Documentation-- info largely from Steve:

July 8, 2024 Steve wrote...

Since everyone here is almost new to the Communications roles, I would like to sit down with everyone at the same time to discuss all the below (and more), in person if possible.


CCW has at least a half dozen systems we use (plus more financial ones, Bank of American, Schwab and more)

- GoogleApps Admin - Our domain registration and other high level admin things they let us onto the Internet.  Who has login credentials?  Is there a Username / PW that has been given to Karen for documentation?  GoogleAdmin@CornellClubdc.org   but PW is extremely old  and Steve has it

- Google email - All of our @cornellclubdc.org emails (about 20).  Some are important to Wild Apricot, but they are actually separate.  (It took 3 years, but Maggie has hers for VP Community Service. A former CS VP thinks that DAN MURPHY is the one who set them up. 

• CommunityService@cornellclubdc.org  -  When doing a Gmail login with THAT email address, the password worked that Steve supplied for Maggie to have a gmail account for operating as VP/Community Service.  

Logging in with CommunityService@gmail.com will now have a new PW that Maggie assigned. She can supply such when asked by our Comms VP and the person who succeeds her in the CS VP role. 

• It may now be associated with maggie's telephone number for better or worse. Karen knows my phone number.

• In the course of assigning a new PW to that specific gmail address, Maggie did not assign a phone number as a recovery phone number. She will leave that prompt unaddressed out of caution since she'll likely pass her office to someone else in upcoming months.
  
  Steve's reply about granting access from Kathryn H to another on her committee:  You logged into Scholarship recently, so you should have its password.  

• • • • • • • • Gmail accounts are for one one person, not multiples, so the simplest way to give him access is to give him your password.   If I change the Scholarship password, you would lose access via the old one.   Question: this means he has the power to change that pw centrally?

• • • • • • • • The one easiest way to "share" a gmail account is to use "Forwarding and POP/IMAP".  Log into the Scholarship Gmail, then Settings (upper right looks like a gear, then Advanced Settings.  ).  Put both your non scholarship addresses in there (and keep mail in inbocx or mark mail in inbox).  Any email to the scholarship would go to both your email addresses.   If you want to forward just to him, enter only his email.

• • • • • • • • If forwarded, replying would be from his personal email, not the CCW one.  To reply from CCW Scholarship email one of you would have to log in the CCW scholarship account directly.

• • • • • • • • I do the CCW Programming email that way, forward to my personal email and all replies from that. Easier than going to 2 logins each time.

• • • • • • • • The Admin accounts cannot make the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" changes in other accounts. 

- Google Meet notes from Kathryn H and Steve:

Kathryn:  Good news--it actually looks like I'll be able to hold the meeting on the Google video conference feature on the  scholarship@cornellclubdc.org page.  I've run three test meetings and found they lasted two hours, and would have gone on longer had I not ended them.  It looks like it will be fine for holding our interview sessions.  Since it appears we aren't paying the monthly fee, perhaps this was grandfathered from some earlier plan?  Whatever the cause, I would say let's keep this feature just as it is and perhaps not raise questions with Google as to why it exists?  It will be extremely useful for the Scholarship Committee's tri-annual video meetings.  I wonder if other gmail and calendar accounts that the CCW may also include the Google video conference feature?  

Steve's background: cornellclubdc.org accounts (which include gmail for each) are under the our google admin.  Mel and I paid the  domain registration fee for cornellclubdc.org for 9 years a few years ago (before that Dan Murphy personally  renewed every year).  But the fee was minimal, so doubt he covered paid gmail account.  But we might get our accounts under some "non-profit" program, so they could count as paid, but would need some research.

