New AGD Website, Visual Identity, and Branding
 

Link to website: http://alphagammadelta.org/Home
Link to myAlphaGam: http://alphagammadelta.org/Member/Lo...Fdashboard.php

Note -- your previous login to the old website's Member Services section will not work. You'll need to create new credentials to gain access.

Thank you, IHQ! I think the new look is wonderful!

It looks great!! However, it won't let me make an id :(

sorry for the crash, but your new site looks awesome! it's also a lot easier to navigate than the previous one

Crashing also.. Love the site!

I think my favorite part about it so far is "Sisters near you" at the bottom of the main page.. It tells you how many AGDs are in your area! That's a pretty cool feature if you ask me :)

So that was the big announcement scheduled for today?

I love the new website!

Your guess is as good as mine. Not sure if this is it, considering the site launched mid-day yesterday where I'm at.

I checked my iMail, and they sent one out about it. There are some snafus - when I get an email saying it's good to go I'll try again and let you all know if I was able to get in!

(The error for me said there was already a registered member with my credentials.)

Several things I'm not happy about. First, sisters whose updated info appeared on the old site are now appearing as Lost Sisters. Another is that you need to Click on "Share Information" in your profile. It will take forever for sisters to do this.

I'm wondering how that might work for our sisters who don't use the internet very well, or at all. Considering these women may be older alumnae who prefer written invitations or phone calls, as well as snail mail or paper newsletters, being able to contact them is key and I'm not sure how we're going to do that.

One thing I found interesting as I was messing around was lost sisters now show up when I do a geographic search (state or zip) and that actually allowed me to reconcile five lost sisters this morning, three have entered Chapter Grand and I have current mailing addresses for the other two. I've noticed some lost sisters are lost due to name changes of second (third, fourth, and I think fifth for one!) marriages.

Speaking of Chapter Grand, I haven't seen what the designation is for those sisters, because I can't find any women I know have entered Chapter Grand. I've tried a few names and they aren't in the directory, period.

I have a feeling that they did a transfer of data a while ago. We found out that one of our sisters passed away about 6 months ago and it was on the old website. When you pull her up on the new site, it does not show her entering Chapter Grand. I was just trying to get in a few minutes ago and it is giving me an error message.

ITA: Sorry for the bitching, but I need to reduce my screen down to 75% to view each page. There is no left and right scroll on the bottom, and some of what I need to click on is cut off.
/end rant

Generally, I liked what I saw, but what's up with dropping one rose?

If you go do the Facebook page, there is a youtube video that explains it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpYJNy8o94o

If you look at the rose, it looks like it is an extension of the "L" in Live. The Rose is a circle to stay consistent with what AGD is.

I think I watched that already, and it's cool.

But I think of us as having two roses.

Crashing, but funny you say this because I had a similar problem with our new site. We now have a site called Exclusively Xi which I'm guessing is like your myAlphaGam. It takes the place of the In Circle group we have.

I was at a meeting with my alumnae group and many others had the problem of the user name being taken. One lady said she had success when she tried a new user name. I did the same and it worked for me too. Oddly enough my email addresses, phone numbers, etc. were already linked up to the account I just registered. So somehow they already put our information in the system...its just odd that it wouldn't let me register with the initial username that I wanted. Is myAlphaGam hosted by Omega by any chance? I'm on my phone so I can't really tell. Exclusively Xi is. Maybe it's the same glitch?

I like the site, I really do. (Of course anything is a vast improvement over the old one, with "fraternity news" that was six months old.) I was able to reset my password, but I can't tell that there's much on the "hidden" side that needs protecting.

"Find Alpha Gams near you" suggested "Lambda, Evanston, Illinois." Clicking that took me to a blank page. Of course it did -- Lambda was resolved years ago and there is no alumnae chapter. The program probably goes by zip code, but I think it could be set to refer to Beta Epsilon or Beta Upsilon!

BUT I am REALLY, REALLY, REALLY irritated/upset that the new logo -- very pretty though it is -- is ONLY A RED ROSE. There is an explanation about why the logo does not use the buff rose. I, for one, don't buy it. There is room for two roses. We are not AOII. We are not "scarlet and green" AXO. BRING BACK THE BUFF ROSE!!

Where is the explanation about why there's no buff rose?

