|
| Club Newsletter |
.... you are what 'counts' for us |
This is an example of a Club Newsletter
and we hope you find it interesting and informative.
|
Contents
Introduction to our On-Line Newsletter
Social Committee Planning Meeting
Club's Website Highlights
Member Feedback
News Flashes
Daniel Jr. (accompanied by Mom Loretta [the Club's Membership Director] and Father Daniel Sr.) made his first visit to the Club last week.
Loretta was parading him around the office -- pointing out 'where the action is' on the 2nd-Floor.
Little Daniel was sleeping through most of the visit... so there is no evidence yet that he crys with a 'drawl'.
Loretta plans to come back to work on Monday, June 9th.
|
 
This is our first endeavor at publishing a Web-based Club Newsletter. In addition to our seemingly endless spewing of emails on this topic or that, it is about time we had a more 'polished' forum for announcing what is of general Member interest. This Newsletter, coupled with the Members Section of our Club Website, will now become one of our main channels of communication.
Note the slogan underneath the our Club Logo. We mean what it says.
The Abacus 21 'Client Newsletter' has a similar slogan, which says "... you can 'count' on us". (This catchy little phrase is courtesy of Joan McKinley. Thank you Joan)
We are producing this Club Newsletter using our new Web Site Development Tool -- FlexWeb. Abacus 21 has formed an alliance with a 3rd-Party Company called FlexScape to collaborate on the refinement of this great Web Site Development Tool.
We are utilizing this tool not only to develop the Club's Website, but also as a means to create and distribute this Club Newsletter -- and to bulk-distribute Emails, Newsletters, Announcements, or Alerts to our Clients (and our Prospects) -- not to mention communciations with our Staff.
In the past, the Club has been negligent in communicating with its Membership Clientele. If we didn't hear from them, then we assumed all must be well. That was a fallacy that backfired. Our initial vibrant interaction with them quickly subsided into (in many cases) an aire of complacency -- us with them, and worst, them with us. Over time this had a tendency to erode the 'good work' we had done. We are doing a lot of great things and have developed a lot of great Events and Services -- but nobody knows about them. Certainly not our Member, and, sadly, not many of us either. If our Members or our Staff don't know what's going on, they think we are stagnating or ignoring them -- and they won't be exuberant about describing us to others.
To make matters worse, our image to the World, our Website, was (worse than) an eyesore... it was an embarassment.
All of that is now changed.
Though the Website is no where near complete, it is indeed off to a fine start. It is already getting compliments -- from our Members, our Prospects, our Vendors, and our Employees. However, some of you may not even know the new edition exists -- again lack of internal communication. Hence, here it is in the Newsletter.
For those of you who are trying it for the first time, your UserName is your First Name, and your (initial) Password is your Last Name (in lower case). You should change your Password via the 'Your Member Profile' page of the Member Section. Contact Joan McKinley if you are having trouble signing on.
Abacus 21 is also selling the FlexWeb Tool to its Clients -- for them to use to establish and maintain their own Club, Resort, or Homeowner Website.
|
|
Socal Committee Meeting |
|
There will be a Social Committee Event-Planning Meeting on Tuesday, June 3rd, from 3:30pm to 4:15pm (Buffalo time) in the Main Dining Room.
Valerie and Marty will make arrangements to 'patch in' those in remote locations who cannot physically attend.
|
|
Announcement of the Club's Website Highlights |
|
You are encouraged to 'browse around' our Website.
When you sign on as an Member (or Staff personnel), you get more site Navigation Options than does either 'The Public' or our 'Members' or 'Staff' -- depending on "who you are". Most notably, you get to see the 'Members Section' as well as your 'Staff Section' (if you are on the Club's Staff). It is important that you learn about what our Public Visitors see (much of it is not repeated on the Client or Staff Sections) and what our Members see in their Section (again, much of it is not repeated in the Staff Section).
Some particular points that you should pay attention to:
Home Page
- Site Search - does 'word' searches of the Club's Website -- finds all page references to the phrase (which can then be jumped to).
- Upcoming Events - lists upcoming Club Events of interest -- including the the Meet-the-New-Member Social next Friday in the Grille. Try clicking on the link.
- Club News - general Club Announcements.
About Us
- General Background about the Club-- with a general listing of our History, Origanization, Management, and Events.
Sample Website
- This is a "Website within a Website" -- and illustrates more of what a normal Club, Resort, Homeowner Associations, or Business Website would look like.
- It can have a totally different look and feel if desired -- as can any page within it.
- Notice the cascading Navigation Menu that this section has. (Our Products also has it.)
