WordPress Development | Member Management | Directory and Voting Systems

The Bichon Frise Club of America needed more than a visual refresh. Its existing website had become dated, difficult to maintain, and increasingly disconnected from the amount of information, administration, and member activity the organization needed to manage.

The project began with a review of the existing site on a staging server. Because much of the material was outdated or no longer useful, the decision was made to rebuild the content and structure from the ground up rather than carry forward years of clutter.

I handled the full project, including information architecture, visual design, WordPress development, database planning, form workflows, payment integrations, protected member resources, content organization, and launch.

The club already had a recognizable logo and a history of using blue throughout its materials. Beyond those starting points, I was given broad creative freedom to build a cleaner and more flexible visual system. The final direction preserved the organization’s familiarity while giving the website a more current, structured, and responsive presentation.

The public-facing site was designed to support several primary needs:

• Breed education and health information
• Club visibility and growth
• Public breeder discovery
• National and regional event promotion
• News and club announcements
• Membership and donation payments
• Access to local club information
• Clear pathways for current and prospective members

One of the most important features is the public breeder directory. Participating breeders pay annually to be listed and submit their information through a Formidable Forms workflow connected to the club’s PayPal account.

The system handles:

• Annual breeder directory dues
• Payment processing and receipts
• Database collection
• Listing renewals
• Submitted information updates
• Internal approval
• Manual listing activation
• Public sorting by breeder name and location

After payment and approval, the breeder record is activated in the database and becomes available in the public directory. Listings can be searched by name and organized geographically, particularly by state, making it easier for visitors to locate club-affiliated breeders.

Breeders do not edit listings directly. Instead, they submit requested changes through dedicated forms. Those changes are reviewed internally and then updated by me, which provides a practical balance between accuracy, oversight, and ease of use.

The protected member area supports the administrative side of the organization. Members can access a private directory containing club contact information as well as a document repository for materials such as:

• Monthly board minutes
• Board and leadership information
• Election materials
• Voting notices
• Membership documents
• Internal club resources

Membership dues are also collected annually through forms integrated with PayPal. The system supports several membership types and price points, including individual, household, international, and junior memberships. Legacy classifications such as lifetime membership are also maintained within the database even when they are not available as public payment selections.

The club continues to offer offline payment options for members who prefer to pay by check. Once the membership period closes, those records are provided in a spreadsheet and manually imported into the database. Preserving both online and traditional participation methods added complexity, but it allowed the organization to modernize without excluding members who were more comfortable with established processes.

Annual elections and other club votes are conducted through the protected member section. Eligibility is tied to member identification records, helping prevent duplicate submissions while still allowing administrators to correct mistakes when necessary.

The voting tools are used for:

• Board and leadership elections
• Policy decisions
• Member surveys
• Committee selections
• Event-related decisions
• Other anonymous club initiatives

Results can be reviewed within the form system and exported as CSV files. The club generally has multiple people review the exported information, creating additional checks around accuracy and proper handling.

The underlying system was built to be reusable. When a new survey, vote, or initiative is introduced, the existing tools can be adapted without rebuilding the entire process. Questions, eligibility requirements, and routing can be adjusted while preserving the same core infrastructure.

Events are another major part of the platform. The National Specialty Show is the club’s primary annual event and receives a dedicated collection of pages rather than a single announcement.

Event content can include:

• Promotional landing pages
• Registration information
• Schedules
• Individual activities and competitions
• Results
• Galleries
• Downloads
• Related forms
• Supporting pages that remain private until needed

I also create the primary hero graphics used to build anticipation before major events and highlight results afterward. Because the club may provide only a limited selection of photography, the design process often includes selecting the strongest available image and developing it into a polished promotional asset.

The website also includes a broader event calendar for regional and local club activity. Local groups can submit their events for inclusion, and visitors can view individual event pages with supporting details. The calendar can also be subscribed to through common calendar services, helping members follow activity beyond the national event.

Breed health and educational information is supplied by BFCA’s subject-matter experts. My role is to structure, present, and maintain that material so it remains clear, searchable, and useful without attempting to rewrite expertise that belongs to the organization.

The club has had several internal administrators over the course of the relationship. I have trained each person, provided appropriate permissions, and adjusted the workflow as roles changed. Although the current staff member has remained in place longer than previous administrators, another transition is now underway and training has begun for the next person.

In practice, I still handle the majority of the technical and content work. BFCA has been a managed client for roughly six to seven years, with ongoing support covering:

• WordPress infrastructure
• Security and backups
• Theme and plugin updates
• Member and breeder records
• Payment troubleshooting
• Form development
• Voting administration
• Event graphics
• Content publishing
• Document management
• Database imports
• Staff training
• General technical support

Member feedback has also played a meaningful role in the platform’s evolution. Some of the earliest form workflows proved more complex than necessary, so the systems were gradually refined to make them clearer and easier to use. This allowed the organization to improve adoption without abandoning the structure and oversight it required.

The client has been very pleased with the platform and the ongoing partnership. Many processes that once depended on mailed payments, spreadsheets, email chains, and manual recordkeeping have now moved online, while offline options remain available where they are still important to members.

This project demonstrates the ability to build and manage a complex membership platform that serves both public visitors and a national organization behind the scenes. The final system combines content management, breeder discovery, membership payments, protected resources, voting, event promotion, and long-term support in a way that is structured, adaptable, and considerate of how real members prefer to participate.