The USA Dance LA Online Board Meeting Application is a private group that requires a user account and a subscription. You must be a member of the USA Dance LA group in order to access this application.

Enter Agenda

In order to enter Agenda items:

Create a user account

1. Create a user account on CentralAveDance to use for logins. As part of the registration process, you put a check in the "USA Dance LA " group checkbox so you will be put on the approval list for this group.
2. The Web Site Administrator will approve your request if you are a USA Dance LA Board member. You will receive an email notification when your request is approved.
3. You must log in with this user account to perform any functions within the USA Dance LA group.

Create an Event (Meeting)

1. In order to create an Agenda item, you must first create a Meeting. On the web site, a Board Meeting is entered as an Event . To enter an event, go to the USA Dance LA group home page and click on the "Creae Event " link in the menu. This will bring up the event input form. You need to make sure you enter the Start Date, End Date, Title and Body. You also need to make sure that "USA Dance, Los Angeles Chapter 4031" is checked in the "Groups" section. Only check the "Public" box if you want anyone (i.e., the general public) to see this post. Click on "Submit" button to create the Meeting event.
2. Note that it is possible to simply enter your Agenda into the "Body" of the Meeting event post. However, if you would like the Agenda to be broken down into elements that can be commented on individually, then you should enter individual Agenda items.

Post the Agenda item(s) to the Event (Meeting)

1. To enter an Agenda item, you must first go to or "View" the Meeting event to which the Agenda item is to be posted. To locate the event, you can click on the "Group calendar " link or the "Events " link located in the group's navigation menus. When you see the Meeting event you want, click on it. This will bring up the details for the event. At the bottom of the event screen, you will see a link titled "Post agenda item for this event". Click on this link.
2. When you click on the "Post agenda item for this event" link, you will see a new event form, only this is for entering Agenda items. The Start and End dates you see will reflect those of the event to which this Agenda item will be attached. You should edit the Start and End times to reflect the approximate timeframe for this particular Agenda item. The Title will default to "Agenda for" followed by the Title of the event to which this Agenda item will be attached. You can modify the Title to whatever you wish. Enter the agenda description into Agenda Description. The "Groups" section should have "USA Dance LA" checked. Only check the "Public" if you want this post to be displayed to the general public. Click on the "Submit" button to create this post and attach it to the event.
3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for as many Agenda items as you wish to post to an event.

Once a Meeting event and Agenda items are created, you can easily add comments to them by clicking on the "Add comments" button at the bottom of the "View" screens for each. It is via comments that you can create discussions on items posted.

Enter / View Minutes

Enter MInutes

Meeting Minutes are posted to Meeting Events. In order to post a Minutes, you must locate the Event (Meeting) to which they are to be posted.

1. To enter Minutes, you must first go to or "View" the Meeting event to which the Minutes are to be posted. To locate the event, you can click on the "Group calendar " link or the "Events " link located in the group's navigation menus. When you see the Meeting event you want, click on it. This will bring up the details for the event. At the bottom of the event screen, you will see a link titled "Post minutes for this event". Click on this link.
2. When you click on the "post minutes for this event" link, you will see a new "Submit Minutes" form. You must enter a Title for these minutes. You enter the actual minutes into the Minutes box. You can select the users who attended by clicking on the appropriate usernames in the "Attendees" section. However, it is recommended that you simply enter the usernames of the attendees in the "Extra Attendees" section. The "Groups" section should have "USA Dance LA" checked. Only check the "Public" if you want this post to be displayed to the general public. Click on the "Submit" button to create this post and attach it to the event.
3. You can only make one Minutes post per event.

Once the Minutes of an Event (Meeting) are created, you can easily add comments to them by clicking on the "Add comments" button at the bottom of the "View" screens for each. It is via comments that you can create discussions on items posted.

View Posted Minutes

If Minutes have been posted to the Event (Meeting) you are currently viewing, you will see a link at the bottom of this post which will say: "view minutes for this event". Click on this link to see the posted Minutes.

When you go to the USA Dance LA Board home page http://www.centralavedance.com/usadancela you will see three columns of information:

Left Column

• The links to create content (such as Forum Topics and Events)
• A listing of the most recent group Events posted.
• A listing of the most recent Comments posted.
• A Search box to search the postings by key words.
• A link to turn Email Notification on or off.

