Jack Longacre's passing this fall certainly underscored how integral the Internet can be for our club.
Jack's passing came immediately after the newsletter had gone to press. Even though an insert was included with the newsletter many Club members did not hear the news until either after or too late to make arrangements for the services.
However, the internet-connected got the news almost immediately through four highpoint related groups. All four are not officially affiliated with the Club however they are frequented by highpointers.
These include:
Americasroof World and U.S. Highpoint
News
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/3897
This group (which I maintain) is
immensely popular getting 3 million hits/year. I would like to think
that if there is anything outdoor hiking oriented it shows up (including
accident reports, trail news, changes of elevation and current events).
I have been told it is the definitive mountaineering forum anywhere!
I pay a third party (network54.com) to maintain the site so I don't have
to put up with such aggravations. This is no registration requirement.
Americasroof E-News
http://americasroof.com
I publish an e-news publication
summarizing perhaps 20 or so headlines weekly or so generated by the Forum.
The processing is handled by a third party (yourmailinglistprovider.com).
The only registration is just submitting your email address on a form on
the americasroof home page.
Ken Akerman's Unofficial Highpointers
News Group on Yahoo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Highpointers/
Ken Akerman has a Yahoo email group discussing highpoints. You can read the email online or have it delivered to your mailbox. You will need to fill out a form to get a Yahoo ID (which will also can be used for the county highpointers).
County Highpointers News Group on
Yahoo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cohp/
Andy Martin and Scott Surgent moderate
this group devoted to county highpointing. You can read the email
online or have it delivered to your mailbox. You will need to fill
out a form to get a Yahoo ID (which will also can be used for the Ken's
highpointers).
We have talked for sometime about having an instant means of communication if we have your email address.
Setting up an email distribution is not quite as easy as one might hope. You can't just copy the addresses and bcc them in a message as ISP providers all place limits on the number of people you can send messages to at one time. Since this limit is usually 15-20, it became too onerous to send messages for the 1,000 members we have email addresses for.
I did send messages to everybody in several Midwest states and perhaps half of those addresses bounced.
Since I don't have the expertise to maintain a mailing list, it is problematic to send messages. For confidentiality reasons we do not want our Club membership handled by third parties such as Yahoo. It would be greatly appreciated if somebody could help us set up an email distribution list.
For the record highpointers.org is on a Windows 2000 system.
While I'm talking about seeking help, does anybody out there want to help redesign the highpointers.org website so that it looks "sexier" and is more database driven?
As I envision it, I would like the Club site to get away from its "guide" format and switch something similar to the way the Sierra Club handles things with its "My Chapter" format.
The redesign would give you a chance to interact with other people in your state or region.
Adam Helman from the County Highpointers
suggested that we start posting completion maps the way they do at:
http://www.cohp.org/images/completion_maps_describe.html
The maps are popular. One of the important missions of the Club is that we provide a means for highpointers to interact and this would be a dramatic way to do it. However such a project would require a fair amount of programming time. Anybody out there in tackling this issue?
In any event another strong point of visiting highpointers.org is that we have color pictures!
You can review the Jack scrapbook,
sign a condolence book and read much more about him at:
https://highpointers.org/jakk2/
A scrapbook from the November 16
memorial is at:
https://highpointers.org/jakk3/
The Oklahoma Convention scrapbooks
are at:
https://highpointers.org/ok0/
https://highpointers.org/ok01/
You can sign condolences for Kenton
Merc co-owner Marsha Griggs at:
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/message?forumid=3897&messageid=1037104109
A scrapbook of the Fifty Flags project
is available at:
https://highpointers.org/wtc3/
Even though our Club is only 15 years old, pictures from the early days do fade. If you have pictures from the early days we would love to add them to our virtual scrapbook. If you are attending any of the ceremonies scattering Jack's ashes and have photos, I would love to include them in our various scrapbooks.
It is MUCH easier if the pictures
are already in digital format either through emailing them to me or via
a CD.