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Site Design

You can tell by investigating that this website shares ISP hosting with Minnesota's Churchill Lodge website. This is purely a cost-saving move, as both are new organizations trying to save a buck.

Editorial content is the responsibility of each group, identified by the colors and theme.

Click on the small Top Hat or the Fez at the bottom of these pages to switch between lodge and shrine unit sites.

The original site framework was put into place using open source Dot Net Nuke (DNN), which we recommend for new groups on a limited budget. Our developer and host is Jordy Stradtman, available at j_stradtman (at) comcast.net. Once we had most of our content written, we enlisted the help of Affinigent and their Spiffy Web Design group to create a custom 'skin' for the website. A skin is an overlay template that manages the colors, fonts, background and overall stylesheet of what users see. By locking in our content first, we saved money. A clear concept, coupled with a detailed sitemap of what we wanted, and the desktop photo which you see on the front page, allowed us to maximize our design dollars. Spiffy then did a good job in rendering our concepts into a finished site. They will quote you a proposal for YOUR website, if asked.

Your Shrine Temple may have a custom version of this website, along with all the other materials to form your own Chairmen unit! As mentioned elsewhere, we have packaged the entire concept for use by other Shrine units, should they wish to form along the same theme. Contact the Secretary, by clicking the business card on the front page.

One of our members serves as webmaster, editing content as we go. You can hire this job out, but we suggest you will be better off finding your own volunteer webmaster. Our photographer is Chief Photography Officer (CPhO) Dan Akins. Our graphic artist and the originator of the final site design concept is Shane Wendt (CTO), who also produces quality custom pins and accessories for lodges and Shrine units. The writing for the site is by Tom Jackson (CIO), also the webmaster. The original concept for the Chairmen Shrine unit was created by members Brad Skeel (COO) and Jim Martin (our first CEO). Brad is the author of our initiation ceremony. Many others have contributed to our concept, and continue to do so. CHO Matt Vegdahl's cigar reviews are getting a lot of traffic, and we welcome contributions to the reviews and other areas from members and friends who happen to stop by. See you at Anthony's, or in Las Vegas.

Contact us...

Name                      Role                 Email Telephone
Nels Peterson CEO nels (at) nelspeterson.com cell 612-297-8870
COO (VP) --open--
Steve Miller   CFO (Sec/Treas.) smiller526 (at) gmail.com cell 952-240-7183
Adrian Skytland C Enforcer (Provost) ars2112 (at) yahoo.com cell 612-770-5343
John Curlott COM (Membership) jcurlott (at) comcast.net cell 651-274-3570
Ted Martz CCO                     tmmartz (at) bremer.com cell 651-270-2947
CChO --open--
John Gann CSO johnrgann (at) gmail.com cell 612-306-5905
Matt Vegdahl CHO matt.vegdahl (at) gmail.com cell 952-210-8340
Tom Jackson Web Guy tom (at) pro-activemktg.com cell 612-801-0708
Shane Wendt Graphics shanewendt (at) comcast.net

For regular correspondence and in meetings, members may be addressed as Mr. Chairman. The titles may sound stuffy, but call 'em anyway - they're real sweethearts. In addition to the obvious roles, CSO is Chairman of Sinatra Education, CCO is Chairman of Correspondence, who writes our Arabian (Shrine newspaper) articles, CChO is our Chairman of Charitable Affairs, CMO is our Chairman of Mixology, and CHO is our Chairman of the Humidor, responsible for relations with local tobacconists. Members are assigned as Chief of something when they join. Everybody has a "C" level job, see?

If youse want to contact one of us - eh, you're a smart guy - just figure out our e-mail address from the super secret spam-avoiding code above and send us a line. Or call.

If you just want to show up to an event at Jax Cafe or Anthony's Pipe Lounge, dat's fine too. The dates are posted. Give us a heads-up in case we've moved the meeting place and so we'll be sure to look for ya.

Starting your own Unit? Lastly, if you are from another Shrine temple, and wish to hoist up a Chairmen flag in your neck of the woods, why, nothing would make us happier. We have an entire package youse guys can use: forms, bylaws and other documents, our designs for the website, clothing, accessories and logos, fez lettering guidence, web hosting services, our freakin' awesome initiation ceremony, and lots of tips on starting a new unit. It's a franchise opportunity and piece of the action. You and a few friends can start by joining our unit from afar, and when you have enough to start your own unit you can, ah, pull the trigger then.