- Club Introduction page - Notice the Survey at the bottom. Surveys and Polling can be conducted on whatever topics desired.
- Clubhouse Tour - This is an example of an imbedded Slide Show.
- Map & Directions - This is an example of a dynamic link to MapQuest.
- Golf TeeTime Reservations - Clicking on the upper Photo on this page gets you to Abacus 21's Web-based or Golfswitch Interfaces to our TeeTime System (our TeeTimes Server needs to be 'turned on' for it to work). Clicking on the lower Photo on this page shows you a Slide Show excerpt of our TeeTime System.
- Important Numbers - This is an example of a 'hardcoded' Staff List (which was typed in as seen). These have hot-links to Email addresses.
- Board Only - Only Club Board Members would see and have access to this Option.
- Staff Only - Only Club Staff Personnel would see and have access to this Option. Notice the 'Headline' Internet News Link (set to default to 'Companies - MicroSoft').
- News Archive - Lists any old News Announcements associated with Administrator-defined categories (in this case set to The Club, News, Dining, Golf, Tennis, Sports, or Social). Clicking on any Announcement explodes it into its detail.
- Calendar of Events - Shows any Events associated with Administrator-defined categories (in this case set to General, Tennis, Golf, Dining, Social, and Abacus 21 Events). Clicking on any Event explodes it into its detail. Some Events can require 'registration'.
- Discussions - The page contains two examples: First, Discussion Group Chats for various topics (here set to allow 'Board' and 'Food & Beverage Comments') -- and Second, at the bottom of the page, a "Who's On Line" (within the Website) display.
- Member Roster - This page is a dynamic list of 'Members' based on Administrator-defined particular (filtered) types. The Roster presentation can be further filtered by Primary Member, Primary & Spouse, or Primary/Spouse/Children. Clicking on an Individual explodes into selected information -- and all with Emails can have hot-links optionally enabled. Clicking on any of the Column Headings sorts the list by that Heading.
- My Profile - This page allows a Member to modify his demographic or password information. The Site Administrator can be alerted when a Member makes any changes in their Profile.
Abacus 21 Products
- This page (highlighting Abacus 21's Products) is broken down into four segments:
- Software (still being filled in)
- Hardware (stil being filled in)
- Services (not started)
- Miscellaneous and FAQ's (in process) -- also linked to from Home Page
- Check out, for instance, the 'Membership' hot link -- inclusive of the 'Demo' icon at the bottom (which links to a PowerPoint Presentation).
Client Section This Segment is only available to Abacus 21's Clientele
- This portion of the Website is made available to Abacus 21 Clients. You will have to be signed in as an authorized Abacus 21 Client or Abacus 21 Employee to access this Section and its contents.
- The page is divided to three segments:
- Upper Portion: Client-related Major Topics (currently being expanded)
- Lower-Left: Dynamic Client Bulletins (eg., System 441 Announcement)
- Lower-Right: Client-related Announcements (with the extended link to the Abacus Client-related News Archives)
- Check out the following areas that already have some material:
- Client Happenings - Interesting things our Clients are doing (related to Abacus 21 and in general).
- Migration to System 441 - Pertinent considerations related to transitioning to Abacus 21's new-product series and announcement of the forthcoming discontinuation of our Legacy System and the forthcoming increase in Support rates for those not enrolled in System 441.
- Installation & Implementation - This goes to an Installation Department Section.
- Release Notes - Abacus 21 Release Notes, picking up as of January 1, 2003. (These are pdf documents that can be downloaded and printed.)
- Documentation - This is split into General Network & Hardware Considerations, Legacy System, System 441, and Technical Articles of General Interest. (We are in the process of 'hooking in' our existing documentation to this section of the Website.)
- Support - This goes to a Support Department Section. Notice, in particular, the link to Abacus 21's Web-based Support Center, the links back to the related areas of Documentation and Release Notes, and the 'Support Alerts' bulletins at the bottom of the page.
- Surveys - This section is intended to canvas feedback from our Client base on various topics pertinent to Abacus 21's product development or business operations. (An introductory Survey regarding the launch of our new Website is currently posted for your feedback.) Alerts can be triggered to the Survey Administrator when a new Survey form is submitted or modified.
- Discussion Groups - There are three distinct Discussion Forums set up: Product Enhancement Suggestions, Support Suggestions, and Installation-Training Suggestions. Client Discussion threads can be chained together under these Administrator-defined topics -- with alerts sent to the Topic Administrator when a new comment is made.
- Client Profile - This link allows a Client to modify his demographic information and password. The Site Administrator can be alerted when a Client makes any changes to their Profile.