Zoom- 

info from Steve:  CCW has 2 Zoom accounts from AAD [Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.]  Jim gave me the programming one, but I have not used it recently as I have my own paid Zoom account (shared with a group of friends).    So would take some work to find the access info.  The other Zoom used to be with the CCW President, but unsure who has it now.  Assume both AAD Zooms are still active. If you are pressed, I could make session under my personal Zoom. They can go 24 hours/

Wild Apricot (WA) - (Personify bought WA several years ago. [Steve notified us in Jan.8, 2026 that the new owner is... Momentive]

Our main system. It is our website, but also events system (including registration and payments), membership and some parts of scholarship.  Also. used for a number of emailings (mostly single event related, but not always).  Contact list is over 6,000.  Includes current members (800 or so), former members (1700+ more) and a large of others (usually people who have attended one or more events).
WA is used by multiple people, especially Programming, Membership, but also Treasurer and scholarship.  That is addition to overall admin and web work.  (Steve noted in August 27, 2025 email:  "Need to find a replacement for Wild Apricot.  WA was picked in part because it was really cheap.  Prices are way higher especially since Personify bought it a few years ago (and they have done a couple of 25% increases) .  But our renewal is due in October and a change to another system takes more time and planning that we can do in 8 weeks.  And requires substantial more technical expertise we  do not have.  So stuck with it for another year. "   Who is our contact at Wild Apricot (whom we pay about $5000 and who should be able to give us tech support?)  Mel pays the bill, chat support. There are WA facebook groups, tutorials, can pay people to support use of WA.  Mike Kinino did the work WA was first taken on.  

Wild Apricot conducts live chats for customer support. It also has a help desk with ticket system.  At Live Chat on 2/25/2026 they indicated: Please note our live chat closes at 7:00pm EST. If we aren’t able to get to your chat by then, feel free to leave submit a ticket at support@wildapricot.com and we will follow up by email as soon as possible! 

Let's document which people have Karen's level of access since (Steve and Karen) can assign or re-assign ro refer:  help page: https://gethelp.wildapricot.com/en/articles/50-account-administrators#roles - 

We need Steve to be comfortable that these will be assigned by Karen with his input in the ongoing process of shifting the workload. There are levels and specific functions that WA offers. It will be good to document those, too, for trouble-shooting purposes.

Emailings/ Events Announcements Generally

Using Wild Apricot, there are 3 possible groups I [Steve]  can send to

Members (current only) - 900+

Members, current and lapsed - 2800+

All contacts - 4800+, Includes all members and a lot of local Cornellians who have come to an event (or donated), but never been a member.  Probably 1500 more than the bigger member list.   But  it includes some non-Cornellians (and no easy way to sort them out)

Imodules list is almost 9,000, but it has drawbacks.   Gets a much lower response rate than anything from WA (as WA people have at least had some contact with CCW, many Imodules names never contact us even after years).  Plus it misses a lot of outer DC areas in MD and NVA where we have active CCW people.  Places like Loudon, Anne Arundel, Stafford, Charles, etc.  Misses at least a couple of recent CCW presidents and a number of people who attend a lot of our events.

A lot of overlap of people in WA and the Imodules list.

Despite the size difference, I think the All Contacts list would get the most Cornellians responses of people who might actually be interested.  The non-Cornellians would get it but would ignore it (as I do when I get the Yale nominating/voting emails).  And we do have a membership category for non-Cornellians (associate membership)

Affinipay - The payment system WA uses.  Used to be PayPal, but Personify (who now owns WA) changed to Affinipay  several years go (cost a lot extra to use Paypal or another pay system).  Mostly used by Treasurer.

IModules - Ithaca based system that houses our largest email list (about 10,000, but is actually even larger). We can use the list, but cannot see what is in it.  Admins need to know who at Ithaca can help (not our usual contacts).   CU has to grant access and special Imdoules training required.   The editor takes some getting used to.  Part of a bigger system than email.  Karen and Wendy: who are point people and do we want to record the URLs that are provided for training purposes?  With whom iin Ithaca did Wendy work to get access?  Arienne Watson is contact who helped Wendy get access.

Facebook - The CCW page has about 2200 followers.  There is also a small CCW sport page still in existence.  Is this info under Emma's command now? Who else?   URL? 

Instagram - 468 followers on Jan 14, 2025   (Emma has access, posts and monitors)


Lyris - Now just our board mailing list.  ????   Used to have multiple lists, like young alums and DC Cornellians on it.   Steve, Is this a tech that can be or has been DROPPED? If we keep an updated directory on the admin side of WA under "Board," is this tech necessary for people who want to email other members of the board from their own email address?  Or is it integrated into WA?   I found this help page but would like Lyris contextualized by Steve.  https://it.cornell.edu/lyris   LET THIS ONE DROP and INVESTIGATE IF WILD APRICOT CAN email "just the Board"

LinkedIn - 760 members - Jason Cho who was webmaster in 2010's and has his contact info in our WA membership db is Admin and assigns some others to approve additions which SHOULD require first and last names. Steve has "approver power" for admission to the GROUP and can message to membes.

