Communications

Hm, now I'm confused. Do you mean on this page - http://www.uspa.org/MemberCenter/RecordsAwards/ExistingRecords/State/tabid/145/Default.aspx? All the records should show up right when you first load that page.

Feel free to call or e-mail me, too - (540) 604-9740, [email protected] - might be quicker than going back and forth here
~Lara

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Any idea when the 2007 TSR 150-way will get posted to the new website? It was on the old website.

Hi Jim! Sorry about that, I thought we got everything moved over, but we missed that TSR. It's up now - http://www.uspa.org/tabid/249/Default.aspx?by=TX. I'll do another triple check, but let us know if we've missed anything else.

We're going to make those records pages a little more user friendly, too. Any requests or suggestions for improvement?

Hi Jan! All good and true points, but hopefully SEO will be improved in the long run. And, like I said, there are points for and against the drop-downs - in the end, we went with the combination drop-down and text links like I explained before.

We're still working on bringing all the content over (archives, Parachutist back content, stolen gear, accident reports), but thought we got all the immediately relevant stuff. Let us know if there's something that should absolutely be up right away, though.

About the e-mails though - there should be a cloaking function on all member e-mail addresses (like S&TA listings, judges, course directors, etc.). Right now it's done through javascript, and at the moment, if you have js disabled, nothing at all shows up where the e-mail address should be. Not ideal, I know, but better than nothing. For that reason though, all uspa staff and bod e-mail addresses were left uncloaked, so that 100% of people (and unfortunately spammers) can view them all the time.

If anyone finds a page that's left uncloaked, please do let us know! (You have to check out the source, as hideous as it is, to know if it's cloaked or not though.) And, if anyone has a bulletproof solution that works for everyone, please let us know that, too.

~Lara

Thanks everyone for checking it out! We liked the old site, but it was time for a change. Kudos to Shonda Smith for building a website that did so well for 5 years - that's at least 103 in internet years.

This new one is built with dotnetnuke, which besides being awesomely FREE, is easy for staff to maintain. That said, it does have some inherent issues that wouldn't exist if we had built it from scratch. Things like the unfriendly URLs, which we have planned to look into and maybe change, and the download times. We'll be tweaking all that stuff constantly, so it's never too late to send feedback or suggestions to [email protected], like Krisanne said (ps - thanks for help beta testing!).

So, about those dropdown menus . . . There are pros and cons for both sides of that argument, but do you all not like the animation or the fact that they exist at all? We thought the left hand nav and breadcrumbs would give people options if they didn't want to use the dropdowns, but let us know if that's not a good solution for you.

~Lara

Just wanted to remind everyone that USPA Group Members get 2 free event listings per month in Parachutist and on the USPA website. So when you're planning an event, don't forget to send an e-mail to [email protected] as well.

Here are the upcoming deadlines:

issue/deadline
March/Jan. 15
April/Feb. 15
May/Mar. 15
June/Apr. 15

Send us your March & later events now!

- Lara