Website Content & Design Finalization — 2026-04-05
Working session to finalize VCEDC website content and design before board review. Attendees walked through the content spreadsheet top-to-bottom, making decisions on homepage design, content consolidation, leadership bios, events page structure, and several supporting pages.
Attendees: Melissa Cusumano, Isalia Ramirez (Asymmetric); Kathy Schmitz, Tracey Pilsner (VCEDC); kmitzie@gmail.com (external)
Key Decisions
Homepage Header — New Design Approved
The original darker forest-green header was rejected in favor of a new lighter-green design featuring a subtle "V" watermark in the background. The designer's preferred direction, this was described as "fresh" and a clear departure from the existing site. The lime-green gradient variant was discarded.
- Hero photo (Eagle River Animal Hospital) to be cropped to remove the back hallway visible on the left side.
Leadership Bios — Revert to Live Site Content
AI-generated bios pulled from SiteCast were found to be inaccurate or unedited. The decision was made to use the current, human-edited bios from the live VCEDC website instead. Isalia will copy these into the working document and notify Aki (developer) to update the site.
- "Learn More" links on board member profiles will be hidden until bio content is confirmed and ready.
- Board Chair title update (Jim Tuckwell → Kate Farrell) pending confirmation from Jim on timing; announcement planned for December 10th annual meeting.
Content Consolidation
Two pages are being eliminated to simplify the site structure:
| Removed | Consolidated Into |
|---|---|
| Business Minute | Success Stories |
| Invest | Donate (with Jim's Nov 2025 chair letter) |
Annual Reports page will be stripped of all introductory boilerplate — only report title and PDF link will remain.
Events Page Restructure
The events page will be split into two clearly labeled sections:
- Upcoming Events — CTA button: "Register"
- Past Events — CTA button: "Read More"
Tracey will populate event content after the page template is finalized and ConvertKit registration forms are linked.
Success Stories Videos — Diversify Geography
Current homepage videos are almost entirely Eagle River businesses. Kathy will provide a curated list of 6 videos representing businesses from across Vilas County. Advanced Welding will be replaced with Amanda Cowart.
Developer Aki must suppress YouTube branding (logo, black bars) on all embedded videos.
Action Items
Melissa Cusumano
- [ ] Crop homepage hero photo (Eagle River Animal Hospital) to remove back hallway
- [ ] Add "Final Review" column to content spreadsheet for Kathy's sign-off tracking
- [ ] Update Success Stories: replace Advanced Welding with Amanda Cowart; add 6 new videos; hide YouTube branding/controls
- [ ] Hide "Learn More" links on Leadership board profiles until content is ready
- [ ] Move Broadband page to Development section
- [ ] Build Events page: split into Upcoming/Past sections; set CTAs to "Register" / "Read More"
- [ ] Find and replace "overalls guy" photo on Lifestyle page
- [ ] Remove "Invest" page; retain "Donate" page with Jim's November 2025 chair letter
- [ ] Remove boilerplate copy from Annual Reports page; list only report titles and PDF links
- [ ] Reschedule next working meeting to Tuesday, December 2nd at 3:00 PM
- [ ] Follow up with developer Aki on homepage video player (still not working)
Kathy Schmitz
- [ ] Draft homepage Remote Worker section headline and copy; send to Melissa
- [ ] Send list of 6 success story videos (with links) to Melissa
- [ ] Edit Remote Work page third bullet point (re: remote-worker events); remove "Update" placeholder note
- [ ] Confirm with Jim timing for updating Board Chair title to Kate Farrell; notify Melissa when ready
- [ ] Email Melissa and Nina the Kate Farrell Board Chair news release (for December 10th)
Isalia Ramirez
- [ ] Copy leadership bios from live VCEDC site into the working document, person by person; ping Kathy when done
- [ ] Task developer Aki with finding a new Success Stories page hero photo
Tracey Pilsner
- [ ] Email Melissa high-res Business of the Year winner logos
Content Spreadsheet Workflow (Clarified)
The team clarified the spreadsheet color/status system during the meeting:
- Green rows = done; no further action needed
- Blue rows = recently added notes/edits; still need to be implemented in development
- White rows (no KS initials) = Kathy has not yet reviewed
- "Ready for Review" = edits implemented; awaiting Kathy's final sign-off
- "Final Review" column (new) = Kathy marks when she has completed her review pass
Supporting Notes
Broadband page: Copy edits only; moving to development. No structural changes.
Remote Work page: Copy was written from an economic development perspective rather than a remote-worker audience perspective. Kathy will rewrite the third bullet to focus on remote-working events rather than referencing the (nonexistent) Entrepreneur's Toolkit.
Roger Wolff title correction: Title updated from "Commercial Banker, People's Bank" to "President, Wolff Real Estate."
"Vilas Country" typo: Found on multiple pages; flagged for global correction to "Vilas County."
Board member without photo: Placeholder text updated to "Board Member (not pictured)" — note the corrected spelling.
Next Meeting
Tuesday, December 2nd at 3:00 PM — Review all updates implemented after this session.
Related: [1]