Maggie found a Linked in GROUP called Cornell Club of Washington with 781 members at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/898597/    and described as follows:

Description  The greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is home to one of the largest populations of Cornellians outside of New York State. In fact, there are almost 9,000 Cornell alumni in the National Capital Area.

The Cornell Club of Washington exists to serve this community, through events and programs developed to foster friendship, enrichment, scholarship, and community service among alumni, students, parents, and friends of Cornell.

In addition to a full calendar of social, cultural, educational, and networking events, the Club offers active admissions, scholarship, and community service programs, designed to promote and support the values and goals of the University in the greater Washington area.

Lyris and Linkedin require very little admin these days.   Still in use, especially LinkedIn   -- cool, but for what purposes?  Must evaluate if we want to leverage it and assign monitoriing it to a Comms Committee person.  Who has the login credentials for each?

Newsletter - For years it was done in a couple of special desktop publishing programs.  Last few years, it was done in Word.  Now done through i-Modules by Wendy and Karen J on communications committee. HOORAY!

Cornell email system - we do not have access to it nor admin it, but do need some decent knowledge of how it works.   Hundreds of emails from  WA (and Imodules) go through  Cornell.edu systems (there are a couple) and sometimes a lot of them fail, so need to know if just a temp thing or a bigger problem.

Answers to Gil's specific questions below.

Who currently has the Facebook and Instagram login credentials?

--- Facebook - Not a login, but access granted to a person's Facebook account.  I have not posted in Faecbook in over a year since I officially finished Communications (and Meghan MEGHAN WHO? did the most  of the last few posts a year ago).  But I probably still have enough access, but have to check.

Instagram - About a a year and a half ago, no one knew who created our Instagram account (none of the usual suspects).  Eventually Annalise  WHO?  and Justin WHO? got it, but did not share it then.  I think they did pass access to Diana (Jordan?) .  UPDATE: Karen and Emma have login details and Emma regularly posts what we send her.    Steve says, "Instagram - I have not had admin access to Instagram, but it should allow more than one person to have admin access."

2. Do FB and Instagram allow for designation of multiple “posters”? If so, who can make those designations?

Facebook has multiple levels of admin, overall admin, just posting admin, can even be open to others to post if we wanted. It will be good for Comms Committee to document how access is granted to more people. What are the login credentials?

3. Who is the best person to on-board the Youssef? [Thank you for volunteering Youssef!!!]?  (Question from Maggie: was Youssef a promising webmaster? I didn't ever actually learn more after this Aug. 24 note from Steve P.   My guess is that it was hard to transfer responsibilities without having documentation like what we are trying to build today. And I doubt that we can transfer it all in one meeting, but if we document it, we can develop a training strategy and a sharing of this big load. Comm Committee is making great strides with such and it's a relief!

--- That would have to be me as Dan is still living in London and not in touch the last 2 years.  But as I mentioned elsewhere, I would like to inform everyone involved at one time, rather than do it in bits and pieces. Some of us have learned how overwhelming "all in one sit-down" can be, but we are making progress. Actually, our Comm Committee efforts are manifest here so that some of the training could be conducted by Comm Committee members in order to lighten Steve's load.

4. Do we have any prior guidance about expectations relating to publicity (i.e., those responsible for events should plan to write a blurb for the website/FB/Instagram and where appropriate create or delegate social media postings before/during/after the event?

---   At best, there are bits and pieces in emails or occasionally a document, but nothing organized.   And some of what does exist is probably outdated. The best documents on Communications were by CCW Pres Kim Jones over a decade ago (before the Communication VP was established). Helpful! But Where are they? -- or should we just skip moving on this info?

Events start with Programming creating and posting the event in WA.  Includes setting costs, registrations types, limits and other details.  One click to make it Public and it shows up on the WA events list in date order (first 4-5 next events show up on the opening CCW page).   Programming often sends emails to announce that one event (built in WA feature).  People who are trained to post events include: Steve, Jim Schoonmaker, and who else? Maggie needs more training and permission from Steve.  This content Maggie's added to the "Committees" description at https://cornellclubdc.org/sys/website/?pageId=1424564  and that content will be useful to developing job descriptions and recruiting blurbs to draw volunteers onto committees. However, each VP is encouraged to have a set of documents that help someone following into their role to  carry out the duties.

