The Northwest Stone Sculptors Association (NWSSA) came to Cornershop with a familiar challenge for long-standing, volunteer-run organizations: a website that had grown organically over decades and was now difficult to manage, scale, and use effectively. Built and maintained by multiple contributors over the years, the site housed an invaluable archive of stone carving knowledge dating back to the 1980s, but struggled with performance issues, plugin sprawl, limited searchability, and a registration process that created significant manual work for staff. NWSSA’s goal was to modernize their digital platform while preserving institutional knowledge, improving member value, and supporting increasingly complex event logistics.
We approached this project as a phased website improvement initiative, balancing immediate technical needs with long-term strategic goals. Our team audited and streamlined the site’s plugin ecosystem, improved performance and stability, and implemented a more advanced search and filtering experience to make NWSSA’s extensive resources easier to find. We restructured navigation and key content areas, built a members-only directory, and created public-facing artist profiles that members could manage themselves—adding tangible SEO and membership value while reducing administrative burden. Throughout, we worked closely with NWSSA’s small team to ensure changes remained manageable and aligned with their internal workflows.
One of the most complex and impactful components of the project was rebuilding NWSSA’s event registration and membership system. Previously handled through Gravity Forms with limited data capture, registrations required staff to manually reconstruct spreadsheets for room assignments, dietary needs, waitlists, and payment tracking. We redesigned this system using WooCommerce, Ultimate Member, and The Events Calendar to support tiered pricing, member-only discounts, early bird logic, deposits, waitlists, and detailed attendee data collection. This allowed NWSSA to capture all required information—lodging preferences, accessibility needs, dietary restrictions, emergency contacts, and payment status—in a single, structured workflow, dramatically reducing manual follow-up and data reconciliation.
What sets this project apart is the depth of collaboration and adaptability required to support a highly specialized organization with evolving needs. From navigating nuanced tax and deposit requirements to supporting sliding-scale registrations, staff roles, and member permissions, our team partnered closely with NWSSA to find practical, scalable solutions within real-world constraints. The result is a more reliable, flexible website that empowers staff and volunteers, enhances the member experience, and provides a solid digital foundation for future growth—ensuring NWSSA can continue fostering community, education, and stone carving traditions for years to come.
See more of our Web Design & Event Development work!
