Thanks for the update, Harold. However, it seems that each time I attempt an operation which was done with ease on the former website, I run into a roadblock on the Fathom product. Today, I wanted to look up some Section information, and met with zero success. I went to the site today without logging on, as many folks do on a daily basis. I then clicked on "About ARRL." On that page I clicked on "General Information, and from there to Organization Structure, At long last there was a place to click on for "Sections," where I received for just an instant what appeared to be a list of Sections. What replaced that screen is one that bears the words "There are 71 ARRL geographic Sections in the US and its territories. On this page the ARRL Sections are listed by the 15 ARRL Divisions." Navigating through the Divisions , not all of them with which our browsers and members can be expected to have any familiarity, and at long last I can find the SM for the section I happened to select. What has become of the alpha listing of all 71 Sections, which provided a reasonably complete listing of the Section and the Section Staff therein, along with a link to the Section's home page? Where is the page which asked for your Zip Code, and gave you your Division and Section? By the way, I then tried it as a logged-on member; and then via ODV. There was no difference that I could determine. There is such a discontinuity between the new and old sites, that many folks are giving up on finding things; and, the newer users are not even aware of what they are missing. Perhaps it is time to restore the original arrl.org, and properly map its contents to the new arrl.org, off-line, before carrying this apparent disaster any farther. Was there a check of the old arrl.org to gain familiarity with all of its many facets, prior to offering the new one to our members? I don't claim to be an IT specialist, but I am receiving mail from many who are. Their comments are not written to express their good experiences with the new arrl.org; rather, they describe their lack of understanding of why we made this change, at all. Bob Vallio -- W6RGG On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Kramer, Harold, WJ1B <wj1b@arrl.org> wrote:
Hi,
Here is my Web update report for this week. I am not sending a formal punch list. Similar to last week’s report, I am sending this update as a text email. The reason for this change is that we are no longer using a spreadsheet punch list. We have transitioned to a more formal, web based, bug management system. This is because some of these remaining issues are highly technical and need to be resolved by the IT staff and Fathom. They would make little sense to those of us who are not IT folks. This system also allows easier tracking by providing more comprehensive information about each bug.
The first portion of this update is from: Dan Henderson:
The Grassroots www.arrl.org/grassroot-members portion of the Web site is now operational on the Web site. ODV should have access to the Grassroots administrative pages, which include the capabilities to obtain member email addresses for approved mailings. We will be contacting the various DLACs, etc, with the direct URL for that part of the site in the next email correspondence with them. The main page for this is at the URL above but it is hidden in the directory tree and only accessible by those with the proper permissions so you must be signed in to use it. The function of determining a member’s Congressional representatives is still being worked on and should be completed shortly. Thanks to all who helped get this back up and working and to Kay Craigie for doing the off-site access testing for me.
We believe that we have fixed the final bugs on The Field Day locator http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator/ and that is also now fully operational.
Harold:
We continue to work on the data transfer accuracy between our internal systems and the Web site particularly with regard to SMs and Clubs. Both areas are being worked on by Fathom and our IT Department. There are a number of areas that still need completion. These include Certificate Generation that I discussed last week and updates to our internal databases that connect to the Web.
Two significant improvements have been added to the SM section. SMs can now designate people to edit their Section Pages. This continues a past practice. We have also added the ability to display multiple ARRL appointments for one person. See the screenshot below:
Also this week we:
· Fixed minor bugs with the Profile and Registration systems
· Completed updates to the Contest pages including adding improved backend control systems. We removed the interactive Contest Calendar for the time being. We have a time zone issue with the interactive calendars. Some calendars, like Hamfests and exam sessions, need to be shown in local time while others, like Special Events stations and Contests, need to be show in UTC. We are still trying to resolve this one.
· Began additional work on the interface for Distance Learning Courses
· Enabled permissions for Registered Instructors
· Fixed minor bugs in the Special Events backend management system
· Lisa Kustosik updated the Articles of Association By-Laws, the IN-News section of the Web site and the key staff personnel list.
· The ARRL Audio News is back. http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news
· Many other content and functionality improvements are occurring daily. This will be an ongoing process.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Finally, I will be visiting MFJ in Mississippi the beginning of next week, returning to HQ on Thursday. I’ll be checking my email when I have time and Internet Access.
73,
Harold
Harold Kramer
Chief Operating Officer
ARRL -the national association for Amateur Radio
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
(860 594 -0220