Center Column

• Listings of the most recently entered posts by the major content types: Forum Topics, Events, Pages, Polls, Blogs, Videos, Books and Links.
• A listing of ALL content which can be sorted by: Title, Type, Category or Date Created/Updated.

Right Column

• Listings of content by content type (i.e., Articles, Blogs, Books, Events, Forum Topics, etc...)
• A listing of the most recently posted Forum Topics.
• Web site navigation links.

To Create Content

To create content, click on the appropriate "Create" link in the Left Column. For example, to create a new Forum Topic, click on the Create forum topic link in the Left column.

To Locate Content Previously Posted

If you wish to view content that has already been posted in order to re-read or post a comment to it, there are two ways:

1. Locate the posting utilizing one of the various listings supplied.

   For example, is you wish to locate a Forum Topic posting, you could look in the Center Column towards the top under the "Forum Topics" listing.

   Or, you could look general content listing in Center Column towards the bottom: Here, you woud look for items listed with Type = "Forum topic". You could also sort the listing by "Type" by clicking on the "Type" heading.

   In the Right Column, you could click on the Forum Topics link to get a listing of all Forum Topics entered, sorted by the date entered. The most recent Forum Topics are also listed in the Right Column under "New forum topics".

   Also In the Right Column there is also a link to list the most Recent Group Posts. This will show you all of the most recently entered content of all types. Finally, in the Right Column again, there is a Forum Topics link which will list all Forum Topics entered.

2. Locate the posting by doing a keyword search. To do this, you simply enter keywords into one of the Search boxes located in the Left Column. For example, if you are looking for the post Jeffrey The Barak posted regarding the DanceMore Studios in Van Nuys, you could enter "DanceMore" or "Van Nuys" in the Search box and click on the Search button. This would list all content posted which contains the words "DanceMore" or "Van Nuys".

Screen Shots

The top of the USADanceLA Home Page. Note that content is divided into 3 distinct columns: A Left, Center and Right Column.

In the Left Column are the links to Create content. For example: Create Event, Create Forum Topic and Create Poll.

In the Center Column we see the most recent Forum Topic and Event posts.

In the Right Column, we see links to list:

• The most recent group posts (all)
• The Group Forum posts.
• Articles (all)
• Blogs (all)
• Books (all)
• Calendar(graphical calendar)
• Events (all)
• Forum Topics (all)
• Images (all)
• Links (all)
• News (all)
• Newsletters (all)
• Pages (all)
• Photo Albums (all)
• Polls (all)
• Videos (all)

Also in the Right Column, we see the most recent New forum topics posted.

We scroll down the page a bit, and see the following:

In the Left Column we see a Search box for key word searching of posts. We also see upcoming Group Events and the most Recent comments entered.

In the Center Column we see the most recent Pages and Polls entered.

In the Right Column is the site navigation menu. This menu is primarily used to navigate the main CentralAveDance web site, rather than the USADanceLA Group site.

Scroll down a bit more and we see:

In the Left Column we have a link for Group notification preference. Follow this link to turn your group notifications emails on or off. There is also another key word Search box. This box is used to search the entire CentralAveDance web site, as opposed to just the USADanceLA group.

In the Center Column we see the most recently entered Blogs and Videos.

Scoll down even more:

In the Left Column we again see the key word Search box. This box is used to search the entire CentralAveDance web site, as opposed to just the USADanceLA group.

In the Center Column we see the most recently entered Books and Links.

Continue scrolling down:

In the Center Column there is a listing of ALL content posted to this group. You can sort this content by clicking on the column heading you wish to sort by: Title, Type, Category or Date Created/Updated.

Group Forums

In the Right Column there is a link titled "Group Forums". When you click on it, you will get this screen:

If you click on one of the forums, you will see a screen like this, which is the actual forum page with all the forum topics listed by date entered, most recent first:

Comments allow you to create a discussion thread under posts. If you have a question or comment or wish to add more details to posted content, you add a new comment, or reply to an existing comment. The discussion grows as others reply to your comments, and still others reply to those comments.

