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U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz went live this week with an innovative, user-friendly new website and community members are invited to take the first look.
The new website stems from the migration of all U.S. Army Installation Management Command garrisons to a combined content management system for their public-facing websites. The result is a unified public web presence for the IMCOM enterprise with standardization across installations as far as the look, feel and organization of the websites.
With more than 70 IMCOM garrisons migrating to the new platform this fiscal year, USAG RP is the second website to launch within Europe and the 15th to come online worldwide.
Some of the features of the new website include a localized newsfeed, a listing of garrison programs and services along with contact information and hours of operation, AtHoc mass warning notification system registration, a link to road conditions, information and links for newcomers and much more.
USAG RP Public Affairs Specialist and Webmaster Erinn Burgess said her goal was to make the website as user-friendly as possible to all members of the Rheinland-Pfalz military community.
“Trying to find the right information in a place that often feels oversaturated with sources of information is hard. Our goal is to make it easier for community members and have this website be the automatic go-to for garrison information,” she explained.
While developing the site, Burgess asked herself, “What would a newcomer be searching for on this site?” or “What kinds of services are family members looking for and how can I best organize them in a menu that makes sense and is easy to use?”
“Honestly, it’s not a one-size-fits-all type of project,” she said. “Everybody has unique needs and different preferences of how they would like their information presented. What I aimed to do is create something that caters to as much of our audience as possible, and as the website grows with time, we will continue to take feedback from the community on how to improve it for their use.”
The site has several different options for searching for content. Garrison employees, who may be familiar with searching for programs based on which directorate they fall under, may access a list of programs and services through a menu of the different directorates. Community members who don’t work for the garrison can look for content by visiting user-specific menus such as the For Newcomers, For Soldiers and For Families menus, or they can visit the All Services menu and find an A to Z listing of garrison programs and services. If all else fails, the website features a search function for finding information quickly.
Burgess said the new website is also much more inclusive of the Baumholder Military Community, whose programs and services are listed within the menus as well.
“USAG RP is one team made up of both Kaiserslautern and Baumholder military communities. It’s important that both communities are equally represented and I think this website has captured that,” she explained.
The website also hosts an “Ask the Commander” feature, where site users can submit an email directly to USAG RP Commander Col. Jason Edwards.
“I encourage everyone to get acquainted with our new site, whether you’re new to the community, you’ve been here a while, or you’re already a member of our team,” said Edwards. “Subject matter experts from throughout our organization have come together to create this product for you, and we want to know what you think. Check it out and let us know. We look forward to hearing from you and learning how we can continue to serve you in the best way possible.”
To visit the new website, go to www.home.army.mil/rheinland-pfalz.
