Welcome to Our New Site!

Thanks for visiting our brand new site! If you see errors or have general comments, please send a note to our Web master, Chris Coughlan-Smith, at cough003@umn.edu. We really want to know what you think and how we can make this site better and easier to use. Thank you!

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Navigate within this page below top Site Features Visit, Log In or Join, What's the Difference? FAQs Our Search Function Privacy More Log In and Community Instructions More Help with the Site

Our top site FAQs 1. Why should I register and log in? 2. What's my alumni ID and where do I get it? 3. How do I use the directory or career search?

Site Features
Here are some of the new site features:

• Alumni Directory - Search for old friends and send them an e-mail through our system.
• Personal Profiles - You can decide how much - or how little - other registered users can see about you.
• Facebook Connect - You can link your Facebook profile to your alumni profile through our exclusive agreement with Facebook using Facebook Connect.
  
• Class Notes - Let fellow alums find out what you've been up to.
• Classified Ads - Trade a ticket, promote an event, rent your vacation cabin and much more with a variety of classified ad categories.
• Career Contacts Search - Find people who have agreed to be career contacts and answer a few questions about their company or their field.
• Groups - You can create groups in your area, for a special interest or just for fun.
• Mentor Connection - Our ongoing mentor connection now features forms that will save your information from year to year so you don't have to start from scratch with a new application. 

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Visit, Log In or Join?
One of the new things you'll see about our site is that you have the option of logging in to use our interactive features. Here are some of the site features

Feature	Web site visitor	Free Web site log in	Paid Alumni Association membership
Browse our content, news, events	x	x	x
See Class Notes, Discussions, Photo Albums, Job Postings and Classified ads (See our community page here)	x	x	x
Create a profile, join groups, connect with Facebook Connect		x	x
Add Class Notes, start new Discussions, create or add to Photo Albums		x	x
Search for Career Contacts		x	x
Search the Alumni Directory		x	x
Add Classifieds			x
Create new alumni groups and pages			x
Subscription to Minnesota magazine			x
Access to Library databases online			x
Get great benefits and support the University of Minnesota**			x
Now What?	Home  Page	Log in  here	Learn about  membership

* Resume and Career Contacts are available in our career center here. Current U of M students may also search for career contacts.

**Find out more about membership, benefits and how being a member supports the University here.

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Site FAQs
(Also see our general Alumni FAQs here in our About the Alumni Association section)
1. Why should I register and log in?
2. What's my alumni ID and where do I get it?
3. How do I use the directory or career search?
4. Why do I need to create a Username and Password?
5. Can I change or customize my visible profile?
6. What if I don't want to be in the directory at all?
7. What is the "community" and who is in it?
8. What will happen to chapters and their pages?
9. Can I create a group?
10. Are there special system requirements?
11. Can I access the Libraries databases and my U E-mail through this site?

1. Why should I register and log in?
By registering and logging in, you get access to the features listed above. To use these features, we need to be able to identify and verify who you are. Doing so protects you and other site users by removing the ability to post items or to contact fellow users anonymously. The advantages to you include the features above as well being able to update your contact information yourself and having event, mentor and other forms fill-in automatically. You can log in as a guest to fill out forms, but you cannot search our directories as a guest and guest accounts are deleted after a short time.

2. What's my alumni ID and where do I get it?
Your Alumni ID number is randomly generated and assigned to your record in our secure database. It is not tied to your main University record and can't be used to identify you in any other way.
For Alumni Association members, your Alumni ID is printed on your member card. Non-members will have your ID sent to you in an e-mail or postcard when we fully roll out this site. If you would like to get your ID now, you can contact our membership department at alumnimb@umn.edu or 612.624.9658 or 800.862.5867. 

3.How do I use the directory or career search?
Our site features two searches. The directory search allows you to look up someone by name, with additional options to narrow or expand your search. The Search Criteria allows you to search with as much or as little specificity as you want. The Search Operator allows you to expand or narrow the search based on whether you know the exact Search Value you're looking for.

4. Why do I need to create a Username and Password?
By creating a unique username and password, you can be assured that no one else will be using our site with your name. The username and password are created on the first-time login page. The site give you the option of having your log in information saved, as will many Internet browsers.

5. Can I change or customize my visible profile?
Yes. When you register, you will have the option of making visible as much or as little information about yourself as you like. By default only your name and your graduation year and college will appear. You can always change those settings by following the "My Public Profile" link that appears when you log in. If you wish to have yourself removed from the directory altogether, please contact our member services department at alumnimb@umn.edu or 612.624.9658 or 800.862.5867.

6. What if I don't want to be in the directory at all?
You are able to suppress your record in the directory so no one can find you. You can do so from either the "Update My Information" link or the "My Public Profile" link which become active after you have registered for the site. Here's how:

• Log in to the site
• Click the Update My Information link
• Select the Account Information tab
• Click the box at the bottom of the form that reads: "Hide my entire profile from the directory."
• Click Save or Save and Continue. You should see a green box at the top indicating that the information was successfully updated and saved.