It appears that several members have unsuccessfully attempted to add comments to existing posts. What has happened in each case is that the user has clicked on the "Add new comment" link below a post. The Comment "Reply" window comes up. The user enters a comment, then clicks on the "Preview" button. The user at this point thinks the comment has been saved. WRONG! A comment post is not permanently recorded until you click on the "Post comment" button.

Adding Comments

When looking at a post, scroll to the bottom of the post and click on the "Add new comment" link.

If you wish to reply to an existing comment, then click on the "reply" link at the bottom of the comment.

In either case, the Comment "Reply" form will display.

Enter a title for your comment in the "Subject" field. Enter your comments in the "Comment" field. In order to save your comments, click on the "Post comment" button! You can preview your comment posting by clicking on the "Preview comment" button. However, your comments WILL NOT BE SAVED unless you click on the "Post comment" button.

Board Meetings are considered Events in this system. To create a board meeting, you must create an Event. See Create an Event / Meeting .

The list of topics to be discussed during a board meeting is normally referred to as an Agenda. If you have a simple or small agenda, you can enter it into the into the Body field of the Event you are posting for the meeting.

However, if you would like to create individual agenda items to which you could post comments and/or files, then you should post Agenda items to your Events. The advantage to this method is that each individual Agenda item can now be discussed independent of the other items, as opposed to posting a variety of comments on a variety of subjecst to the one Event.

Post Agenda item(s) to an Event (Meeting)

To enter an Agenda item, you must first go to or "View" the Meeting event to which the Agenda item is to be posted. To locate the event, you can click on the "Group calendar " link or the "Events " link located in the group's left and right column navigation menus, respectively. When you see the Meeting event you want, click on it. This will bring up the details for the event.

At the bottom of the event screen, you will see a link titled "Post agenda item for this event". Click on this link.

When you click on the "Post agenda item for this event" link, you will see a new event form, only this is for entering Agenda items. The Start and End dates you see will reflect those of the event to which this Agenda item will be attached. You should edit the Start and End times to reflect the approximate timeframe that this particular Agenda item will be discussed. The Title will default to "Agenda for" followed by the Title of the event to which this Agenda item will be attached. You can modify the Title to whatever you wish. Enter the agenda description into Agenda Description.

The "Groups" section should have "USA Dance LA" checked. Only check the "Public" if you want this post to be displayed to the general public.

If you wish to attach a file to this Agenda item, click on the "Browse" button to locate the file on your local hard drive. Click "OK" to accept the file and place it's path (location) into the box next to the "Browse" button. You must click on "Attach" to upload this file to the site. If you do not click on the "Attach" button, the file will NOT be uploaded to the site.

Click on the "Submit" button to create this post and associate it to the event.

Repeat these steps for as many Agenda items as you wish to post to an event.

Once posted, the Agenda item(s) are automatically displayed in the Event.

Once a Meeting event and Agenda items are created, you can easily add comments to them by clicking on the "Add comments" button at the bottom of the "View" screens for each. It is via comments that you can create discussions on items posted. One person comments on a particular post. The next person replies to that comment with his own, and so on. Individual Agenda items can be discussed in depth and at length before the actual board meeting takes place, so that by the time the meeting is held, everone should be up to speed on all the issues surrounding the item.

Please note that it is important for you to add comments that are pertinent to the posts. That is, if you wish to discuss a particular Agenda item, then you should add your comments to that particular Agenda item, and not to the Event. Furthermore, you should never create a new Forum Topic to discuss an Agenda item when you can post your comments directly to the Agenda item. The goal here is to keep comments pertinent to the posts they are attached to, and not have the posts on the same topic posted in various areas.

The USA Dance LA group has it's own discussion forum titled "USA Dance LA Board Discussions". This forum consists of forum topics and comments posted to the topics. You create a new forum topic to begin a new discussion. The discussion itself will consist of comments posted to the topic by other users.

New Forum Topic

To begin a new Forum Topic, click on the "Group Forums" link in the top right navigation menu (or alternately, in the bottom left navigation window).

When you click on the "Group Forums" link, you will see the Group Forums container:

Click on the "USA Dnace LA Board Discussions" link. This will take you to that discussion board.