Communications usually works from the WA postings.   When Comm was fully staffed that included sending overall list of all events, posting of some important events automatically to Facebook and other social media.   Also including events (some or all) in general emails or newsletters.  For a specific event, Programming could ask Comm for wider posting than normal.

Ithaca Systems: like Cue-Links 

Update the Mailing Lists within WA - (steve did this at one time)

Voting Procedures - involves- 

Branding of Cornell Logo 

- Steve P wrote us mid-March 2026:  Not sure who is getting this, but forwarding just in case you did not get it. [invitation to branding workshop)

Cornell U has been very protective at times of the Cornell U name and images connected to it (some only vaguely).  They have not bothered us much in recent years, but at times, they have made us jump through hoops and even stopped us from using a simple image on occasion.  When we designed a new softball jersey (Cornell on the front, the Angry Beer in a big C), Josh N  (not the recent Josh) had major hassles getting it approved, but did eventually  after many weeks.    It replaced a C only and number on the back (the all captains team) that did not need approval.

Our club logo (the bear leaning on the Capitol Building) on the website was drawn by a member (Katherine Stifel) decades ago and has no Cornell info in it, so is fine.   Cornell Club of Washington by itself is obviously ours.

Other images might draw their attention.

And Getty Images has hassled us on occasion, so  care when grabbing images (they own hundreds of millions).

FYI: The "running muscley clocktower" image for THE AMAZING RACE is an original creation by Maggie's Brother Steve Jones for her specific use.  All Rights Reserved. :)

In workshop on 3/25/2026 from Cornell Brand Management, they asserted copyright and brand management of their Block C which is copyriighted. See this: Cornell Block C Pennant | Pennants & Flags  because Cornell wants us to ask permisstion to use.  They told me they approve original artwork based on our experience at Cornell. They warn about their protection of their image library.

More brand management info from Ithaca:  Student Organization Naming and Branding Guidelines · Cornell University Brand Center 

More: Merchandising · Cornell University Brand Center 

"Touchdown" and "Retrobear" and C-Bear are used and possibly regulated-- need to check.

If merchandizing, apply this guidance:  Merchandising · Cornell University Brand Center 

New!  Need to investigate Zoom and Google Meet accounts:

NEW:  Zoom or Google Meet options:  Steve responded to Kathryn's query : Not sure [if we have an account that makes free the multi-hour use of Google Meet.  Mel Zurn, treasurer, responded that since the cost is only $9.99 per month to have an account that allows such, he is happy to recompense anyone from CCW funds who incurs the charge. Let's see what Kathryn learns by experience. Maggie has no login information for the President's Gmail indicated in Steve's words below.

cornellclubdc.org accounts (which include gmail for each) are under the our google admin.  Mel and I paid the  domain registration fee for cornellclubdc.org for 9 years a few years ago (before that Dan Murphy personally  renewed every year).  But the fee was minimal, so doubt he covered paid gmail account.  But we might get our accounts under some "non-profit" program, so they could count as paid, but would need some research.

CCW has 2 Zoom accounts from AAD [Alumni Affairs and Development.]  Jim gave me the programming one, but I have not used it recently as I have my own paid Zoom account (shared with a group of friends).    So would take some work to find the access info.  

The other Zoom used to be with the CCW President, but unsure who has it now.  Assume both AAD Zooms are still active.

f you are pressed, I could make session under my personal Zoom. They can go 24 hours/

New!  Need to investigate and document timeline and procedures for how late June voting for the Board is conducted. Does Secretary know more? Is it facilitated via I modules?  Gil and Mike Flanagan as co-presidents were involved in 2025.

More history of people involved in our tech platforms as supplied by Steve:

Jason Cho has nothing to do with the email system we use or have used.   Jason was our original webmaster (not counting a time on Cornell's then bad system 20 or so years ago).  Jason developed our Drupal based system from scratch, including all the code.  Hosted it on his companies systems for a number of years.  but he was phasing out even before WA.  Mike Canino found WA and did the initial config (only partial) and conversion (membership was is an off-line Foxpro system).  A small group of us a number of data updates to finish the initial load.   A couple of years later Dan Murphy did most of heavier lifting to more fill out the site.    Terry Hormer did a fair amount of  info updating when he was president.