To suppress your record from the Profile link, click the edit (pencil) icon next to your name. This will take you to the Update My Information page and you can follow the directions from above.

7. What is the "community" and who is in it?
Our MinnesotaAlumni.org community page is visible to everyone. It features Class Notes, Message Boards, Classified ads and more. In order to participate in the featuers there, you will need to register and log in, however. See the community page here.

8. What will happen to the Chapter pages
Our alumni chapters around the globe will continue to have pages on our site. Our chapters that are more active will have additional functions available to them through our 'groups' feature, allowing alumni in the area to interact on our Web site and the chapter leaders to send out informal messages through the group. All alumni will have the option to leave the group at any time. See our main chapter map here.

9. Can I create a group?
If you are a paid Alumni Association member, you can create a group page for any interest or geographic area you choose. You can 'suggest' the group to fellow registered user by adding key words when you create it. All groups must first be approved by the Alumni Association community administrator before becoming active.

10. Are there System Requirements?
iModules Software's online communities are accessed by both members and administrators through a web browser. There is no implementation or complicated configurations or setup required.

Generally speaking, our products work best on the latest versions of major browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox and Safari for MacOS X. Because of the advanced functionality in our administrative tools, we recommend Internet Explorer 6.0 and above running on a Windows operating system.

Community Members
Internet Explorer 6.0 and above on Windows98 or later
Firefox 1.5 running on Windows98 or later
Netscape 6.0 running on Windows98 or later
Firefox 1.5 running on Macintosh OSX 10.1 or later
Safari 2.0 running on Macintosh OSX 10.4 or later

Minimum screen resolution of 800x600 with recommended resolution of 1024x768. Session cookies and Java scripting must be enabled. Other operating systems and browsers may be used with varying degrees of compatibility, reliability and functionality.

11. Can I access the Library databases and my U of M E-mail account through this site?
Because our data is secure and separate from the University's main records, you will have to log in separately to access those features. See more about how to access the Libraries Online benefit here.

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Our Search Function
Our search tool looks for exact-phrase matches, the way a Google search would if you enclose a term in parentheses. For example, typing in 2005 Fiction will find the 2005 Fiction Winner because that is how the page is titled, but typing in Fiction 2005 will not because that exact phrase is not included on that page.

Here are a few search tips:

• Keep it simple. Use a single-word search when possible. Our site does contain more than 600 unique pages (and growing!), but in search terms, that isn't very many. If you are looking for upcoming travel program trips, for example, search for 'travel' or 'upcoming.'
• Use a unique word that is most likely to appear on the page. For example, if you really want to find a trip to Malta, typing in Malta will tell you if any such trip exists. Typing in travel will most likely send you to our main travel page, where more than 30 trips are listed.
• Minnesota magazine archives are now housed in a separate location, the University Library's Digital Archives project, and are not searchable through our site. Click here to see the magazine archives.
  

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Privacy Policy
Our privacy policy is in place to protect you and your information. You may review our policy and that of our software provider here.

More Log In and Community Instructions
MinnesotaAlumni.org features an interactive "community" page where you can see and participate in message boards, add class notes to keep other alumni up to date, post community classified ads and view and share photos. The community page is here.

To fully participate, you must verify your identity in our database of alumni and current and past members of the Alumni Association. Here's how to do it:

• Click the Log In link on the home page or in the upper left of any interior page.
• Enter your name and click find.
• Select your name by confirming your graduation information and select next.
• Enter your nine-digit Alumni ID number and click Verify. Your Alumni ID is found on your Alumni Association membership card. Non-members will have the ID number sent to them by mail or E-mail. Do not enter your student ID or Social Security Number. If you do not have your Alumni ID and would like to register, send an E-mail to alumnimb@umn.edu with your name and your graduation information.
• On the Account Set-up page, verify or correct your address, your E-mail address, and then create an easy to remember username and password. You also have the option of displaying more of your information to others who log in and find you through our directory search by clicking the "show" box in the "personal information" area. (You can change these settings at any time by logging in and going to 'edit my public profile.')
  
• You can now finish or continue to navigate through the other tabs across the top, verifying or adding your business information, adding non U of M academic information, etc. 
• You can build a custom profile page, add a photo, add widgets and feeds by clicking on the "edit my public profile" link.
  

The MinnesotaAlumni.org community page is visible to all visitors, but to see the contributions of other alumni and to contribute yourself, you must log in so we can verify who you are.

Getting Help with the Site
If you run into trouble logging in or using any of the site features, please check to see if our software provider has included a Help link on that page. (They look like this: Help) If that doesn't work, please don't hesitate to send an E-mail or give our member services representatives a call: alumnimembership@umn.edu or 612.624.9658 or 800.UMALUMS (800.862.5867).