CITE's Online Communities (formerly listserv) have been a key means for CITE members to connect with each other and one of the biggest benefits of CITE membership. CITE's goal is to provide systems that are integrated seamlessly, streamlined, and easy for members to navigate. Last year our team replaced our website & membership system and shared that once that project was complete, we'd work on replacing our Online Communities provider.
With the website and membership system fully implemented, our team wasted no time after conference to begin working on replacing our Online Communities platform. In December our team evaluated platforms that integrate with our membership system to maintain single sign on capabilities and selected a new provider. Since then, we have been working on configuring the system. Our launch date is set for April 13!
Our current Online Communities provider has admittedly had deliverability issues to .org, .gov, and .edu emails which impacts most of our membership, requiring us to implement a new solution. Despite being problematic, we were unable to implement a solution prior to this year due to contractual obligations. During our system evaluations, we ensured to ask whether or not there would be any similar barriers to delivering messages to members and cite.org account holders. Our team is confident that our new system will resolve these issues and messages should have a higher delivery rate. We understand that some firewall rules may continue to block emails from the Online Communities and we recommend reaching out to support@cite.org is you experience issues with receiving messages after the new system is launched.
New Features
- Collections
- The new system allows us to create collections of posts. We'll be able to aggregate things like job descriptions, resources pertaining to a specific subject, helpful tutorials and guides for members, and more!
- Job Board
- We are currently using a community as a job board. The new system has a true job board with the ability to add details, contact the person who posted the job, and save a job you're interested in. Jobs can also be cross-posted to Regional Group communities to encourage local applicants.
- Chat
- Users will now be able to direct message each other using the chat feature built into the system.
What does this mean and how does it impact cite.org account holders?
Disruption should be minimal for users and those who have been unable to receive messages from the current system will hopefully begin receiving messages. Our Online Communities will have new features and a new look and feel. Similarly to our current system, you will still be able to receive, post, and respond to discussions via e-mail. The e-mail addresses WILL be changing, so if you try to e-mail a post to a community using one of the current e-mail addresses, it will not post to the new Online Communities.
We will follow up a week prior to the launch date with more details, supporting documentation, and how to get support if you experience issues after the launch.
If you have any questions, please contact support@cite.org.