Todd Low

"Build us something you've never built before." It's rare these days to receive instruction of this kind from a client. But that's exactly what SCPA said when they came to me looking to move their entire organization online. SCPA is an all volunteer nonprofit public benefit corporation with the specific purpose of promoting the growth of the percussive arts through competition, performance, and educational activities and to encourage goodwill, good sportsmanship, and camaraderie through such activities. Every year they put on a series of competitions that are open to groups from high school through college. They are known for doing things a little different, for taking the road less traveled, and they wanted that reflected in their online presence. They wanted to push the envelope of what a website could do for their type of organization, and yet they also hoped it would be an integral part of their business; one they could not function without. The core of their business was hosting competitive events, essentially event management/registration. Each competition comes with a fee to enter, and there are a variety of add-ons and restrictions depending on the class. Each group needed their own profile, thus their own login. Each competition had a series of reports and documents that needed to be generated based on the groups that were registered. And the order in which the groups performed was based on the order in which payment was received. Judges are assigned to each competition, and as such they each needed their own login. Today, the site is one that I am most proud of. On the surface, it looks very simple and clean, and this is what I love most about it. It's difficult to see how much infrastructure sits behinds the modern front of their site, but each member of the organization happily enjoys the benefits and improved workflow it has brought to their jobs.