Paul Coelus (our Treasurer for about 10 years) did the original set-up of the email accounts. Probably worked with Jason on the domain registration and certs.   Dan managed it when he took over web duties.   Passed some of it on to me.

Re: Job descripton draft for web administrator, Steve writes on 2/10/2026 :  "The web description needs  more info and some correction.  WA  is not connected to Google in any way except domain info.  Need to ask for some dev/coding expertise."

Web site monthly updates:

June: go to back end of Wild Apricot under "Membership levels" to change up one year at the recent grad listings. Then go to the web page displaying membership form  and update the text above the form gadget.

Webmaster To-Do when I get authorization

1. delete old photo galleries; I think they are merely hidden because they were so dated

2. delete more sections of the public web site if they are no longer in use:

3.  Move or hide the "Bondareff" award if we will no longer give it out. Last award for a Board Member was in 2019 when Katherine Steifel won it. Alert pres that this award exists.

To-Do by Maggie (no authorization needed):

1. Consolidate Minutes access to easiest way possible

2. Test the access to Minutes via the links to files - can Wendy or Liz verify with Maggie?

3. Teach Secretary how to upload (and link?) the Minutes to Wild Apricot to remove the middleman; otherwise delegate this communication task to someone in the Comms Cmtee

4. Get guidance to delete a lot of old "templates" and files no longer or never were in use. Exception: Morgann likes having an archive related to Membership

5. Supply a new "Cornellian in Focus" to the home page each month

6. Initiate posting instructional help at CCW web site to members to manage their iModule email (resource = Email Delivery Options (Alumni) | IT@Cornell ) vs. WA email deliveries (see profile??)

7. Promote this idea:  Also, at some point for a comms agenda, please all look at the Happy Hour Invitation for February because I asked Doug and Steve to add the final lines to it that pulls forth people for Q/A about an event that takes a LOT of ramp up to succeed.    As we enhance communications, I think it's a model for future HH invitations where we add at least ONE statement of PR for something that recruits volunteers or participants-- the people we need in our future to train and run CCW when others in the group step off of the Board.  The HH invites get a lot of eyeballs and registrants.  Such could also be where one drives eyes to other initiatives and to the FUN of being a member.

8. Update homepage with featured cornellian content from 2/10/2026 email from Allison Hamilton-Rohe

9. Report content for interim and quarterly newsletters:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Vmg2Htc7XUNzG8_p3qVAsCrcetfX-XllWW8BIjgGQE/edit?usp=sharing

Notes from 1/14/2026

CCW PROGRAMS/COMMS 1/14/26 MEETING NOTES & ACTION ITEMS

OFFLOADS FROM STEVE (from Karen/Steve  2025 meeting)

Wild Apricot

• Need to get Network Administrator

• MC/KJ to draft job description to share for edits, then advertise

iModules

• Comms manages now for newsletters, etc

• Mark shared contact info for Arienne Watson in Ithaca (to help add new users)

Google Admin & Email

• Add Google Admin role to network admin job description

• Steve still has 2 factor authentication and ownership currently until network administrator is identified

Social Media

• Comms owns and manages Insta and FB

• Steve will grant Maggie & Karen LinkedIn admin rights so Comms can own going forward

Lyris Listserv

• Agreed we will let Lyris expire

• Use alternate ways to email Board list

Newsletters

• Comms has taken over newsletters and will publish quarterly

PLATFORM REVIEW 

• Reviewed platforms and credentials to continue to document for future board transitions

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

• Web Administrator- Maggie/Karen to draft, circulate, and advertise

COMMITTEE DESCRIPTIONS

• Karen & Steve review drafts  where the content is accessible to the Board:

OTHER

• Steve/Maggie to set in person meeting to get Maggie a Community Service gmail account; Maggie to document procedure

• Noting strategic need to consider alternate web providers to Wild Apricot . Big project to create new website and needs to be planned in advance

• Wild Apricot distribution lists are very old and not useful in current form

• Helpful to better understand Ithaca systems and contacts (iModules, C Links, Cue Links)