From time to time, I use this space to let everyone know what’s happening on the PSEC website. I haven’t done one of these in a long time but since we are starting a new program year tonight I figured I’d put down a few words.

I am Stan <webmaster@pseconline.org>. I have been operating this website for many years. It has largely been a solo effort but I would much prefer that others join me. Besides being more fun for me I think it improves the site if it reflects the input of the community of engineers. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to help out or have ideas to share.

The site is running the same as it has for several years now. We run the WordPress software here with only a very few customizations. WordPress has finally made upgrading the software very easy. I can now make updates in minutes without bringing down the site for any time.

If you are not familiar with the site, I’d encourage you to look around. There is a lot of unrealized potential for reaching out to our membership and the representatives. There is also much we could do in the way of advocacy and outreach to the broader community. It is also fairly easy to contribute to the site itself. You just need to have an account. You can put up announcements, post reports and photos from events you attended, or anything else you can think of. I know there are a lot of neglected corners on the website that could use some attention. Please consider adopting one of those sections and helping to make it better.

If you are involved in any way with any of the PSEC Events whether it is the banquet, the mentor nights or the ISOW, please consider how you might use the website to advertise and market them. You should contact me if you want to discuss ideas.

Calendars

The calendar events page is also worth a look. The PSEC maintains a calendar of our own events but we also publish the events calendars of our member societies. You can view events from any of the participating societies and they are updated live as their respective owners edit them. You can also subscribe to them such that they will appear on your own calendar in most cases.

If you don’t see the events calendar for your society, it is probably because they haven’t contacted me yet to get it added. If your society maintains a calendar I can probably add it to our list. All you need to do is put the person in charge of maintaining that calendar in touch with me. It generally takes only a few minutes to get up an running.

Collaboration

The primary means for PSEC Representatives to communicate is via the PSEC Reps mail list. If you are a PSEC Rep you should subscribe to that list via that link. I only request that you refrain from sending file attachments over the list. The mail list software blocks attachments that are larger than about a megabyte. File attachments are a primary source of bad things happening on the Internet. Various forms of malware get transmitted via attachments and make their way onto other computers that way. Plus, it is generally more considerate to your recipients to not make them open another program to read something that could have been typed into an email body anyway.

If you really need to send a photo or spreadsheet file or something there are good alternatives available that are far superior to attaching it to an email. For example, the PSEC maintains a DropBox folder. If you are not a party to that folder, let me know and I can add you. When you add or edit a file in the DropBox folder on your machine, it automatically gets updated everywhere else. This is super convenient and simplifies collaboration involving files. It also means you don’t have to download large files manually.

As a side note, if you have materials that you want to be shown on screen at a PSEC meeting, I maintain a specific folder inside that DropBox for them. Simply place them in the Meetings folder and I will get them.

The PSEC also has a limited social media presence. We maintain a Facebook Group and a Twitter Account. We also have a LinkedIn group but it is somewhat difficult to maintain so it does not get updated by me as often. I post general announcements and links to things on this website on those social media accounts so please join/like/follow/share/etc. if you participate. I try to follow back from those accounts where possible.

If you want to make an announcement, whether it be to the engineering community or the broader public, the best way to go about it is to get it posted here on the website or if it has a date/time associated with it, on your events calendar. Work with me to get it up here. If the President approves, we post it and then we can then boost it by linking to it from within our social media accounts. In all cases, you should include the URL to your announcement post in all your later communications. If the details change, we can edit it without changing the URL. We can schedule multiple pushes to social media also.

Well, that’s probably enough. If you need to get in touch with me I’m at webmaster@pseconline.org. Please think about how this website can better work for your goals and contact me or if you have an account here leave a comment in the comments section below

Thanks,
Stan