ETA: I'm disconcerted by its absence too.

I hope that they will continue to expand the Private side more. I like that there are resources (handbooks, forms, etc.) available for members for their convenience and I wonder if lugging around thick binders to meetings will one day become a thing of the past. With so much social media surrounding us today I also hope they can somehow integrate more interaction between sisters -- forum, message board, chat room? Maybe.

I haven't been an advisor for years...is online reporting available yet?

On the old site, the alum chapters were linked to either actual homepages or Facebook fan pages. This new site links alum chapters to homepages only. Hopefully they'll be able to change that soon.

Agree with all of this. On FB, Stephannie gives a good response to everyone's concerns about the lack of the buff rose, but I'm just not sold on it. Maybe one day.

Aesthetically, I'm a fan and I love it. But as I spend more time on it, I'm finding it a little difficult to navigate. And as much as I love my collegians everything in 'Alpha Gams Near You' seems to link to the collegiate website, not so much to my alumnae chapter -- which worries me a little, most especially for alums new to my area.

Yes. I think that OmegaFi is also doing all of the collegiate chapters. Give everyone a uniform look.. I don't know if all are completed by now. I know that Gamma Tau (West Ga) has OF.

I recently asked a collegiate officer (can't remember if it was GTech or WGa) but the answer was "no". There were problems that couldn't be worked out. I am thinking maybe GTech because they were a pilot chapter along with others (if I remember correctly).

Crashing to say that I'm a Sigma Kappa, but I love peeping other sorority sites, and the first thing I thought when I clicked on your new site was, "Oh, they got rid of the two rose logo - I liked the old one better."

It's a cleaner look. From a graphic perspective, I understand the one rose logo. It had to be explained to me, but as I look through everything, and how the graphics flow through our materials, the cleaner look is what is important.

I was one of the first to see the brand outside of staff because the new education materials utilize the brand. The materials themselves include all the Alpha Gam colors - and those are the same. Our fraternity flowers are still red and buff roses... But the brand - the visual identity - is focused on Live With Purpose - not the flowers.

Eta: the buff rose is still there - it's just in the background. Look at it when you "like" a page on facebook - when it shows up on your page, you can see the buff rose in the background.

Co-sign.

ETA:
I watched the video linked to the FB page explaining the branding and single red rose. It didn't really explain it like I hoped, but I think I figured it out.

So, apparently as a member of the vst, they already set me up on the myAlphaGam site, which is why I couldn't do it myself. They think they have login issues resolved.

HEY, how have I never noticed that you live near me? Well, within an hour.

Are you in an Alumnae chapter?

I registered with MyAlphaGam. After I created my account, I was allowed into the members only side. Now, I am trying to log back in and I keep getting the message that my log in info is incorrect. I reset my password and now, still can't get in.

I got in and made a new ID/account without any trouble, and it imported my info from the old site, so I suppose they're still working on things. I'll have to go back and spend some more time poking around, but I liked the new site. Not so much the new logo--that'll take some getting used to! I really like the overall look of it, but WHERE'S MY BUFF ROSE? That'll take some MORE getting used to! And I really like the emphasis on living the Purpose. Within the last year I've posted copies of our Purpose in places where I can see it and use it. I like the idea of reaching back to our core values and reinforcing them in such a visible way.

The online reporting is coming very soon. The first software they used was too clunky. There is a new one coming.

I haven't had time to explore the new site in detail yet but so far, I can't find the handbooks.

MyAlphaGam > Resource Center

It took a while for it to load, but it seems the handbooks and forms are all there. How convenient!

I emailed IHQ because none of those links are working for me.. or so I thought. Perhaps the load time was the issue. She said it may take up to five minutes to load. I definitely didn't wait that long.

I was rather impressed that the RIF and LIF forms are a PDF that you can now fill in and print out. That is going to make it a lot easier to complete the forms. I can also save a copy which is even better if the form gets lost as I can either print or e-mail it to the chapter. I'd be even more pleased if there was some kind of digital drop box for chapters that would allow a LIF/RIF to be submit and we'd know it was accepted.

I may just not be looking in the right place, but I can't find the list of officers and advisors for collegiate chapters. I could find it on the old website so I could contact someone about forms being received or when they were needed for recruitment, and now I can only find VST people.