Click on "Post new forum topic". This will bring up the "Submit Forum topic" form.

You must enter a Title that describes the subject of your new topic. Next, you enter the details of your subject into the Body field. For "Forum Context", you MUST select "USA Dance LA Board Discussions", or your post will not be posted in the correct place.

In the "Groups" section, you must check "USA Dance LA". If you want this post to be available for viewing by the general public, then place a check in the "Public" box. Note that if you make the Forum Topic public, then all comments posted to it will also be publically available.

If you wish to attach a file to this post, then select the "Browse" button to locate the file on your local hard disk. Note that you must click on "Attach" to upload the file prior to submitting this post, or the file will NOT be attached to the post.

To submit your new Forum Topic, click on the "Submit" button. Please be sure to double check your entries before submitting the post.

Once submitted, others will be able to add comments to your Forum Topic, and thus create a discussion.

List Forum Topics

A list of the 6 newest Forum Topics is available on the USA Dance LA group home page: http://www.centralavedance.com/usadancela . Additional topics can be listed by clicking on one of the Forum Topics links which are located on the group home page, in the top right column group navigation menu and the bottom left side group navigation menu. You can also list Forum Topics by clicking on the "Group Forums" link, also located in the top right column group navigation menu.

In order to use the Online Board Meeting Application, you must first create a user account to be able to log into the USA Dance LA Group located on the Central Ave Dance Ensemble web site. There is no cost involved in creating an account on this system.

To create a user account, please go to either:

• http://www.centralavedance.com
  
• http://www.centralavedance.com/usadancela
  

Clicking on the "Register" or "Create New Account" link should bring you to this screen. You should complete the required elements (indicated by a red star "*"), and then click on "Create new account" button when completed.

When you click on "Create new account", assuming there are no problems, you should next see this screen:

Registration Email 

At this point, your account has been created, but you have NOT been subscribed to the USA Dance LA group. Two items remain:

1. You will receive an email which contains your One-Time login link as well as your system-generated Password. You need to use the One-Time login link to log into the CentralAveDance website and create a permanent password. Here is the message you will receive:
   
   

   usadancela,

   Thank you for registering at Central Avenue Dance Ensemble. You may now log in to http://www.centralavedance.com/user using the following username and password:

   username: usadancela
   password:****

   You may also log in by clicking on this link or copying and pasting it in your browser:

   http://www.centralavedance.com/user/reset/161/1200210392/1451124712aa3f4...

   This is a one-time login, so it can be used only once.

   After logging in, you will be redirected to http://www.centralavedance.com/user/161/edit so you can change your password.

   Your new Central Avenue Dance Ensemble membership also enables to you to login to other Drupal powered websites (e.g. http://drupal.org/) without registering. Just use the following Drupal ID and password:

   Drupal ID: usadancela@www.centralavedance.com
   password:****

   -- Central Avenue Dance Ensemble team

2. The Site Administrator has to approve and add your new account to the USA Dance LA group. You should have the email address of the Site Administrator. Once your account is created, you need to email the Site Administrator and advise him of your new account username and let him know that you are a USA Dance LA Board Member.

When you receive the email with the "One-Time" login link, you should paste it into your browser. It will take you to this page:

Click on the "Login" button. You will be taken to the user account edit screen:

Once you click the "Submit" button here, you will be able to log into the site using your new password.

Once the Site Administrator has added you to the USA Dance LA group, you will be able to access it, as a member, via this url:

http://www.centralavedance.com/usadancela

 If The One-Time Link Does Not Work

If the One-Time Link doesn't work, you can always log into the site using your username and system-generated password that are sent to you in the registration email (see above).

In order to enter an Agenda, you have to have a board meeting. A meeting is an event, due to start on a specific date at a specfic time. This event should also contain the overall details for the meeting, such as location, direction, and general topics of discussion.

To create a meeting post, you must enter an Event. To enter an event, first go to the USA Dance LA Group Home Page: http://www.centralavedance.com/usadancela .

In the navigation menu on the left side, you will see a link to "Create Event".

