ROPA Web

The message boards are no longer with us.  We regret any inconvenience this may cause, but please understand that the time and effort required to maintain them was not justified by the level of use they received.

The main reason for the change was to simplify maintenance.  The forum message boards, because they were the biggest maintenance headache, and because they were not used very much, have been phased out -- NOT the email lists, just the related web site forums.  The email lists remain intact, and an archive of messages is available to registered web site users, but the new web site does not provide an interface for posting messages to the email list.

If you have logged in to the existing ROPA web site before, your user id and password should work on the new site.  Please let me know if you experience problems logging in.

Here's an abbreviated list of features for the new site:

1. the ability to subscribe/unsubscribe and change your email address on the mailing list under your main web site login account.  (Previously, you only had the ability to change your mailing list settings through a separate login, with a second password.)

2. an enhanced download area.

3. an enhanced news bulletin system, and an added newsflash feature, with easier participation by authorized contributors.

4. the new site runs on "Joomla!" -- a CMS (content management system).  This system simplifies management and makes it easier for others to help with maintenance.  It is more easily adaptable to the changing needs of our organization.

5. the database features (most of which are accessible only to Delegates and officers) have a different look and feel - and some of the little bells and whistles have been replaced by better ones, and some are lost.  Some items are exactly the same, such as the PDF roster generated from current data.

6. at first, there is no way to search the email message archives.  This feature may be restored sometime in the future, if I'm able to discover a reasonable solution.