Welcome to the new home for IPRA’s Facility Management Section professionals! As you’ll soon find out, this new blog (read: interactive Web site) will allow for so much more learning and interaction among members than the old static FMS page.With this new site, you as the FM members, have the ability to become Contributors and post your own questions, news, learning experiences, meeting updates, workshop reminders, etc. You no longer have to wait for IPRA staff to update little nuggets of information - the power is in your hands! Once you’ve published a post others in the section have the ability to comment on them and provide feedback. This begins the interaction and learning. Think of this blog as the FM ListServ on steroids! Same great concept but now every post will be archived by category for later reference. You also don’t have to worry about email addresses - and bad emails too.

The success of the FM Section blog is really up to you, the member. If nothing ever gets posted and no one ever comments it’ll become a static page like the one you’re used to. Take control of your FM communications and get the word out.

We’re hear to help so let us know if you’re having any issues. Have fun!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR REGISTERING TO BECOME A CONTRIBUTING WRITER TO THE BLOG

  1. Go to http://fm.ILipra.org
  2. Register to become a contributor to the site
  3. Click on Login at the top of the page
  4. Click on Register and enter a username (screen name) and your email address
  5. A temporary password will be emailed to you once membership is verified
  6. Once you have the password return to the main page and click Login
  7. Enter your username and password, then click Login

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING A BLOG POST

  1. Once you’ve logged in you’ll enter the admin page where you can post your question/workshop promotion/meeting reminder/cool trends you’ve seen, etc.
  2. Click on Write
  3. Type in your title of the post in the Title field
  4. Type in your body of the post in the Post field
  5. You have the ability to format text similarly to MS Word
  6. You can add hyperlinks to other Web sites by highlighting the specific word and clicking on the “chain” link in the taskbar
  7. You can also upload files like meeting agendas or minutes, examples of work that’s been done, etc. by using the Upload feature
  8. Browse for your file
  9. Give it a title (the title name will be the name used for the hyperlinked text in the post)
  10. Add a description if you like
  11. Upload the file by clicking Upload
  12. You will then see your uploaded files and they can easily be inserted into the post by dragging and dropping where you’d like the hyperlink to occur
  13. In the right sidebar you should select the appropriate Category for your post to appear in (Education & Workshops/Meetings/Resources/Section News) **be sure to deselect the Uncategorized as all posts default to this**
  14. If you prefer to not allow commenting on the post (which is discouraged because the beauty of the blog is to initiate online conversation) you can click on Discussion in the right sidebar and deselect Allow Comments
  15. Once you are ready to publish your post you can click on Save & Continue Editing and view how the post will look by scrolling to the bottom of the admin page
  16. If everything looks the way you want it to simply click on the Publish button
  17. The admin page will then tell you that your post have been added to the blog and you can click on View Site to return to the actual blog page

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMMENTING ON A BLOG POST

  1. Commenting on a blog posting is also very easy
  2. Click on the Add a Comment link (or 1 Comment link) under the post
  3. Enter your name/alias and email address and Web site if you have one (email address will not be shown)
  4. Type your comment in the comment field and then click Add My Comment

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBSCRIBING TO THE BLOG TO RECEIVE EMAIL UPDATES

  1. You can receive email updates when postings are made to the blog which a great way to stay connected and know what’s going on!
  2. Enter your email address in the “Subscribe to this blog” field on the main page of the blog
  3. Enter the random letters/numbers on the pop-up window and click “Complete subscription request”
  4. Check your email Inbox for an email from FeedBurner’s “donotreply@emailenfuego.com”
  5. Click on the link in your email to activate the subscription