The ANA website is a mess!!

Manorcourtman

Many nonresponsive pages and other issues. I tried to do a dealer search and it doesn't work ANA Dealer search page. Anyone else notice this lately???

LanceNewmanOCC

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i haven't searched their site so much but have noticed a HUGH increase in the amount of broken links across many BIG sites
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CoinRaritiesOnline

Yup -- just went on it this afternoon to get info on the Summer ANA show.

It is trashed.

Crusoe

Can't get into the worlds fair of money website either, hope they fix this soon.

Steve

I tried to renew my membership online TWICE in the past month. I had to phone in instead. What bothers me the most is they have problems and can't communicate to the membership that they have problems. I believe many of the staff do try their best but that may not be good enough. Will the new EO make everything better? Who knows. It can't just be all about the MONEY. Greg, any comments for us ANA members who seem to be left out in the cold as far as TIMELY information is concerned until management decides to say something. JMHO. Steve

MFH

Believe me, they are franticly trying to get the site back up.
It crashed a couple of months ago, got fixed, then crashed again.

GregL

An upgrade to the ANA membership database was done in March.

During the upgrade process, it was discovered that our current content management system was incompatible with the new version of our membership database. (There is a connection between the two to validate membership credentials when accessing member-only sections of the website.) A decision was made to upgrade to a new content management system. That upgrade process has -- to but it mildly -- not been as successful as hoped. Unfortunately, the ANA -- like many small businesses -- does not have a large IT staff. When things do not go as planned, decisions are sometimes made without consideration for all of the repercussions that could take place.

After realizing the limitations of our IT staff, I asked President Hallenbeck to form an Information Technology committee last fall. This committee has been formed by James Reinders and includes about a dozen ANA members with different strengths regarding IT. (Incoming Executive Director Jeff Shevlin has been an active member of the committee.) Unfortunately, the committee was not fully in place to be involved in the decision-making leading up to and during the membership database upgrade. If it had been, I think we would have avoided the website issues now being faced.

The "good" news is that most functionality on the website has been restored, including the Dealer Directory. The bad news is that stability problems continue and if the web server crashes over a weekend, it may not be brought back on-line until Monday. Some additional changes are being planned that should resolve most of our issues in the next few weeks.

If anyone is finding broken links or other functionality issues, please contact Jake Sherlock at the ANA (sherlock@money.org or 719-482-9872).

Steve

Greg,
Your communication above is exactly what I would hope ANA management would tell the membership. It would have saved me two fruitless sessions trying to renew my membership online. From what you said, the problems were identified last fall but because of lack of expertise, bigger issues developed that must effect the perception members have about the organization. Obviously, the web site is the best place for communications but it is seldom used and members have no confidence in it. In the short term, why not get the NGC partnership to open a special message board for ANA members to communicate. While I don't frequent their boards much, I would if I knew it was a place to get updated information. Maybe PCGS would do the same. Greg, I can see you KNOW what the issues are. It comes down to someone having the guts to deal with them. Good luck.
Steve

GregL

<< <i>G From what you said, the problems were identified last fall but because of lack of expertise, bigger issues developed that must effect the perception members have about the organization. >>



Hi Steve,

Just wanted to clarify one thing... regarding the reasons for establishing the IT committee and the specific problems with the website.

The reason I asked for the technology committee to be formed was a capital expenditure requested by the staff which went to the ANA Board. Being an IT professional (a project manager specifically, although I was a software developer for over a decade), I knew I was likely the only board member who would have any idea of what questions to ask regarding the request -- and even so, I did not have a lot of background with the technology specific to the request being made. The scope of the committee is to review and advise on specific purchase requests as well as review and provide input on the ANA's overall IT area, including the website.

The problem that has impacted the website recently is NOT something which was identified last fall -- but rather when the membership database upgrade was taking place in March. If the committee had been up and running when this upgrade was being planned, I think a lot more "what if" questions would have been thought through -- and when something unexpected happened during the upgrade -- could have reviewed and given counsel on what the next steps should be.

There are plans in development for a complete overhaul of the website. Unfortunately, this issue has delayed them somewhat.

Greg