Click on this link, and you will see the "Submit Event" form:

You must enter the start and end date and time for the meeting. Please double check that your entry is correct and you have selected the correct time period (am / pm).

You must also enter a Title for the meeting. Anything that will signify this meeting, as opposed to any other, will do.

You can safely ignore the "Categories" section. These are primarily used for other types of events such as dances, concerts, classes, conferences, etc...

You must enter the meeting description in the Body section. Again, a general description of the meeting, and very importantly, where it will be held with directions and contact information. You have a full WSYWIG editor, similar to Microsoft Word, so you can format the description however you like. You can even include images.

Input Format. You should leave this at Full HTML.

Groups. You should make sure USA Dance LA is checked. If this content is private and specific to the USA Dance LA Board, DO NOT check "Public". Only check "Public" if you want the general public (i.e, anybody) to be able to see this post.

Attach new file. If you wish to attach a file to this post, such as a spreadsheet, pdf or word document, or any file containing information relevant to this meeting, you can do so by clicking on the "Browse" button and locating the file you wish to upload. Once located, double-click it and it will appear in the box above. You must click the "Attach" button to actually upload it to the site. You repeat this process for as many files as you wish to upload. If you do not click the "Attach" button, before you submit the page, the file(s) will NOT be uploaded.

When finished inputting information, please double check your entries. If you are satisfied, then click on the "Submit" button to create the Event.

If your submission is successful, you will see the message:

Your Event has been created.

By default, when an item is posted to the USA Dance LA group, you will receive an email notification of this post.

Email notifications sent from the web site look something like this:

comment 'Feb 17' by Jeffrey the Barak

Looks like a majority for the 17th. Please confirm the place and time
when you are ready.

View original: http://www.centralavedance.com/node/3919#comment-90
Post reply: http://www.centralavedance.com/comment/reply/3919/90

--
You are subscribed to the group 'USA Dance, Los Angeles Chapter 4031' at Central Avenue Dance Ensemble.
To manage your subscription, visit http://www.centralavedance.com/og/manage/3647

DO NOT REPLY to these emails. They are only for notification purposes. If you wish to respond to an email, please follow the link that says "Post reply" and add your comment to the original post.

Reply Only to Person Who Created the Post

It is possible to send a reply to ONLY the person who submitted the post for which you have received a notification. Do not reply to the email notification. Instead, click on the link which says "View original" or "Read more". This will take you to the posting online. Once you are looking at a post online, simply locate the username of the person who posted it. This is normally located at the bottom of the post, next to the date posted.

Many times, in teasers, you will also see the username of the poster. If the username is clickable, click on it. You will see the profile for the user.

If the user allows private emails to be sent to him via the web site, you will see a "Contact" tab. Click on the "Contact" tab to bring up the Contact form.

Use the above form to send a private email to a specific user.

Cancel Email Notifications

If you do not wish to receive email notifications of posts to this group, you can turn this feature off.

Whether or not to receive email notifications is set in two places: Your Account Personal Profile and your group My Subscripton pages.

To get to the My Subscription page, click on the "Groups" link wherever it appears on the CentralAveDance.com website.

This will take you to a page which lists all listable groups on the website.

Click on the "My Groups" tab to list only the groups you belong to.

In the "Manage" column of this list, you will see a link "my subscription" for each group. Click on the "my subscription" link associated with the USA Dance LA group. This will bring up the "My Subscription" page for that group.

You will see by default that your Personal Profile is configured to always receive email notification of group posts. If you wish to change this, click on the "personal profile" link. This will take you to your account Personal Profile edit screen.

Under "Organic groups settings", you will see "Email settings". Here, you can leave this at the default, or select "Never send email notifications." to stop receiving email notifications of group posts altogether. A third option is "Selectively send email notification...". If you belong to more than one CentralAveDance.com group, then you may wish to receive email notifications from one, but not the other. If this is the case, then select the "Selectively..." option.

In any case, you must click on the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page in order to save your changes.

If you select "Selectively send email notification...", then your "My Subscription" page for the USA Dance LA group will look like this:

<>Account Personal Profile

Not to confuse the matter, there is another way to get to your Account Personal Profile page. You can click on the "My Account" link, wherever it appers on your screen. This will normall be in the main navigation menu which appears on the top left column when you are not in a group context, and in the bottom right column when you are in a group context, such as USA Dance LA. When you click on the "My Account" link, you will see your Account Personal Profile page.

