Just a few status items I wanted to update you all on: Last night Mitch Ryder and I had a short technical session. He is now prepared to back me up (as an Assistant State Coordinator) to make any urgent changes to the state website or anything else which resides on the new idgenweb.org server should I become unavailable or unresponsive (for example, getting hit by a bus!). We will be continuing periodic online meetings to ensure that we as a team will be able to support you well. He is also subscribed to the official mailing list for State leadership and so will be up on what is going on that we might need to know. The first operation of our county backup list has just occurred. Mitch had asked to be on the backup list a while back for Ada county. Since Kris this week found it necessary to give up her county for the time being, Mitch was the only one on that backup list, I have assigned Ada County to him. I am not yet quite ready to put up an online version of the backup list but will do so in the next few weeks. In the meantime, anyone is welcome to express interest in a county that is already covered and I will put them on the list in case that county becomes available in the future. The following counties now reside on the new idgenweb.org server: Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem, Valley and Washington. The links from the state website have been updated. There are several other counties that are in the process of moving, or evaluating whether they want to move. In view of the dynamic nature of the website at this time, I've decided I will be making the periodic backups more frequently than once a month, probably once a week for a time. Jason Mendenhall has agreed to help test out the Front Page capability of the new server using a copy of his Power County website, which he publishes using Front Page. I'm in the process of setting up that location for the test and will keep you posted as to the results of the test. All county websites can now be reached using a common URL - http://countyname.idgenweb.org/. For those counties located elsewhere (this involves Rootsweb, usgennet, and others) there is an immediate redirect from that URL to the county's real site. This is driven by a small database and a few lines of PHP code that is the same for every county. If someone moves to idgenweb.org, that small file is removed from their directory. If they were to move from one server to another, it requires only database update. I suggest you consider using this new format for any links you have to neighboring counties. That will eliminate the need to change your pages if a neighboring county moves from one server to another. Now that the National Election is finished, this would be a good time to make sure you are registered to vote in the next one. You can register at: http://www.usgwelections.org/USGenWeb/register.cfm If you have any trouble doing so, give a yell. As always, I want to assure you that I'm willing and interested in providing you with any help you need in building and improving your county websites. Mike St. Clair