Staff Section This Segment is only available to Abacus 21's Employees
- This portion of the Website is made available to Abacus 21 Staff only. You will have to be signed in as an authorized Abacus 21 Employee to access this Section and its contents.
- There hasn't yet been tons of work on the Staff Section -- as I have been concentrating on getting the Public Site in place, then the Client portion -- and in general figuring out how all of this should be laid out.
- The page is divided to four segments:
- Top Portion: Staff-related Major Topics (currently being matured)
- Middle-Left: Dynamic Staff Bulletins
- Middle-Right: Upcoming Abacus 21 Events
- Bottom Portion: Discussion Forum (with one Topic-Thread so far: 'Dialogue with Butch' -- keep those cards & letter comin')
- As of this point of time, notice the following:
- There is no hot-link to the Employee Handbook at the moment -- but it's coming !!! (Didn't want to plunge you all into shock by giving you the Newsletter and the Employee Manual all in the same blast.)
- Your Employee Profile - Can be used to modify your info and password.
- Documentation Archives - This is an experiment -- that needs your feedback.
- This option links directly to Abacus 21's Electronic Document Capture & Retrieval System -- eCabinet.
- In general the eCabinet can capture any file (or folder of files), incoming or outgoing emails, incoming or outgoing faxes, reports, copies made, and documents or images scanned. You can also set up 'routing rules' that funnel the captured document to a particular file folder -- and automatically alert an administrator that there is a 'new arrival'.
- It is set up to automatically sign in under an 'Installer' password -- which directs the System to go to an initial 'File Folder' position and display all the Sub-Folders and Files within those folders (that the 'Installer' password has access to).
- In this case, what we have done is to capture everything that was in the s:/installers directory into the eCabinet -- separating it out by the respective sub-folders. None of it was 'cleaned up' -- it was captured 'as was'. (Also, we have few other pertinent documents that weren't originally in the Installers' directory.)
- When documents are captured and stored, they are also OCR'd (which stands for Optical Character Recognition) -- which means they are all deciphered and indexed by every word and phrase in the respective documents. This is in addition to being able to also index each document by Title, Description, Capture Date, Administrator-defined Indices, etc.
- The beauty of this (at least according to me) is that we have an instantly-available 'Knowledgebase' -- where you can (supposedly) easily find anything written up on a topic -- no matter what its origin.
- Try the 'Search' (under the eCabinet Logo):
- Search for Text: Certificate (examine the result)
- Search for Text: Gift Certificate (examine the result)
- Search for Text: "Gift Certificate" "Homestead" (examine the result)
- Play around to 'get the feel' -- you can't break it.
- Try the 'More Search Options' (and 'Expert Search Options' within it) if you are ambitious or inquisitive.
- Let me know what you think of this. Should we 'formalize' its use and 'shape it up'.
- Eventually we could make it all (or selected portions of it) available to our Clients as well as ourselves.
- Release Notes (Internal) - This is our Abacus-internal version of the Release Notes. Included here, but not in the Client version, are notes and instructions for things our Installers or Support personnel need to know/do -- but are not for the Clients.
- Sandie Mallinson is herself 'authoring' the Release Notes pages of both the Client Section and the Staff Section.
- Client Roster (which the Client's don't currently have access to) and Client Happenings have been included for your examination.
Great New Things
- This section of the Website is devoted to showcasing some of Abacus 21's new technologies integrated into its applications.
- We will be adding to this Presentation Page frequently -- click on the hot-links to see further information.
Neato Things This Segment is only available to Abacus 21's Employees
- This page is an 'internal' page where Abacus 21 'hides' stuff that we are playing around with -- prior to unveiling to the masses.
- You are welcome to check it out.
Contact Us
- This is a Contact Inquiry Submittal Page -- inclusive of an area to input comments and a link to Directions on how to get to our Corporate Headquarters.
|
|
Member Feedback |
|
This is intended to be Your Newsletter and Your Member portions of the Website -- and we are interested in any and all of your feedback. Please comment on what's already been done -- and what you think needs to be done. Pay particular attention (thou don't restrict yourselves) to those subject matters that pertain to your area(s) of participation in the Club.
So.... please send me emails or whatever.
Joan (in Member Services) has been trying to contact each of our Member to inform them of their respective Club Website passwords. In your conversations with other Members, ask them if they have 'checked it out'... and encourage them to check it out... and encourage them to check out new and exciting things (like the upcoming Pizza Party) that the Club is doing. If somebody doesn't have a Password, forward the request to Joan to set it up.
We have something to be proud of again... let's advertise it.
Thanks for taking to time to 'check this out' yourselves.
 |
| |
|
