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This article is the first in a three‑part series exploring the evolution, capabilities, and inner workings of NCR‑PCA.ORG. Our goal is to give members a clearer understanding of what it takes to operate and maintain the website that supports so much of our club’s communication. This month, we look back at the site’s history—from its earliest days in the 1990s to the modern platform we rely on today.

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2026 - Dick Demaine

The success of any volunteer organization is measured by how well it communicates. NCR’s first communication vehicle was, and still is, the Northlander. It originated in 1978 as a typed newsletter with an hand drawn cover that was mimeographed and mailed to the members. Today the Northlander is professionally designed and printed using the latest technology and can be read by members from a printed copy or online.

Although it began twenty years later than the Northlander, the website has followed a similar path by adopting technologies to ensure our members had the latest information about the club’s activities and events. As these communication technologies moved from government and university to mainstream in the 1990s (remember the AOL CDs) the first public websites became available. NCR started using the web as a method of communicating activities and events in 1997.

Unfortunately, one of the challenges of this technology versus a printed newsletter is an archive. Our club historian can show you the first Northlander that was printed in 1978. There is no equivalent version of the printed issues archive of the website. So, we are using what was archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The archive was established in 1996 and is maintained by a nonprofit organization.

The evolution of the website over the past three decades has always been guided by the mission to help communicate the dates and details of our activities and events to club’s members. The key to delivering on this mission is the members that have volunteered their time. Without the time, effort and passion that they volunteered operating and maintaining the technology and creating its content, NCR’s website would not exist. In the order of their first involvement with the site, we thank the volunteers below for their contributions:

  • Bob Tucker
  • JJ Dunkle
  • Nick Shanny
  • Berthold Langer
  • Loosey Blake
  • Colin Blake
  • Dick Demaine
  • Sue Fenwick
  • Jason Loy

The First Generation (1997–2000)

The NCR‑PCA.ORG domain was first leased in 1997, and the earliest site was built using Microsoft FrontPage and viewed through Internet Explorer. The 1998 homepage—simple by today’s standards—laid the foundation for what would become a much more capable platform.

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1998 - Bob Tucker

Each link shows a second page that uses the early hypertext markup language to create tables or place text and images on that page for the

  • Calendar of events – a large page of tables for each month
  • Drivers’ Education - a photo, the schedule and registration and tech forms, list of Tech Inspectors
  • Advertisers – Name, email address and small image of business card
  • Northlander – an excerpt from the November/December 1997 issue
  • Board Members Contact Information
  • Technical Corner – also brief extract from the Northlander
  • Members On-line – a table of name, cars and personal email addresses
  • Photos – links to pages for Autocross, Driver’s Ed and special awards

Growing Structure and Navigation (2001–2006)

In 2001, the site received its first major redesign, introducing a left‑side navigation menu and required links to PCA National and Zone 1. The emphasis shifted toward highlighting “What’s New?”.
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2001 - Loosey Blake

There were now twenty-one links to pages in the menu organizing content into clearer categories:

  • Club Information
  • Club Activities
  • Members’ Area
  • Other Events
  • Miscellaneous

2003 brought a significant upgrade to the site functionality the use of Open Source Milonic DHTML Menu System. NCR-PCA.ORG email addresses were implemented along with

  • Northlander issues stored in portable document format (PDFs)
  • Online registration for Autocross and Driver’s Ed events
  • Mailing Lists for members
  • A trivia quiz on the front page
  • A search capability for both the website and the internet

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2004 - Colin Blake

Multiple volunteers were involved with maintaining the technology and creating content resulting in PCA National website context awards for 2004,2005, and 2006.

By the end of 2006, the group of volunteers that had taken the site from a few files in Microsoft Frontpage to a robust menu driver website had left NCR for other regions and the website was in maintenance mode.

Rebuilding with Joomla (2007–2011)

In early 2007, I spoke with Bob Tucker to see what the expectations are for the website. It was beginning its second decade, and technology of website development and operation had changed significantly. Bob’s guidance was “go for it”.

I had just finished a thirty-month assignment at a large Midwest insurance company as part of a small external team that was informally evaluating open-source software that could provide the functionality currently in use by the organization. I realized that I could use that experience to update the website. I developed a transition plan for the site and after reviewing the goal and approach with the board members, I began the small project.

As with all small projects there were numerous decisions to be made. The first was how to expand the content development for the site. Three content management systems (Drupal, Joomla and WordPress) were evaluated and Joomla was selected. With that decision made other functionality was selected to support the site’s major operational requirements for photos, calendars, email lists, event registration and payments.

By the end of 2007 the site was converted to Joomla and it was sort of running smoothly. Having been involved in dozens of IT projects, I was once again amazed by how “the devil is always in the details”. There were many “ah, sh*ts”, but no showstoppers. The saving grace being I was cook, bottle washer and owner. Team meetings were very short!

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2011 - Dick Demaine

  • Photos - an external application initially storing 3000 images
  • Calendar – multiple formats including front page upcoming event
  • Northlander Archive – PDFs for each issue group by year
  • Logins – for registered members and board/administrative access
  • Email Lists – for members and interested others
  • Classified Ads – user could now publish their advertisements
  • Surveys – member feedback for club and website activities
  • Registration – Online registration, event management and payment for Autocross and Driver’s Ed
  • Activities Pages – for each of the club activities managed by the chairpersons

A Mature, Integrated Platform (2011–2020)

Throughout the 2010s, the site continued to evolve alongside the Joomla ecosystem. New extensions improved usability, automation, and content integration. By the end of the decade, NCR‑PCA.ORG had become a robust, flexible platform that allowed board members and chairpersons to publish content directly including a fully integrated photo gallery.

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2017 - Dick Demaine

The website earned additional National PCA website trophies in 2012, 2013, and 2015.

Modernization and Infrastructure Refresh (2023)

In 2023, the entire infrastructure was refreshed to support current technologies—operating system, database, programming language, libraries, and the content management platform itself. This ensured NCR‑PCA.ORG could continue to serve members reliably and securely in its third decade.

Looking Ahead

Next month, we’ll explore the capabilities NCR‑PCA.ORG provides to members, board members, and chairpersons—from event registration to content publishing. In the final article of the series, we’ll take a look “under the hood” at the technology that powers the site.