APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB

Trip Listings Application: Trip Contributor User Instructions

Appalachian Mountain Club
5 Joy Street
Boston, MA 02108
Phone 617-523-0655

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Logging In

To log into the system, go to: http://trips.outdoors.org/index.cfm/method/trips.showlogin using your current login information (current email address and password supplied to you by your chapter administrator).

Upon logging in, you’ll find several options available, including the ability to add a new chapter trip, update/change your user information, and ability to access trips based on several different search parameters. A description of each of these functions will be included in subsequent sections of this guide.

Account Administration: Changing Your Contact Information and Password.

The application allows users, at any time, to edit their contact information (email address) and change their password. To do so, log in to the system at http://trips.outdoors.org/index.cfm/method/trips.showlogin using your current login information (current email address and password).

Once logged in, you’ll find a central contributor administration area, that will give you several options, including the ability to add trips, change the status of existing trips (to indicate a trip is full, cancel a trip, etc.), search current and archived trips, and administer your login information.

Select “Update/Change my user information” to be directed to the account information administration page.

In this form, you are able to easily edit your first & last names, phone number, email address and password. To change your password, enter your new desired password in the “*Password” field and then re-type it in the “*Confirm Password” field. Please note: current guidelines for passwords are fairly lenient – a recommended password would be at least 6 characters long & alphanumeric, however the system won’t disqualify most passwords – its only current restriction is that passwords be less than 50 characters in length.

To save your changes, click “Update”.

Other notes:

• The contact information (email address, phone number) listed in your user account information is for internal administrative use only and will not be made public through this system.
• The “Clear Form” button can be used to clear the entire form and start fresh when entering your data.
• The “Cancel” button will abandon any and all changes you make to the page and bring you back to the central contributor administration area.

Entering A New Trip Listing

To begin entering trips, you must first log in (if you’re not logged in already), using your email address and assigned password:

Once logged in, you’ll find a central contributor administration area, that will give you several options, including the ability to add trips, change the status of existing trips (note: this option is only available if you have any trips active in the system), search current trips (note: this option is only available if you have active trips in the system), search archived trips, and administer your login information.

To enter a trip, select “Add [1] new Chapter Trip(s)” and hit “Go” button. You will be taken to the trip entry screen, illustrated here:

The trip entry process is done completely through this web-based form, which is similar to an online email form or online shopping. Please note that only those fields marked with an asterisk are required. All other fields are optional.

To begin, select the status of your trip (Open, Wait List, Full, Canceled) and determine whether you’d like your trip to appear in the magazine (AMC Outdoors), the website (www.outdoors.org), or both, and select accordingly.

You will also, at this time, enter your trip title and the date range for the trips.

Note: Recurring trips may be entered by selecting a start date and end date and using the center select box, which allows you to select a date of the week for this recurring trip. For non-recurring trips, the center select box may be ignored & only the start and end date fields should be changed.

E.g. A “Tuesday Bike Rides in March” series would be entered as a trip with the date range starting March 1, 2005 and ending March 31, 2005. “Tuesdays Only” would be selected in the central select box.

Once you’ve completed the introductory trip information, you’ll move on to the description fields, of which there are two: Magazine Description, and Web Description. Both include a spell checker, which contributors are encouraged to use, to alleviate the instance of spelling errors, etc. Users should also note that common AMC abbreviations (listed on the left-hand side of the page) are all included and recognized by the spell checker. Any correct words not recognized by the spell checker can be added to the tool as well.

The Magazine Description field allows contributors to input a 75-word description to be used in publication of AMC Outdoors.

Upon completion of the magazine description, contributors will find that by clicking in the “Web Description” field, the Magazine Description text will automatically be copied over to prevent the need for any retyping if not desired.

The Web Description has a larger word limit – 150 words - to allow for additional description, if desired.

Users are given the option to indicate that no registration is required. Or, they can select the “Contact us to participate” button to require registration and then input the appropriate contact information for trip registration.

In entering registration information, contributors should first note that the chapter and committee fields will automatically default to their own chapter and committee. All other information must be entered by the contributor. This information includes:

• Nearby AMC Destinations, if any (e.g. Mohican Center, Little Lyford Pond Camps, etc.) – Note: this field is optional
• Specific Location of the activity (e.g. mountain name, trail name, etc.) – Note: this field is optional
• Region. A complete region list is provided in the application, including “Other” and “International” regions to accommodate any exceptions to typical chapter destinations. Contributors will note the state automatically defaults based on region selected.
• Country
• Activity (ability to select two is provided). Trips including 3+ activities should list the two most prominent activities and include others in the trip description.

Again, please note that not all of these fields are required, but contributors are encouraged to enter information as these fields assist in the end user search process.

A trip entered with activity “skiing” and in location “NY – Adirondacks” will be easily found in a search either on “skiing” or “Adirondacks” as long as those fields have been properly selected

Once this section is completed, trip leader, co-leader and registrar information must be entered.

Enter all relevant information for leaders (L), co-leaders (CL) and trip registrar (R), if applicable. The trip registrar field should be used for providing contact information for those individuals who are not a leader or co-leader but are collecting money or registration information for participants. Please note that at least one form of contact information (email OR phone number) is required for the trip leader.

