Free file hosting for Parish Council?

[altecsole]

My Parish Council would like to publish the agenda and minutes for meetings and have asked me how they can do this for free. My first thought was something like Google drive but then I realised that they will want to publish a folder full of stuff, possibly with sub-folders, so that people can browse historical documents. Can anybody recommend a way of doing this for free? Ideally, I don't want the hassle of setting up a website and then having to administer it.

 

Many thanks for reading this far

[bald_pig]

You can make a folder public in google drive, so what you've said is doable.

[gtg93]

I would have thought Google Drive or Dropbox would be the easiest should you not want to have to put a website together, and are just hosting files within a folder structure? Set it to public and give everyone the link. Could always buy a cheap domain and set a forwarder to make accessing the link easier.

 

If you do end up going down the website route however, drop me a PM and I'm happy to host it for you.

[altecsole]

You can make a folder public in google drive, so what you've said is doable.

 

I would have thought Google Drive or Dropbox would be the easiest should you not want to have to put a website together, and are just hosting files within a folder structure? Set it to public and give everyone the link. Could always buy a cheap domain and set a forwarder to make accessing the link easier.

 

If you do end up going down the website route however, drop me a PM and I'm happy to host it for you.

 

Well, you learn something every day!

 

You're both correct. You can just share a folder in Google Drive as then browse the content. That's perfect. Many thanks for your prompt replies.

[jmak]

GSuite works brilliantly for small organisations - IMHO much more straightforward to set up and for ongoing administration than O365.

 

The only thing you'll need to sort out is costs. There isn't a free tier any more unless you are a registered charity or education sector. Government is specifically excluded.

 

https://gsuite.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/pricing.html

[MatthewL]

Where I used to live the Parish council has a sub site of the main County Council where each Parish has the facility to do this, is there anything available by your local council?

[altecsole]

GSuite works brilliantly for small organisations - IMHO much more straightforward to set up and for ongoing administration than O365.

 

The only thing you'll need to sort out is costs. There isn't a free tier any more unless you are a registered charity or education sector. Government is specifically excluded.

 

https://gsuite.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/pricing.html

 

Many thanks. I don't really want to go to the expense and hassle of setting up G-Suite - I thought I'd just get them to set up a Gmail account and use the Google drive that comes with that. The clerk can then administer that and drop files into a publicly shared folder for parishioners to access. There is a village blog that we can post the link to the shared folder on.

[altecsole]

Where I used to live the Parish council has a sub site of the main County Council where each Parish has the facility to do this, is there anything available by your local council?

 

Possibly - I know that agendas and minutes are uploaded to the County Council website. However, it's only going to be for a few documents a year so the Google Drive option seems nice and simple.

[jmak]

Many thanks. I don't really want to go to the expense and hassle of setting up G-Suite - I thought I'd just get them to set up a Gmail account and use the Google drive that comes with that. The clerk can then administer that and drop files into a publicly shared folder for parishioners to access. There is a village blog that we can post the link to the shared folder on.

Sounds like it'll work well for your needs. You might want to think about what your fallback is in case someone else needs access to the account.

[DavidYoung]

Is the Parish council a charity? If so then I believe you can get Gsuite basic for free: https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/nonprofits/offerings/apps-for-nonprofits.html

[mavhc]

Either way set up a google site for free, you can have a widget that displays what's in a gdriver folder. Are cnames for single user gsites free?

[altecsole]

Sounds like it'll work well for your needs. You might want to think about what your fallback is in case someone else needs access to the account.

 

I'd guess that the Chair and Clerk would have the login details for the account.

[altecsole]

Is the Parish council a charity? If so then I believe you can get Gsuite basic for free: https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/nonprofits/offerings/apps-for-nonprofits.html

 

Either way set up a google site for free, you can have a widget that displays what's in a gdriver folder. Are cnames for single user gsites free?

 

Many thanks. I think I'll stick with a basic Google account first. I've got a feeling that if I setup GSuite I'll be the one who has to administer it all!