Q. Is your proposed timeline set in stone?

A. You may propose your own timeline and please respect that we are trying to get this done in a timely manner. Please include the necessary milestones.

Q. Any objections to developing site in Rails and using Radiant as the CMS?

A. No objections. You may propose any platform

Q. Since we are a virtual company, we often work with designers who live all over the country. Would the designer also need to reside in a WNC country or is it sufficient that our firm is based in Asheville?

A. It is sufficient that your firm is based in Asheville but preferable that the whole team reside in WNC.

Q. How much of the design elements, such as shapes in the banner, or color preferences, should carry over into the new website?

A. None need to. We are looking for a whole new look and brand identity.

Q. Is the immediate objective to serve WNC?   

A. Yes. Our current membership is based largely in Buncombe County, but the objective is to serve the entire WNC region.

Q. Will the website moderator be solely in charge of moderating content?

A. Yes, in the beginning, although it should be possible to extend the platform to user moderation based on a history of credibility.

Q. What level of ecommerce functionality is expected in phase 1? 

A. Payment for membership and ability to accept donations. A simple integration with Paypal or similar would be sufficient.

Q. For MAP board to communicate privately via the web site, is this expected to be something such as private forums?  If so, what level of administrative privileges are expected for MAP staff members - e.g. create and delete entire forums - entire threads? 

A. This is not critical, but we think the community (as well as the MAP board) would find it useful. This may be a phase 2 component where we would have the ability to create privately shared discussion space, which can be used by the board and others for private discussions.

Q. When registering for the site, users are required to create a basic, free MAP membership.  Does this registration need to integrate with an existing membership database? Y

A.Yes.

Q. Is the current membership database expected to migrate to the new site so that existing users automatically become users of the new site?

A. Yes

Q. Should the site functionality, including blog and forum posts, media distribution and other user features integrate with existing social network services and functionality such as those of Facebook and Flicker? 

A. Yes.