Web sites that have been high in the standings for many years won the District Club and Division Web Site Contest this year.

Sand Lake, one of three sites to tie for second a year ago, broke through as the winner of the club contest with 54 points. Van Rensselaer Division repeated its 2008 win in the Division Competition, earning 53.3 points.

Once again this year there was a tie for second in the club competition, with Batavia and Patchogue each scoring 53.7 points.

With 60 being the maximum score, 10 club sites scored 50 or more points in the contest. Also scoring in that elite group were the web sites of East Meadow (52.7), Lewiston (52.3), Eastridge Irondequoit (52.0), Canandaigua (51.7), Merrick (51.0), Utica (50.7) and Elmira (50.0).

Judging this year was done by three webmasters from other Kiwanis Districts: Jimmy Brown of the Texas-Oklahoma District; Lloyd Biggs of the Kentucky-Tennessee District, and Dave Tuck of the Missouri-Arkansas District.

There were 46 club and 4 division web sites in this year's contest, the most ever.

The judges made some comments regarding the sites. Information that was out date -- including one site with information from 2002 still on it -- continues to be a major problem for sites. Links that didn't work or didn't lead where they were intended also were cited as problems.

One judge noted that several sites had done well implementing the new Kiwanis International graphics standards on their sites, including East Meadow, Eastridge Irondequoit, Maspeth and Merrick.

Each of the judging criteria was worth 10 points:

1. Is the site up to date? Are there any out-of-date references? Are new and upcoming events listed?
2. Does the club/division have its own domain name?
3. Is a link to the Kiwanis International web site featured?
4. How useful is the information available to both non-members and members?
5. Do the links on the site work properly? Is the navigation easy to follow? Are graphics displayed properly?
6. How strong is the site's overall impression on a visitor?

Here are links to the winning sites:

Club Competition:

1. Sand Lake

2. Patchogue

2. Batavia

Division Competition:

1. Van Rensselaer