The Peninsula Ski Club will transition to its new web site, commencing on Monday, March 27. On that date, our domain name, peninsulaskiclub.com, will be redirected from our existing web site, hosted at Network Solutions, to our new web site, hosted by ClubExpress and based on their club management software platform. It could take a day or so for this change to propagate throughout the Internet, and if you attempt to access the club web site during that period, you might land on either the old or the new site.
Once our domain name is active on the new site, I will have a little bit more configuration work to do, and shortly after that members will receive an email notification that their accounts have been created on our ClubExpress site. (Note: Approximately 20 members are already active on the site, mostly Board members, trip captains, and recent additions to the club roster. These members will not receive the notification.)
As an immediate step, each member should check to make sure that his/her spam or junk mail filters are set to allow email from any sender with an address which ends with "@peninsulaskiclub.com", "@pscva.clubexpress.com", or "@clubexpress.com". If email filters are blocking any of these addresses, a member may not receive the account notification or other important communications.
Members should be on the lookout for the notification email! It will contain a default username and a temporary password. Upon receipt, members will need to direct their web browsers to peninsulaskiclub.com and then login by clicking on the Member Login link at the upper right of the page, using the User Name and Password which was supplied in the email notification.
When you log in for the first time, you will be required to change the temporary password to something of your own choosing. You may optionally choose a different username at the same time by editing the "User Name" field. Please make sure that the password you select is flagged as "Strong" or "Very Strong." This will help to keep your account secure, thereby protecting your own personal information as well as that of other members.
Once you have logged in, please click on the Profile entry in the login menu (under your name at upper right) to review and update your personal information. In particular, you should review your Contact Info for accuracy, then check the Visibility setting in your Membership Directory entry to verify how much of your contact information you wish to share with other members. Whatever info you choose to make visible will not be available to the general public. Since the membership directory is the primary way for members to contact each other, we suggest that adult members share at least their phone numbers and/or email addresses. You can also set up links to your social media accounts, add a brief biographical sketch, and upload a photo of yourself. We further request that you fill out the sections for Additional Member Data and Interests & Skills. This information will help the club to tailor its activities to the interests of our members and to better understand what members can offer to the club.
By the middle of April, you should also receive an emailed account renewal notice for the new membership year which commences on May 1. You can complete your renewal online via the web site without having to fill out a paper membership form. You can then mail in a check or deliver it to the Membership Chair at the April or May club meeting. We are working to enable online credit card payments, and it is possible that this option may also be available by the time renewal notices go out, or shortly thereafter. Paper copies of the membership form will still be available at meetings or upon request, and a PDF version will be included in the newsletter.
Among ClubExpress' many features is an online event registration capability. Going forward, we will be using this feature to enable online registration and payment for ski trips as well as for other activities. For complete access to scheduled events, you should login to the web site and click on the Calendar tab, then select an event of interest to obtain more information. Offline registration for trips (by contacting the trip captain and submitting a check) will continue to be an option as well.
I will be presenting a tutorial on basic features of the new web site at our April 13th club meeting. If you have a wi-fi enabled device (laptop, tablet, or smartphone), please bring it so you can follow along for yourself. You may also want to use this opportunity to renew your membership online while we have people on hand to assist.
Don't forget to check back periodically for information on upcoming events and other news. For access to complete content, you will need to login using the account that has just been set up for you. We will be migrating content from the old site to the new one for some time to come, although much of the old content, photos in particular, cannot reasonably be extracted due to software limitations. If you have historical documents or photos pertaining to the club that you wish to contribute to the new site, please contact webmaster@peninsulaskiclub.com.
The Communication Committee, Board of Directors, and I have been working for many months to bring these new capabilities to you, the members of our club. While we realize there will be a learning curve as we adapt to new ways of doing things, we are excited about the prospects and are hopeful that modernizing our online presence will encourage new members to join. Spread the word!
If you have questions or problems concerning the new web site, please direct them to webmaster@peninsulaskiclub.com and I'll do my best to help.
Tom Crockett
PSC Webmaster