The Musical Box Society International (MBSI) wanted a refresh of its website to make it responsive and also present a wide variety of information to both members and non-members, including membership benefits, photo galleries, a membership directory and an archive of all the society’s technical journals related to the hobby of collecting mechanical music. In addition, the society wanted to bring together into one place the management of its membership renewals and inventory of society-owned antique instruments. Iron Dog Media took the existing MBSI website, separate databases for inventory and membership and put them all together in one streamlined website. The site features both members-only sections and public presentations. The members only sections allow members to update profile information and search for other members of the society who may own similar instruments, or have similar interests. Members can also search through 50 years of archived journals for information about the history of instruments, ways to preserve and protect their collections and other relevant articles. Members have access to an exclusive video library of presentations from past annual conventions. Members can renew their membership online, and new members can join online as well. Non-members and members are able to view sorted lists of mechanical music manufacturers, museums where mechanical music can be enjoyed and also browse through photo galleries of instruments. Many of the galleries also include sound or video files as well. Information on the history of the society, its mission and local chapters that can be joined are also presented on the site. Society administration staff have custom interfaces to search for, renew, and update membership information. In addition, society administrators can produce exportable mailing lists for distribution of the journal and also reports showing new members, or members who may not have renewed a membership, which is helpful for marketing and follow up efforts. The database of society assets is also incorporated into the administrative side of the site. The assets database allows administrators to see where society instruments are being displayed, what their current value is, who donated the instruments and whether the instruments are in need of any maintenance. All this information can be managed through forms on the administrative side of the website.
