Dear Fellow ICA Members, Thanks for your patience in launch of the long-awaited new website. I hope this will be useful to you not only for connecting with your fellow communications professionals, but for helping you to promote your business. A bit of technical detail: the new ICA website is built on the drupal open source content management system. What that means is that it is (a) very robust and full-featured, (b) easy for people to create and edit content without knowing html, and (c) free. While very robust, drupal also has a long learning curve and wealth of details that can be adjusted. There are still about a thousand tweaks I'd like to make to the site—particularly with the style and layout of the member directory—but if we wait for me to get every detail perfect we'll be waiting a very long time indeed. And I would rather make any future adjustments with the input of more than myself and the few others who have taken the time to give input along the way. The site is slower than I'd like; I will see what can be done about that, although it may entail simply moving to a better webhost.

Everyone who was in the original directory is in this one; I have ported over the basic information. In the coming days I will be sending everyone log-in information so that you can update and add to your profile. I will also be trying to document how to use the site. If there are any writers out there who are interested in helping with that, I would love to hear from you!

There are a number of options available to members with the new site. The big ones are:

• more information in profiles, such as a tagline, a longer bio, and a link to your linked-in profile

• your own ICA blog. I hope you'll take advantage of this; it's a great way to promote your own expertise. If we get a number of members blogging regularly, it will really help demonstrate the depth and breadth of talent in ICA.

• A place to publicize the great things you're doing. In addition to general ICA news and announcements, we have a place for ICA members to talk about their individual accomplishments, such as new clients, projects, awards, partnerships, etc.

• A place for job listings to be posted (viewable only by Professional Members). Currently empty, but we hope to change that!

With the new website, the return to speaker programs, and quite a lot of interest in ICA from prospective members, we are returning to charging for membership. It will be less expensive than before, though: only $90 for Professional Members and $60 for Associate Members. We'd like to keep the membership dues as low as possible, especially as this is a tough time for many, financially. But we also need to continue funding our webhosting, catering at events, and promoting ICA to potential clients. All returning Members have until the end of April to pay their dues; if you choose not to do so, your profile will be taken down at that time. We do not have online payments available yet; you will be contacted via email about where to send your payment. I do want to thank the ICA board—Cindy Turner, Mary Ann Black, Nancy Oates, Cynthia Mallard and Maria Mauriello—for all their help and enthusiasm. And also to Alice Saunders and Laura Howard Dash for your input on the website. I hope you will make good use of this site, and that the ICA will be a benefit to you in your business.

Regards,

Claire Doyle Ragin President, Independent Communicators Alliance