The CMCA Board is interested in receiving feedback from Cape Meares residents regarding issues related to the community. We have already been doing this in a number of ways. We have informal conversations with community residents about the work of the Board. Quarterly public meetings are scheduled and open to residents to attend and offer input. The Board has also posted online surveys seeking information before actions are taken.
Another idea that is being explored is to add a feature to the capemeares.org website that is called “Community.” It’s the tab on the right side of the menu bar found near the top of each of the pages for the website. It’s a location where the CMCA Board will be posting forums that will enable residents to comment without speaking directly to a board member, attending a meeting, or answering questions on a survey.
Having a community forum is an experiment. We will try it for a few weeks and see if it becomes a useful source of information to assist us in making decisions that we believe will be in the best interest of community residents. Sometimes experiments are successful and occasionally they are not. If it appears the feedback source is not a useful way to provide feedback it will be shut down.
The Community forum will be moderated by one of the CMCA Board members who will decide if a comment will appear. It will not be possible for anonymously authored comments to be posted. Anyone who posts to the Community forum must register (only once) to do so, and only full- or part-time residents who own or rent property in Cape Meares or whose name appears in the directory for Cape Meares will be permitted to post comments.
To facilitate the registration process, residents are asked to create a username that is the first initial of their first name and last name with no space between. Individuals will also be asked to include an e-mail address where their password will be sent. This password is for the eyes of the person registering only and may be changed. No duplicate usernames are possible. If there are problems with the registration contact cansorge@me.com
If there are any usernames submitted for individuals who are not full- or part-time residents of Cape Meares they will be rejected.
Below can be found a step-by-step explanation of the procedure involved in registering to post information on the Community forums found on the capemeares.org website.
Registering for Community Forum
The first step in the process of registering for the community forum is to access the capemeares.org website. On the left side of the screen is a section where username and password information is to be entered once the registration process has been completed. Click on “Register” to begin the registration process.
A new screen will appear indicating the second step in the registration process. A username should be the first initial of your first name and last name without a space between letters. If the username you chose has already been selected add a digit to the end of your name. The e-mail address you add will be the one to which a password will be sent. This password should be used when logging into the Cape Meares website.
Below is an example of an automatic message sent from the website that shows the type of password that will be generated. Once this message has been received be sure to save it for future reference. This password may be changed later on if you wish. Passwords have upper- and lower-case letters plus numerals. It is possible to click on the link in the mail message to logon to the Cape Meares website.
After you have logged on to the Cape Meares site and entered your username and password, place a check-mark in the box to “Remember me.” By clicking in this box it will not be necessary to enter the username and password information the next time you access the site if you use the same computer. To access the Community forum you will need to click on the link for Community. It’s in green on the menu bar. At this point there is one forum and it is concerned with providing a community directory for residents.
It is possible to click on the link for the forum and see the two topics that have been posted that are related to this forum. Below is shown the two topics and the names of those residents who started the topics. Further down space is provided for adding additional topics related to the forum about a directory. By clicking on the topics it is possible to view the information that has been posted.
The last of the screen shots is a view of one of the two topics posted and at the bottom of the screen shot is shown a place where it is possible to comment regarding what the person has posted. If there is an additional comment added it is IMPORTANT that the comment be “submitted.” There’s a box for that on the screen. If this is not done the comment disappears.
The discussion forum for this website functions very much like forums that are found on other websites. It will take a bit of time to master how to use the resource, but it is a handy way to share your ideas with others.
There will be another forum posted soon that will be related to how feedback might be obtained from residents before sharing a directory. It was very clear in the survey that was completed by over 60 Cape Meares residents that there should be a way to check information about a proposed entry in the directory before it is shared. How best should this be done? At the same time residents will be asked if they wish to have information included in the directory. Or not.