Port Townsend Marine Science Center

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center runs a remarkably full calendar — low tide walks, lectures, birdwatching cruises, repair events, summer camps, and weekly drop-in programs — for audiences ranging from first-time visitors to teachers, members, and volunteers. The site needed to keep that calendar accurate and help every group find what’s meant for them, without asking a small staff to maintain the same details in a dozen places.

We began with the sitemap, mapping what each audience needed and the databases required to support it, then shaped the navigation to stay complete without overwhelming anyone. And because a science center’s story is a visual one, we built in room throughout the site to feature the Center’s extensive photo library — program participants, seascapes, and wildlife — giving every page real visual weight.

home staff summer camp registration projects

Events are the heartbeat of the Center, so we built the calendar on The Events Calendar and added a layer of program templates on top of it. Each kind of program has a template that holds everything that stays the same from one date to the next: ages, cost, description, location and directions, disclaimers, and frequently asked questions. Staff schedule a new event by choosing its template and setting the date, and the page fills itself in. When one session is different, they change just that detail or add a note alongside the template text. A Jotform integration handles registration and waiting lists.

one template, every date

The public programs page pulls every upcoming event into a single list or month view, with subscribe links for Google, Outlook, and iCal. Behind each listing, a program template supplies the details, so a season of low tide walks takes minutes to schedule instead of an afternoon of copying and pasting. When a session fills, one switch turns its sign-up button into a waitlist message.

home public programs and events summer camps staff

resources that travel with the work

Each resource is entered once and attached wherever it helps. The tide calendar appears on low tide walk pages and in the educators’ resource list; B.E.A.C.H. water-quality reports sit on the project page they support. Teachers, families, and volunteers find materials right where they need them, and staff update a file in one place.

With the framework and core pages in place, we trained the Center’s staff to add and curate their own text and images. That kept the project on budget and gave the organization direct ownership of its site — a real asset it controls rather than one it depends on us to run. Since launch, the team has maintained the site confidently through staff turnover, calling on us only for the occasional technical question.

ALERTS scheduled announcements Closures, fundraisers, and registration deadlines are written once with a start and end date, so they appear across the site on schedule and come down on their own. Each alert can be limited to the locations it affects, and a default button label keeps every alert consistent. Message Start date End date Button label Button link Locations EVENTS calendar & sign-ups Built on The Events Calendar, with list and month views and one-click subscriptions for Google, Outlook, and iCal. Each event is linked to a program template and holds only what is unique to that date, so well over a hundred upcoming events stay accurate without anyone retyping the same details. Title Date & time Program template Category Sign-up link Sign-up status Overrides STAFF people & roles Staff and board members live in one People database, sorted into categories so the staff and board pages build themselves. When someone joins or moves on, one entry updates every page that lists them. Name Title Category Bio Headshot Email RESOURCES guides & downloads Tide calendars, scavenger hunts, field guides, and citizen-science reports are each entered once, categorized, and attached wherever they help: a program page, a research project, or the educators’ resource list. Title Description File or link Category Tags PROGRAMS event templates Low tide walks, lectures, birdwatching and puffin cruises, repair events, and summer camps each have a template holding the details every session shares. Change the template (a new price, a new meeting spot) and every upcoming event built from it changes too. Ages Cost Description Location Directions Map Disclaimers FAQs

Alerts

Closures, fundraisers, and registration deadlines are written once with a start and end date, so they appear across the site on schedule and come down on their own. Each alert can be limited to the locations it affects, and a default button label keeps every alert consistent.

FIELDS Message Start date End date Button label Button link Locations