Note: If opting to use email as the preferred method of contact, please note the option to NOT display your email address is available. By selecting this option, participants will be able to contact you via email without actually seeing your email address, rather by submitting a message through an online form.

To conclude the trip entering process, contributors must enter their personal contact information (not for public viewing, but rather for system tracking purposes, so that reviewers and approvers might contact you with questions about your trip.)

Contributors are then asked to submit final directions for the publication of their trip. For website postings, a “release date” can be entered to determine when the listing will appear on the website (after being approved.)

Web search terms should also be filled in with keywords and phrases relevant to the trip. Entering keywords will help the page become more “search engine friendly” so that search engines indexing these activity pages will find appropriate keywords and phrases embedded in the text of the pages.

E.g., a paddling trip on the upper Hudson River might have a list of web search terms such as “guided canoe trip, paddling, Hudson River, Adirondacks”

By default, every listing entered and approved will appear in the earliest issue of AMC Outdoors possible, based on the magazine deadline. If you want the listing to appear in a later issue, you can specify this in the “Magazine Publication Starting Date” dropdown menu.

Finally, contributors are given the option of archiving this trip in the system, saving the trip details for future reference. If not archived, a trip will be deleted from the system once the trip date has passed.

Contributors are given the option to “Save/Edit Later” or “Submit & Forward to Reviewer”. If you submit your trip, the reviewer will be automatically notified by email that your trip is waiting for review. Contributors have the ability to edit their trips up until the point a reviewer edits and approves the trip (see “Editing a Trip Listing Prior to Approval” on page 22 for additional detail on this). Once a reviewer has opened a trip to edit, that trip is no longer accessible to contributors for editing.

After submitting one trip, you will return to the previous screen and see your new listing under “Current Trips” with a status of “Contributor sent to Reviewer”. You can also see the status of your other submissions. Once your trip has gone through the complete review process by committee reviewer, chapter approver, and AMC Magazine or Web Editor approval, the trip will be posted to the website and/or published in the magazine, based on your specifications.

Note also that next to each trip under “Current Trips,” several options, including “View Mag,” “View Web” and “Edit” exist.

The “view mag” button allows you to preview the trip the way it will be submitted to the AMC Outdoors editors.

The “view web” button allows you to preview the trip the way it will appear online once approved.

The “edit” button will allow you to re-open the trip entry form to make any changes prior to the trip being reviewed.

Reusing an Archived Trip Listing

To reuse a trip previously entered and archived, you must first log in, using your email address and assigned password:

Once logged in, you’ll find a central contributor administration area that will give you several options, including the ability to add trips, change the status of existing trips (to indicate a trip is full, cancel a trip, etc.), search current and archived trips, and administer your login information.

Click on “View all archived trips.” A list of all trips you’ve entered that were marked to be archived and have already occurred will appear.

In the “Edit Options” column of the trip list, select “reactivate.” The screen will open to the “Edit Trip” page, with the trip’s date now defaulting to today’s date. These date fields are able to changed so if the trip will occur in the future, you may make those changes accordingly.

You may refer to “Entering a New Trip Listing” for additional detail on the fields available for trip information entry. Once you are satisfied with the changes, you can click “Save & Forward to Reviewer” to process the trip. The information will then be processed in the same manner as a newly-entered trip.

Editing a Trip Listing Prior to Approval

To edit a trip previously entered but saved for later editing (not yet approved), you must first log in, using your email address and assigned password:

Once logged in, you’ll find a central contributor administration area, that will give you several options, including the ability to add trips, change the status of existing trips (to indicate a trip is full, cancel a trip, etc.), search current and archived trips, and administer your login information.

Under Current Trips, find the trip you’d like to edit and select “edit” under Edit Options. (Note: the “edit” option will only be available if the Reviewer has not yet approved the trip.) The trip-editing page will open.

Make any additional changes (refer to “Entering a New Trip” for additional instruction on the available information fields) and either save to edit later or submit to reviewer, as usual.

Editing a Trip’s Status

To edit a trip’s status (available status levels include “Open,” “Full,” “Wait List,” and “Canceled”) after the trip has already been entered and approved, you must first log in, using your email address and assigned password:

Once logged in, you’ll find a central contributor administration area, that will give you several options, including the ability to add trips, change the status of existing trips (to indicate a trip is full, cancel a trip, etc.), search current and archived trips, and administer your login information.

Under Current Trips, find the trip whose status you’d like to change and select “change status” under Edit Options. The “Current Trip’s Status” page will open.

Select the appropriate new status for the trip and click on “Change Status” to save the change. You’ll note this change is reflected immediately throughout the application and the new status will be immediately visible to other users.

The “Cancel” button on this page will take you back to the central contributor administration area.

For Additional Support

There are a number of ways to receive additional assistance in support of this system.

A Yahoo Group has been set up and is being maintained in order that users may communicate with other users and AMC staff for the purpose of information exchange. Specific login information for joining and access this group will be distributed to each chapter individually.