Change Is Good!

ASGA is coming up quick on our 10th anniversary in 2013. We designed the "infrastructure" of ASGA's web resources in 2003 with technology and programs that were available a decade ago.

Needless to say, the ability to search our databases and find information across the entire ASGA web site is a bit limited by our 10-year-old software.

The good news? We're finally biting the bullet and will, over the next three or four months, be doing some serious upgrading. We'll be updating our "server" to a faster machine with more memory. That will make ASGA's site faster right away.

Secondly, we're upgrading our "database software" so that our members can search more easily and quickly. Now, when you search for constitutions, it pulls up thousands of documents. Soon, you'll be able to seach for constitutions among any type or size of institution in any state. That will make the SG Database at www.asgaonline.com far more valuable.

We're also updating the way we categorize documents. This will allow you to search more more specifically for exactly what you need.

ASGA has VAST resources that get deeper by the day. In January, we hired three more researchers to help us with updating the information we store on every college and university in the nation. Now, we just need for our software to catch up with our data!

We're projecting that this update will be completed within three to four months. Certainly, it will be done by the start of the fall semester.

Please let me know if you'd like to review our proposed enhancements for our "categories" in the SG Documents section at www.asgaonline.com. You can reach me at butch@asgaonline.com

A Facelift for ASGA

The ASGA team spent most of December updating and enhancing the "look" of the home pages for each of our 10 conference web sites. Just finished the National Student Government Summit yesterday.

The new designs are unique to each conference, using typefaces, colors, and images that represent each city.

We're in the midst of updating all of the rest of the pages at each conference web site, which probably will take close to another month.

Design changes are mentally tiring and time-consuming. But our sites haven't been visually updated since 2005. So we're way past due for a new look!

New focus on research

ASGA is about to announce a brand-new section of our resources at www.asgaonline.com. The new section will be "Research."

We've always done research for our members when asked. If they need help looking into trends on an issue nationwide, we have helped out by surveying similar schools by e-mail, phone, and fax.

Now, it's an official part of our resources. There will be a form that lets members make a research request. And there will be links to past research ASGA has conducted, such as on voting turnout totals nationwide, smoking policies, student discount cards, and student activity fees.

ASGA helps our members most by saving them time. This is just another way ASGA accomplishes that goal.