Hello All SNEB Current and Provisional Members,

By now, you might have noticed that our website at www.sneb.org.nz looks a lot different and I’m hoping you’ll like what you see and experience using it. In achieving this, I have made use of the increasingly popular WordPress system, which more and more small and medium-sized websites are also adopting.

One of the key advantages of WordPress is that it enables people other than webmasters (like me) and their specialised tool-kits to write, edit and preview almost every word and image on the site. People like you. In fact, WordPress has much the same look and feel as a simplified version of Microsoft Word, hence its name.

WordPress started off as a “blog” hosting system and that feature is still a basic part of the package. In fact, many WordPress sites (including my own blog at www.thinktankreport.com) still use only that aspect. For our new SNEB site, I’ve re-invented its blog as the “Latest” page which now holds all the articles that used to be retrievable from the “Archives” page on the old site, presented in latest-first order. The point is that every member of SNEB will be able to comment on any article – old or new – or submit a whole new article for publication.

Further to this, Tutors and other officials will also be able to edit entire pages, including the ones in the “Guides” drop-down menu. In fact, I’m hoping that each Tutor will “take ownership” of at least one page close to their course subject matter.

So what about the Logging in and Logging out? Just click on the Log In link on the far right of the menu and enter the same Username and Password you’ve been using with the old site. You’ll see that the new Log In box has a WordPress logo on it but it amounts to the same thing. Once you do log in, you’ll notice that a new link called “Member’s Details” appears just to the right of the “Help” menu button. Yes – you guessed – that’s just like the one for the old site, where you can update your address, phone number, etc in the same way as before.

But, once you have logged in and visited Members Details, that will be only the beginning! As a logged-in SNEB member you’ll be able to make a comment on any article you see in the “Latest Page”. I’ll need to give them the “OK” for the first two but that’s all.

Aside from the above interactive features, the new site also preserves all the features of the old site. So go ahead and browse the Courses and Calendar pages. Different colour schemes – same information. Likewise, with Contact Us and Enrol/Join, you’ll see that they work the same as they did (but if they don’t, let me know ASAP – there are always bugs in new programs!! ).

But, the main thing is not to be too daunted! The new Home page incorporates a pretty full guide, so click on www.sneb.org.nz and go for it!

Cheers,

Wayne Power
Webmaster www.sneb.org.nz

PS – And don’t worry: the old site is still there, in a kind of “parallel universe”. Click on www.sneb.org.nz/home.html