Barleywine Graphics

Barleywine Graphics owner Melissa Snyder was featured in the Claremont, NH Eagle Times in November, in a large spread detailing her work as Webmaster for the Town of Weathersfield, as well as her other volunteer work in the community.  Check out the full article!

WEATHERSFIELD SUPPLEMENT – TOWN WEBMASTER NOVEMBER 6, 2008

by JULIA LLOYD WRIGHT

Weathersfield, November 17, 2008

Before the advent of the newspaper it was town gossip that passed information around the neighborhood.  Later small town newspapers kept residents informed of decisions made by elected officers, births, marriages and deaths and, maybe farm animals that ended up with some regularity in the town pound.

For several years during the 1970s and 1980s the Weathersfield Weekly, published by Armstrong and Edith Hunter with their band of unpaid correspondents faithfully reported on meetings, people and town events.

We’ve now moved on from the national, regional and town newspaper to reading about local activities on our home computers.

Looking for information on the Town of Weathersfield, VT?  Just go to your computer then type in: www.weathersfield.org. On that site you will find pertinent and useful facts about this small town of 3,000 inhabitants on the banks of the Connecticut River.

Do Weathersfielders and out-of-town visitors ever wonder who is behind the web site and who maintains its contents?  The town page is the handiwork of Melissa Snyder, the owner and operator of Barleywine Graphics, who is responsible for keeping the site up-to-date.

But, what is a ‘webmaster?’  My dictionary is too old to include such a word.

However, a webmaster is the web architect, according to Wikipedia an online encyclopedia, or developer, site author, or website administrator.  The word refers to the person responsible for designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining a website.

Melissa became the town’s webmaster in a round-about way; a personal web page led to a new entrepreneurial venture now shared with husband Steve.

Originally from Virginia, The Snyder’s came to the Greenbush area of Weathersfield from New York City in 1995.  Steve was an author and had recently written and published a book on beer (“The Brewmaster’s Bible”) for HarperCollins in New York.

While Steve was writing his next book, Melissa established Barleywine Herb Farm, where she raised and sold over 400 different varieties of herbs from her gardens and greenhouse. As part of the marketing and advertising for the farm, Melissa, who had been a graphic designer in her previous life in NYC, designed her first web site in 1997 to promote the farm.

Barleywine Herb Farm flourished from spring 1996 until 2001. The Eagle Times covered a visit to the farm one year and interviewed Melissa in her colonial gardens displaying new plants she was offering for sale.

In March of 2001, a devastating snowstorm collapsed the greenhouse. The Snyder’s, with help from neighbor David Bonta, resurrected the greenhouse for one more season, but ultimately decided to close the farm.

A new venture took over when the herb farm faded. Vendors and visitors to area craft fairs where Melissa sold her herbal gift products had seen her Barleywine Herb Farm web site.  “People liked it”, Melissa said, “and they asked me to design websites for them”.  Thus a new business, Barleywine Graphics, was born.

The official Weathersfield town web site was instituted and operated by a former Town Manager in the late 1990’s, while Melissa was working part time for two years as Assistant Town Clerk. When she left that position on “permanent maternity leave”, Melissa took on typesetting and layout responsibilities for the Annual Town Report as a freelance position.  In 2004, the School District’s Annual Report was combined with the Town’s Report when it was voted to combine the meetings.  Each year the size has increased, now up to 177 pages plus a 32-page appendix with added charts, maps and photographs.

When current Town Manager Larry Melen arrived ten years ago, he sought her help in maintaining the town’s site.  In 2003, Melissa completely redesigned the site, adding sections for the Historical Society, Community Groups, all the Town Officials, and more. That version served the town well for five years, until the most recent revamp was launched in Spring 2008. The newest version allows for town officials to edit their own pages, and upload minutes and other documents to the site, includes a lot of news, historical information and links. Residents unable to attend board and commission meetings can find agendas read a copy of the approved Minutes online. Recent Town Reports are available for download, as are many forms and applications. The monthly calendar includes all town meetings (selectboard, zoning, planning, conservation commission, etc.) and quite a few more that take place at Martin Hall and at other locations around town. There is also an extensive photo gallery that includes photos from the Historical Society.

With the increase in size of the Town web page has come an increase in traffic.  “It is very popular” Melissa said. “It ranks right at the top of page 1 on Google” even beating out other larger towns with the same name.

Melissa believes that the town site should not only serve the residents but also attract tourism.  “Although”, she added, “not that there are a lot of tourist destinations in Weathersfield but there are interesting historic sites, recreational spots, and nature areas “.

The community-based news site iWeathersfield.com was another of Melissa’s creative ideas.  After discovering iBrattleboro.com in 2005, Melissa was inspired by the vibrant community that supported it.  She followed the idea, inviting townspeople to get involved and contribute with their news, hoping it could eventually evolve into a modern version of “The Weathersfield Weekly”.  The site is independent of the official municipal site, and people are encouraged to log in and post their information and events, volunteer opportunities, as well as opinions and even classified ads, all for free. Frequent contributors include the Weathersfield Cub Scouts, WRAPP (the Weathersfield Recreation Program) Proctor Library, and Town Constable Lynn Esty, who posts animal information, but more groups and individuals are also strongly encouraged to participate with articles and events.

The third town website Melissa manages is the Weathersfield School District site (weathersfieldschool.org). She redesigned the previously existing site in 2007, and added the capability for all faculty and staff to edit their own pages, as well as submitting calendar events and photos in the large photo gallery.

School pages include team activities, PTA news, physical education information from teacher Laura Berry and the music and band program activities submitted by William von Gillern.  A favorite new addition this school year has been Frank Treu’s Daily Homework page.

Although all three sites are completely independent of each other, they are all linked to each other for easy accessibility.

Melissa and her author husband Steve now operate Barleywinegraphics.com as a team from their historic farmhouse.  Steve writes text and Melissa designs web sites and supplies graphics for a rapidly growing list of regional clients. They have also recently joined the team of Trillium Digital, with online marketing guru and fellow Weathersfield resident Reid Greenberg.

Weathersfield residents are invited to check out their town pages and visitors are encouraged to read about the town’s history and enjoy the many photographs on the website. “It’s been a labor of love” says Melissa, “this is such a wonderful little town, I really wanted to show it off to the world.”

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