Click on the "Edit" tab to edit your Personal Profile. When you click on the "Edit" tab, you will see an edit screen that includes the "Email notifications" settings displayed above.

A Poll allows users to vote on an issue, and that vote is maintained for all to see (all, that is, who have access to the Poll).

This mechanism can be used for things as simple as Board members voting on the next meeting date to things as important as voting on agenda items or resolutions.

View Polls

To list existing Polls, click on the "Polls" link which is located in the right side column Group menu.

You will then see a listing of Polls, beginning with the most recently entered.

Click on the Poll you'd like to vote on / examine.

Discuss Poll

If, before voting, you would like to ask a question or raise a concern about the Poll, please click on the "Add new comment" link at the bottom of the Poll and submit your question or concern.

Vote

To register your vote on this issue, select the option you wish to vote for, then click on the "Vote" button.

Results  / Votes

Too see the current voting results, click on the "Results" tab.

To see how invidivual members have voted, click on the "Votes" tab.

Change Vote

To change your vote after you have already voted, you will need to click on the "Cancel your vote" button which will appear on the Poll page. 

After clicking on "Cancel your vote", the page will return to the original vote page with the question, choices and "Vote" button to allow you to vote again.

Create Poll

To create a new Poll, click on the "Create Poll" link on the left side column Group menu.

You will see the "Submit Poll" form.

You must enter the Poll Question, followed by one or more Choices.

You can optionally enter how many days the Poll is to be active in the Poll duration section.

You must click on "USA Dance LA" in the Groups section to make sure this poll is posted to the correct group. You may optionally make this poll visible to the general public by clicking on the "Public" box.

Don't forget to click on "Submit" button to save this poll.

Poll Explanation 

If you need to clarify something or further explain the Poll question, you can click on the "Add new comment" link at the bottom of the submitted Poll and add a comment which contains your explanation or clarification. This comment will appear just below the Poll.

Modify Existing Poll

You can modify the question or choices for an existing Poll by clicking on the "Edit" tab on the Poll. This will bring up a form allowing you to make changes to the existing Poll. Don't forget to click on the "Submit" button to save your changes. Please note: Current voting for the Poll will be lost when you edit an existing Poll.

Enter MInutes

In order to post Minutes to a Meeting (Event), you must first create the event.

Minutes can only be posted to existing Events, so you must first navigate to the Event to which you wish to post Minutes.

First, go to or "View" the Meeting event to which the Minutes are to be posted. To locate the event, you can click on the "Group calendar " link or the "Events " link located in the group's navigation menus.

When you see the Meeting event you want, click on it. This will bring up the details for the event. At the bottom of the event screen, you will see a link titled "Post minutes for this event". Click on this link.

When you click on the "post minutes for this event" link, you will see a new "Submit Minutes" form:

The Title is pre-populated as you see above. You can edit the displayed Title to whatever you wish. You enter the actual minutes into the Minutes box. You can select the users who attended by clicking on the appropriate usernames in the "Attendees" section. However, it is recommended that you simply enter the usernames of the attendees in the "Extra Attendees" section.

The "Groups" section should have "USA Dance LA" checked. Only check the "Public" if you want this post to be displayed to the general public. If you would like to attach a file, you must click on the "Browse" button to get to the file on your local hard drive. Remember that you absolutely must click on the "Attach" button to upload the file to the website. If you submit this page without "Attaching" the file, it will NOT appear in the Minutes.

Click on the "Submit" button to create this post and attach it to the event.<>

You can only make one Minutes post per event.

View Posted Minutes

If Minutes have been posted to the Event (Meeting) you are currently viewing, you will see a link at the bottom of this post which will say: "view minutes for this event". Click on this link to see the posted Minutes:

You can easily add comments to them by clicking on the "Add comments" button at the bottom of the "View" screens for each. It is via comments that you can create discussions on items posted.

When viewing Minutes, you can return to the Event (Meeting) these minutes are posted to by clicking on the "Event" link displayed at the bottom of the view.