WHY SHOULD I SIGN INTO THE WEB PAGE?

WHY SHOULD I WASTE MY TIME

CHANGING MY PROFILE?

I’M NOT A “TECHIE”, WHY DO I NEED THE WEB?

The answer is the same as the answer to why should I be a member of ACRP. It is because it is a member benefit directed toward education, training and keeping our members informed.  Our web site is a large database that is connected to the World Wide Web (a “mega” database whose members are all over the world).  Depending on how they search, anyone, anywhere may “hit” on our web site.  Several times per week, we get inquiries to the office regarding crane operators, equipment, training and/or supplies. These are questions that only our members can answer. We direct them to the web site to do a search in “Find Members’ Expertise”.

Now, as to why to sign into the site; just as a web search engine quickly reviews each field (pieces of data) and select matches to the criteria provided, so also does our web site search. In a nutshell, what isn’t there will not be found. If your information is not in our database, searches for your location and expertise will not be “hit on”.  Maybe it would help to understand more about databases. Often abbreviated DB, databases are a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. You can think of a database as an electronic filing system.

Fields, records, and files are the parts of traditional databases.

• A field is a single piece of information;

• a record is one complete set of fields;

• and a file is a collection of records.

Maybe this analogy will help: Your telephone book is a DB with the telephone number being a field (the information a customer is looking for), the name and number together are the record and the yellow pages from you city are a file. Leaving a blank field in your profile is the same as not supplying your number in your yellow page ad.  Also, our membership is only using a small portion of our site. For example, the “Bulletin Board” sits idle while many member use their valuable time doing web searches and time consuming phone calls to reinvent wheels that other members have already invented. Are you aware that each member has a complementary web site and e-mail address? You web site can be linked to an external site if you choose and your association e-mail can be forwarded to an already existing e-mail account.

If you run into a snag…just call 800/690-3921, and someone at Headquarters will be glad to help you.