Website Update  -- policy changes and member password

Now that you’re way in the back of the book, please take another look at the 4th line on the inside front cover.  There you will find a password that will in the near future be required for access to selected parts of the club web site. This new feature of the web site will (we hope) allow the club to operate a little more efficiently, and will allow us to post some additional member only information on line that we do not currently post in the public domain. We also have a few other reasons for doing this.

Here we may eventually post the entire club roster, similar to the print version that has been supplied to members only every couple of years or so (still under consideration). Currently a little over half of the membership has requested that we post their e-mail address on the web site, even in the currently public web page. About 10% of our members have requested that we do not post their e-mail address there, while nearly 40% have either not supplied an e-mail address or have not expressed a preference. Containment of the members e-mail list in a secure web page may encourage more people to participate in this service, which could promote better communication among the members.

We may also maintain selected e-mail lists here, such as a mailing list for quick notice of upcoming tech sessions, or a list for notices to folks interested in driving events. We have not to date done any organized e-mailing to the members, but this may allow us to do so in the future. Member participation in any e-mail list will always be elective, and posting of member data, even in a members only area, will also be elective. The Treasurer’s Report which is currently included in the print issue of Driveline but not posted on the web site may soon be included in the members only secure area.

There is another practical reason for securing some of the club web site for members only. Currently at least 90% of the visitors to the club web site are non-members. This is good, as it has already become a very popular place and is growing more popular by leaps and bounds. In fact many of our current members found our club by way of the web site. However, some of the features currently provided on the web site free to the general public are somewhat “effort intensive” and are generally considered to be member only type services. It appears that some of our visitors are remaining non-members because they may be finding everything they want or need from our club by way of the web site without ever joining the club. For those web visitors truly interested in the services this club has to offer, we would like to encourage them to join the club and become full participants. For those web visitors who don’t find our club interesting enough to become active members, it seems at least a little unfair to the members doing all the work to provide certain of these services to those visitors.

It has already been decreed by the CMGC Board that as of January 1, 2003, the current issue of Driveline on the web will be available to members only for the first 30 days (or possibly a little longer). Most upcoming events will still be posted on the public home page as well as in the web calendar, so this should not hamper the intended public information function. The club already limits the Tool Lending program and the Book and Video Library to members only. Other member only restrictions on the web under consideration in the near future might be responses to e-mail tech questions, possibly the local vendors list, and other features as determined when the need appears. This is truly a new challenge for our club to adapt to operating as a worldwide public entity.