Technology is best when it brings people together
“Technology is best when it brings people together.”
Matt Mullenweg, Social Media Entrepreneur
Almost one year ago, ACPE launched a new database and new website. The technology upgrades provided us an opportunity to evaluate our association’s communication strategy. Our old website attempted to speak to many audiences – Certified Educators, Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapists and Practitioners, Educator Candidates, current and potential CPE students, Center Administrators, Servant Leaders, Spiritual Care Providers, Donors, and many more. With so much information crowding the site, its effectiveness diminished. We realized we needed to seek new ways to communicate with ACPE members and the world.
Therefore, when we launched the new website, we expanded our existing SharePoint sites and migrated significant amounts of content to SharePoint. We fundamentally changed how we disseminate news and information. Now, ACPE’s website focuses on external audiences while SharePoint speaks to internal audiences (our members).
Currently, the ACPE website’s primary purposes are to advance ACPE’s mission and vision, seek new partners and donors, and promote our exceptional education and events. The ACPE website is built on our database, so members still need to visit the website to register for events, register student units, and make payments or donations. Speaking of the database, our data is only as good as what is in the system. Please login to check your contact info for accuracy. We also strongly encourage you and your students to complete the demographic information (age, race, faith group, gender identity) so ACPE can track its diversity goals.
In most cases, members now go directly to SharePoint for news and information about our certification and accreditation programs. SharePoint houses portfolios, forms, manuals, news, educational resources, and tutorials. SharePoint’s collaborative tools, such as Yammer, Teams, Email, and OneNote, provide you with additional benefits. Hundreds of members access ACPE’s SharePoint daily for resources and collaboration. We are creating an online community exclusively for ACPE members.
From September 2020 to May 2021, ACPE staff hosted almost 70 Tech Talks to demo the new sites for members. During the Tech Talks, members toured the content on the website and SharePoint. They learned about usernames and passwords for each site, the upgraded CPE student unit enrollment and registration process, and the importance of internet browsers. By the way, ACPE recommends Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge to access our sites. If you are still using Internet Explorer, Microsoft will discontinue it in June 2022.
We have made significant investments in our technology infrastructure and personnel. I am grateful for ACPE’s IT Solutions Architect Carl Jones-Reid’s innovative spirit, patience, and diligent member support. We continue to seek new technology and processes to support your work and improve your accessibility. Please email us with your thoughts or requests for assistance. Finally, would you be interested in attending a Tech Talk? Please email me if you think we should continue offering Tech Talks throughout the summer.
John Roch serves as ACPE’s Director of Communications & Technology. He may be contacted at john.roch@acpe.edu.