaghy
Vice-President
Liz Boarman
Treasurer
Ted Peterson
Community Involvement
Chris Herring
Board Member-At-Large
Nathan Pulver
BLOC-Ballantyne Director
Mike Waite
BLOC-Ballantyne Asst. Director
Loretta Cozart
BLOC-Uptown
Derek Breedlove
Navtrak
Brian Henry
New Dominion Bank
Anna Hicks
Essential Therapy
BLOC-Ballantyne:
Wes Jones
NavTrak
Gail Allen
Successful Meetings and Events
Dale Steinek
Ultimate Locations
NEW MEMBERS ON THE BLOC
The concept of a consistent navigation
pattern may seem elementary, but you’d
be amazed at the number of websites
that do not follow this rule. Consider
the following helpful hints when designing your website:
• Compress downloads to load quickly.
Links to free downloads should be
presented on the website should your end
users not have the needed software application or “plug-in” on their computer to
view your download.
BLOC EXEUCTIVE BOARD
A
HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE USER FRIENDLY
By Loretta Cozart, CC Communications
JUST AROUND THE BLOC
Save the Date: Saturday, May th 
Time: Reception at : and Event at :
Get ready for a night of fun, networking and gaming all for a
good cause!
Here’s the deal!
Black Jack, Texas Hold’em, Craps, Roulette, Wheel of
Fortune, Bingo, Slots, Video Gaming plus the opportunity to
get married by Elvis, card tricks, music, food, raffles, auction
items, door prizes, drinks and more!
VIVA
BLOC VEGAS
Tickets go on sale soon at the BLOC website! Tickets are 
per person and include admission, gaming, drink tickets and
food! Texas Hold’em Tickets are  per seat – limited
availability
The following corporate sponsorships are available:
• Texas Hold’em Presenting Sponsor: , ( available)
• Event Sponsor:  ( available)
• Table Sponsor:  ( available)
• Supporting Partner:  ( available)
To sponsor, contact Mark Munson at [email protected] or --
or contact Gary Wallace at [email protected] or --
Prize Sponsors
• Donate prizes for our raffle and giveaways
• Receive recognition at pre and post event activities
• Receive  ticket to the event per  of prize value
•  tax deductible sponsorship to assist the Uptown Shelter, a c
Contact Eric Martin at [email protected] or -- to donate prizes!
April 11
BLOC Ballantyne Luncheon, Village Theatre
April 12
BLOC Uptown Luncheon, Dilworth Neighborhood Grille
April 25
BLOC After Hours, Sunset Club
May 12
Viva BLOC Vegas
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
NEWS AND NOTES
Davis Delivery now delivers to Chapel Hill and Durham.
Let them know if you need service and they will give you
unbelievable pricing. Marilyn Croteau of Croteau
Window Coverings is proud to announce that they have
been awarded the contract to provide Custom Window
Treatments, Solar Weave Shades and Shutters for the new
$15M Bulle Rock Residences Community Center in Havre
de Grace, Maryland. Croteau Window Coverings will be
working in partnership with Marc-Michaels Interior
Design of Winter Park, FL, on the 32,000 square foot
facility. Corporate Information Technologies (CIT)
welcomes Dr. Christopher Hight to their systems
engineering staff. Chris brings over thirteen years of
enterprise network engineering and administration
experience to the CIT team with expertise in enterprise
storage area networks (SAN), Clustered Microsoft
Exchange Server architecture, high-performance/highreliability computing, and medium-to-large business
information technology systems administration. Gilpin &
Hatcher, P.C. is happy to announce that Rebecca Watts,
Board Certified Specialist in Family Law is joining the firm
in April with a concentration on family law. Greg Hatcher
and Paul DeJesse of Gilpin & Hatcher would also like to
announce that the Men For Change Breakfast is May 23,
2007. Chuck Griffith of Griffith Choppers, Inc. shares that
the company customized and prepared two awesome
bikes during the first quarter for "red light" and "cruisin’"
fun and delivered them on time for Daytona 2007 bike
week. Hosted Solutions sponsored the inaugural
meeting of the Carolina’s SaaS User Group on Thursday,
March 15, at Southend Brewery in Charlotte. The meeting
was a great success, with nearly 75 people in attendance.
Please visit www.carolinasaas.org for more details. BLOC
would like to wish the best to Kanku Bhagat and her soon
to be husband Sean Michelsen who will be celebrating
their honeymoon in the south of France in early April. Bill
Treat with Tradebank offers two great programs for nonprofits that allow businesses to donate trade dollars to the
entity needing to raise funds, and to book travel on the
group's own travel web site, with the commissions going
to the organization. Trade dollars donated may be used to
buy printing, advertising, restaurant meals, and a myriad
of other goods/services offered by Tradebank's over
10,000 members. Many of these goods and services make
terrific items to offer at auctions, prizes for golf tourneys,
etc. For further information, contact Bill at:
[email protected] or call at 704/264-4686. Congratulations to Ward Norris on his new position as Sales Manager
for South Sales Communications (SSC). SSC is a 25 year old
locally owned and operated company and is a Motorola &
Kenwood 2-way dealer. They work with municipalities,
hospitals & large manufacturing facilities in the Charlotte
Region. They also offer GPS Fleet tracking solutions.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BLOC,
visit businessleadersofcharlotte.com