Technology Changelog

The Mountaineers values transparency and takes pride in celebrating our successes. Our team is continuously working on updating our website, e-learning, and automated processes to enhance the user experience for members and volunteers. In this Changelog, we capture what improvements we have made over time so you can follow along and take advantage of new features. 

Highlighted tech improvement:

Lodge stay notification lists

During years with exceptional snowfall, we experience high demand for our lodges. However, once they reach full capacity, there is currently no way for potential guests to be alerted if availability opens up. To alleviate the need for members to repeatedly check the site and to safeguard against cancellations, we are pleased to introduce a new notification system. Members can now sign up to receive email alerts if space becomes available for a fully booked lodge. This allows members to be promptly informed and take advantage of availability on a first-come, first-served basis.

Current Quarter

12/19/2024: re-aligned badges on profiles

Badges listed under a member's profile now align at the top instead of at the bottom to make it easier to review sets of badges.

12/19/2024: moved application link above confirmation checkbox

For those who require applications for their trips/courses, the Apply button is now above the confirmation box to match the desired order of operations. 

12/13/2024: improved leader badge confirmation emails

Confirmation emails for leader badges now contain relevant information about next steps and additional training recommended.

12/5/2024: improve bcc email clarity

All emails sent through the website have always BCC participants. We changed the language around this feature to make sure that it followed our email policies.

12/5/2024: Removed Twitter/X from footer

Our content and communication teams no longer communicates with members through X (Twitter) so we removed this from our footer links.

11/26/2024: Lodge stay notification lists

Lodge stays that are full now offer a way for members to sign up to be notified by email if there is an available stay. Those notified can reserve their stay on a first come first serve basis. This is an optional feature that lodge hosts can enable.

11/14/2024: Program center event email reminders

Event hosts will now be reminded via email of their upcoming events and a notice if they are unpublished.

11/12/2024: Prioritize books/maps on book's site search

Book shoppers will now see books & maps only when using the top search bar on the books website.

11/8/2024: added practice sessions to search/fitler

Activity and course searches will now include Practice Sessions. Members can now filter to only practice session activities.

11/7/2024: youth information form expiration reminders

Youth will be notified when their youth information form is set to expire in the next 30 or 7 days.

11/1/2024: Add Registration Notes to Salesforce

Salesforce exports can now include any custom registration notes that are added by course and activity leaders.

10/31/2024: Move ACTIVE Activites/events to the top of 'my activities'

Activities and events that are still current/active have been moved to the top of 'My Activities' under a member's profile instead of moving down prematurely under 'My Activities History'.

10/17/2024: Added coleader/mentor roster activity notifications

Activity and course primary leaders are now able to opt other leaders, coleaders, and mentors in for notifications about roster changes through selecting a checkbox in the 'Default' section of the activity/course.

10/17/2024: added employer match question to purchases

Allowed members to submit employer match information for purchases along with donations to capture match information on memberships.

10/17/2024: Encourage multiple emergency contacts

Emergency contact fields are now set up to receive multiple names and numbers. Help text is provided recommending this approach.

10/17/2024: Allow Multiple Blog Authors

Blogs will now show all 'creators' of the blog in the blog feed and within each individual blog - allowing for all authors to receive credit.

10/10/2024: added new committee positions

Committee now have access to set members in the following positions: Basic Chair, Immediate Past Chair, Intermediate Chair, Outreach Coordinator, Safety Chair, Vice Chair.

10/8/2024: add 'Never' as an update frequency for alerts

Members can now select to 'Never' receive alerts and notifications on activities, courses, etc. but save their previous settings to easily switch back to notifications again.

10/3/2024: Youth Newsletter 

A new newsletter is launching that will provide updates and information related to our youth programming. Members can now opt-in to receive this newsletter via their profile.

10/3/2024: prevent paid memberships becoming guest

A paid member is no longer provided the option to switch their membership to a guest adult or guest family membership.

10/3/2024: New activity leader role - mentor

Leaders now have the option of assigning someone to a Mentor activity role instead of co-leader when the mentee is the primary leader.

FY24 Quarter 4

9/27/2024: ability to hide pages from top bar navigation

A published page now has the option to be hidden at the top bar navigation along with side bar navigation.

9/19/2024: ADDED book REVIEWS 

A new tab has been added to the Book product pages that show reviews and endorsements in chronological order.

9/19/2024: Leader name added to course registration popup

The leader of an activity and a link to their profile was added to the activity listing on the course registration pop-up to assist students in their selection process.

8/20/2024: TURNED GOOGLE SPREADSHEET SALESFORCE SYNCS BACK ON

For a few months, some of our scheduled refreshes for google sheets used by volunteers were turned off. We have since reinstated our licensing and migrated these scheduled reports.

8/19/2024: Added UNAFFILIATED BRANCH OPTIONS

Two branches were added as options under member profiles to account for Mountaineers that reside outside of our branches in Washington or Out-of-State.

8/16/2024: CREATED REPORT TO CHECK FOR STEWARDSHIP REQUIREMENTS FROM HALF DAY EVENTS

New monthly process implemented that reports members without a stewardship badge that have completed multiple stewardship half-day events to member services for review.

8/9/2024: changed feedback summary chart colors

Chart colors within our feedback summaries were changed to match our branding guidelines, removing colors that can be perceived as negative.

8/8/2024: ALLOW donor badges to be set to private

Our staff team can now honor donor's request to set a donor badge to private and still incorporate that donor into our internal automated reporting and analytics.

8/6/2024: created volunteer reminder email

A new automated email was created to remind course graduates ways they can volunteer and use their skills to help instruct.

8/1/2024: Added Blog/TRIP REPORT Author Comment Notifications

New notifications were added that will alert blog and trip report authors when a comment or comment reply has been made to their blog/trip. This should help facilitate discussions between the author and readers.

7/12/2024: Fixed easyform email results to include all fields

A fix was put in place to ensure that the data collected in checkboxes and multiselect fields of forms was present in the email notifications.

7/9/2024: Port guest cart items to cart once logged in

Items that are added to the cart when the user is not signed in are now ported over and saved to the member's cart for current or future purchase. 

previous Updates

For previous updates, please visit our individual Tech Update blogs Located on our TECHNOLOGY PAGE.

Have an idea on how we could use technology to enhance the member or volunteer experience? Please share it at  feedback.mountaineers.org. There, you can add a new idea, comment on an existing idea, up-vote improvement suggestions, or subscribe to receive updates on specific projects. This helps us prioritize future improvements for you!