It seems a bit odd that no one has yet commented on how good the new aoir site looks. well, we're all busy ...
I think it looks brilliant, and thanks to those who do the hard work!! (in Australian - the hard yaka). Someimes, I feel there's little appreciation for the hard-working exec's of this organisation. Alex Halavais definitely deserves a beer (or other nominated beverage) from the AoIR members in Copenhagen! I for sure plan to see he gets one from me!
I couldn't agree more - but you need to add a number of others to your beer (or whatever) party. Indeed, because everyone involved is impressively modest, everyone has been diffident about taking well-deserved credit. But the truth is that Asa did much of the heavy lifting (as we say) on the redesign, beginning with the aesthetics and organization - and with the assistance of lots of input from the Exec at large, of course. Certainly, Alex was equally invaluable, especially in working through the technical details with Asa, and most especially as we neared the time for switching over to the new site. As well, Monica and Alex worked very hard together to finalize the details of the web elements for membership payments - details that, from the programming / administration side, were astonishingly user-hostile and complex, in more or less inverse proportion to what we hope will be a very user-friendly experience on the site itself. Last, but certainly not least, Sabryna was centrally involved both with organizational discussions and with taking on new responsibilities re. how to make the switch in terms of keeping membership information. Believe me, it was / is a blindingly complicated series of unnecessarily difficult details (technology making our lives easier - NOT!) that had / have to be navigated: kudos, I say again kudos! to especially these four and the Executive Committee at large. Again, I couldn't agree with you more, Denise, and thank you for calling our collective attention to these matters. The new website, in my view, represents an exceptional accomplishment in our organizational lives together, especially as it represents a significant improvement upon our services to members (and visitors). We all owe these folk, and the Executive Committee at large, more than one beer in Copenhagen! On that happy thought, cheers - c.