IEEE provides templates and plugins that OUs [Organizational Units, i.e., Regions, Sections, Societies, Chapters, Affinity Groups, Student Branches, and major IEEE programs and boards] can use to quickly set up an IEEE hosted website. You can find more information and tutorials on these templates and plugins at https://kb.ieee.org/ewh/. In addition to the tutorials that are listed on that page, be sure to look under the various headings at the top of that page for more tutorials and for information on vTools WebInABox.

Using the IEEE provided template has several advantages over setting up your own website from scratch or using third-party website creation and hosting services such as Wix.

Advantages over setting up your own website from scratch

• You can get a website up and running quickly.
• IEEE takes care of maintaining the website hosting servers.

Advantages over setting up your own website from scratch or using third-party site creation services

• The IEEE templates can take care of doing things like automatically keeping a list of officers on your OU’s website in sync with those reported in vTools Officer Reporting.
• The IEEE templates already contain all of the legally required privacy policies and terms and conditions. These privacy policies and terms and conditions are kept up-to-date by IEEE.
• The IEEE templates already contain all of the IEEE required links to things like it’s nondiscrimination policy, ethics reporting, etc. IEEE keeps these links up-to-date. If you set up your own site, you are responsible for keeping these links up to date.
• IEEE takes care of updating the various plugins that the IEEE templates use. If you set up your own site, you are responsible for monitoring the need to apply any cybersecurity or bug related updates.

If you set up your own website from scratch or use a third-party site creation service, then YOU are accepting the responsibility for maintaining links to all legally required privacy policies and terms and conditions. YOU are also responsible for including the IEEE required links to things like it’s nondiscrimination policy, ethics reporting, etc. YOU are also responsible for applying any cybersecurity or bug-related updates to your website. Do you have the time and are you willing to take on these responsibilities? If you are willing to take on these responsibilities (and their associated costs), then you are free to build your own website from scratch or to use a third-party service instead of the IEEE provided templates and plugins.