Introduction to Member Bridge

An overview of features and uses for APNA Members

Member Bridge

Objectives• Be able to – Login– Subscribe to communities– Post Messages– Respond to Messages– Add attachments– Comment on attachments– Create and Comment on Blogs– Change your Signature– Change your Contact Preferences

Log In• Go to www.apna.org • Click on Member Bridge on the right hand

side of the main menu bar.• This will take you to the homepage of

Member Bridge.• Click on the large Log In button on the right

and enter your APNA login information.– If you don’t remember your password, follow the

prompts to have it emailed to the email address you use for APNA communication.

APNA Home Page

Member Bridge Home Page

Private versus Public Communities

Private are controlled by APNA National Office

– Examples are BOD or Council Steering Committee

Public are open to all members

– Examples are General Discussion Community

Subscribing to a Community

To participate in a Community to must:– Subscribe to it– Set your notification preferences

• Here is how:

• Subscription Options are: Real Time, Daily Digest, PDA, No Emails, and Unsubscribe.

• We recommend Real Time or Daily Digest for Council and Committee work

Posting a Message

• Go to eGroups• Click Post Message• Select the Community

Responding to Messages

• From an email– Direct– From the thread

• From the digest– Direct– From the thread

• Respond to sender only or– Only the sender sees your response

• Respond to eGroup– All subscribers see your response

View Thread• Click on View Thread in any message window. This will

appear:

View Thread vs. Message Digest

• View Thread– Shows a listing of all the messages in that particular

discussion thread, from the first posted message to the last

• Message Digest– Shows a listing of all of the posted messages in that

eGroup in order by date, showing the most recent message first

– This listing is NOT thread-specific.

Adding Attachments to eGroup posts

• Follow the steps

• Note moving to the next step too soon causes an error and all information is lost. You will have to start over

Adding Attachments to Posts (cont’d)

• After you click Upload, your document will show here:

• Click Finish.

• Now, click Send. • Your message and document will post in the eGroup

and subscribers will be notified by email.

Attachments Appear in the Community Resource Library

• You can:– Search Library– Comment on individual documents

• Note: Users are not notified when comments are added here.• Comments are limited to 100 words

• Click on the Library you want to see and a listing of posted documents will appear

• Click on the document title to download and make comments.

• Click on Add Comments to Comment

Blogs

• Go to Directory – Blogs• Here you will see a listing of the most recent

member blogs• Click on New Blog to post

• Blogs are posted to all of the membership• Viewable by the public & searchable on the

internet• Emails are not generated by blog posts

Comment on a Blog

• Blog Comments will post for all of the membership to see.

• Members will then be able to:– Mark the comment as useful– Add their own comment– Add related links

Additional Questions• How do I change my signature?– This is the signature block that shows in Member Bridge

posts and emails.

– Go to eGroups – My Signature– Delete what is listed and type in your own.

Additional Questions (cont’d)

• How do I change what information shows in my profile? – Go to Directory – Preferences– Go down to the Contact Preferences section– For the items you don’t want to show, click the

radio button for Nobody.• Ex.: If you don’t want your home address to show in

your profile, make sure that Nobody is clicked for “Address Lines”.

And don’t forget to save whatever changes you make!

Changing your Contact Preferences (cont’d)

• Once you click “Save”, these changes should appear in your profile.

• HOWEVER, if you look at your own profile, you will still see all of your information.

• To verify, have another member check your profile. The fields marked “Nobody” should be gone.

Questions?