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CCN Blog

This blog is for members to inform others, voice opinions and carry on discussions.  Opinions are those of individuals, and are not official positions of the Chemical Consultants  Network.

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  • Summary of New Website/Membership Benefits including Job Postings

    12 Jan 2014 11:49 AM | Dr. Keith D. Wing (Administrator)

    The following is a repeat of the email blast we sent out several weeks ago.


    The new Chemical Consultants Network (CCN) website is built upon and hosted by the member management system Wild Apricot (WA; almost 7000 other organization members) and will help us grow CCN and serve members better.  We have worked to transfer information from the old website to this new one, and customized features for consultants. 

    New features include

    ·         Easy, intuitive navigation.  Just explore and click.

    ·         Login with secure individual ID/password (temp will be sent by email) to premium member-only area. 

    ·         But public view allows potential clients to find the right consultants.

    ·         Once you log in, individual premium members can now edit/modify their own profile pages, including photos, contact updates, external webpages and more information about services

    ·         External searches for consultants via Google or other search engines, using the same URL's you had previously, or your new WA URL.   New members henceforth will just have the new WA URL.  Google ranks CCN highly for searches for chemical consultants, and this will continue.

    ·         Internal searches for consultant expertise by category and geography

    ·         Areas for posting presentations, including past meetings

    ·         Event announcements, including upcoming CCN meetings.  We can more easily collaborate with other chemically related groups, and extend our communication reach

    ·         Blog areas, covering topics of interest to premium members interested in growing a chemically-based knowledge community of microbusinesses.  This can include sharing ideas, organizing and now a weekly job board for chemists, biochemists and chemical engineers

    ·         A resources section that provides advice to premium members, such as tips on starting/maintaining a consulting business.

    ·         Facile online payment for either meetings or website dues, either through Paypal or using a separate non-Paypal associated credit card

    ·         Other premium member services which we'll develop during 2014

    ·         Administrative advantages

    ·         Finally, we have a complete, portable database of paid premium CCN members including all contact and expertise information .  Easier to communicate with and update all members

    ·         Easier posting of relevant material

    ·         Automated reminders of upcoming events and payments and payment acknowledgements

    ·         All online payments integrated with the member database, making it easier to track your payments

    ·         Automated software upgrades and backup of all data, ensuring data loss prevention

    ·         Overall, we can divert more energy to serving ongoing members, as well as reaching out to new members.  Also, ensures integrity of member transactions with CCN.

  • Please edit your profiles

    12 Jan 2014 11:22 AM | Dr. Keith D. Wing (Administrator)
    Premium members, please edit your CCN profiles to
    -     ensure your contact information is current
    -     ensure your expertise information is current
    -     add a picture or your own website or LinkedIn links
    New capabilities will be added to the website as time goes on.
    best regards,  CCN Website team

  • Livestreaming CCN Meeting Presentation - A Pilot Project

    01 Jan 2014 12:29 PM | Joanne Leonard (Admin) (Administrator)
    I've been asked to see if we can livestream a CCN meeting.  By livestream, I mean broadcasting video of the meeting presentation across the internet in real time.  

    There are a number of ways to do this.  The ones that I'm considering are YouTube's new Live feature, livestream.com, ustream.com and webinar.  I've watched livestreamed events many times over the past several years and the technology just keeps getting better.  Of the sites I've used to watch livestreamed events, I find YouTube's new Live service to be the most friendly.  One of the best features is that the link to the livestream event is retained after the event is over. The video of the event becomes available almost immediately so that people who missed the event can watch the stored video and can find it by using the same link that we'll provide for the live event.  As far as I can tell, this requires no work on the part of the event organizers. The video doesn't have to be archived or moved to a new location. It's just available for viewing and listed in the YouTube channel.

    YouTube has some special services for non-profit groups which I was not aware of until yesterday.  The Live service is not available to all YouTube users.  But I've read that non-profit YouTube channels are afforded this service pretty quickly, so hopefully after I set up the CCN YouTube channel and connect it to the YouTube non-profit group, we'll be able to use their Live service.  If so, I'd like to try this out for our first pilot livestreaming project.  If not, I'll have to look further into the other solutions. 

    Anyway, with some luck, we'll be able to set this up and test out livesteaming the January meeting presentation next week.  Today I'll be researching and testing connecting my DSLR camera to the laptop to see if we can use that camera for the event, which would be superior to the webcam built into my laptop, which is my fall back position.  I should also note that some of these livestream products also allow you to livestream using a cell phone and 4G network.  I'm not sure if that's the best solution for us and I don't have a 4G phone, but just wanted to mention that. 

  • The new CCN web site is live!

    09 Dec 2013 1:04 PM | Joanne Leonard (Admin) (Administrator)
    Greetings, CCN members and site visitors. This is Joanne Leonard, your new web administrator.  

    I'm sure you've noticed that the CCN web site looks a lot different now.  The new site is being hosted by a company called Wild Apricot, which specializes in software for member-based organization. We've customized it for CCN's needs.

    For a few months, we were running the old CCN site and the new site in parallel.  Now the chemconsultants.org link delivers you directly to this new site.  

    CCN members should find their profiles on this new site with the same information as on the old site, now in a structured format.  When you log in, you will find a link at the top of the page which will allow you to edit your profile information.  This is a self-service site.  You don't have to contact a steering committee member or the web administrator to update your information (unless you're having a problem or otherwise need a human intervention).  You can do it yourself. 

    Also now automated are new memberships, renewals, and meeting registrations and for your convenience, you can pay by credit card.

    We also hope to create more value added features for members in the not too distant future.

    I'll continue to blog posts here to tell you more about the site features and things of interest.  Blog posts are meant to be participatory things, and if you are a member and are logged in, you should be able to post comments, so feel free to do that.  

    This blog is available for members to share information and ideas, and to interact online as a community.  CCN officers and steering committee might choose to use the blog to give you information or to solicit feedback.  CCN members might choose to share useful information related to their specialty or about the field in general, or they might just want to use this as a place to chat.  How the organization chooses to use the blog is entirely up to you.
    So welcome to the new site and thanks for reading.

    With Warm Regards,
    Joanne
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The ideas, advice and positions expressed by individual members of the Chemical Consultants Network are the member's own and not the responsibility of CCN or its sponsors, the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

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