My APA Enhances Services to Members

A few weeks ago, we quietly introduced a new feature about halfway down the right-hand side of our home page. After extensive testing during this trial period, we're ready to officially unveil a major website enhancement. My APA will have a positive impact on your membership experience and on how we serve our members and subscribers. Let me give you a ten-cent tour. Then, I invite you to try it out yourself.

After you log into My APA with your APA ID number and password, a lot of handy information will appear. Links to Planning and interact. A link to Practicing Planner if you're an AICP member or to The New Planner if you're a student. Links to the National Planning Conference and other educational events. Online registration is open now for the 2006 National Planning Conference in San Antonio, so you can click the link to register. Or, if you're already signed up, review or change your customized itinerary.

If you have an unpaid invoice, My APA invites you to pay your bill online. You can also subscribe to a publication, make a donation to the Planning Foundation, or add a chapter or division to your renewal. I especially urge you to use the online payment feature of My APA when it's time to renew your membership or subscription. You'll get an immediate e-mail confirmation of your payment. My APA displays your current membership paid-through date, so you can always tell if your most recent payment has been received and processed, even if you pay by mail.

Before you submit your payment, or anytime you're logged into My APA, click on "My Information" to review and update your membership profile. Verify your home, work, and e-mail addresses to ensure that you'll receive all your member benefits on time and where you want them. APA and its members operate with integrity. We depend on that integrity to maintain our salary-based dues system. Please take a private moment to verify your profession-related income. This will ensure that the invoice you receive from APA is accurate and up-to-date. Of course, records are confidential.

In the "Demographics" section, we hope you will provide information that will help us know who you are and what you do. Most important, please choose the best match from the list of functional job titles. You will help us develop products and services that meet your needs, target the online resources My APA brings to your attention, and ask the right questions when we conduct member surveys.

Aggregate demographic information about APA members also is important to Planning magazine advertisers. The more specifically we can describe Planning readers to potential advertisers, the more likely they are to buy ad space. And the more ad pages we sell, the more editorial pages we can afford to deliver the planning news you want and expect from our flagship publication.

"Demographics" is also the place in My APA where you can tell APA your e-mail and snail mail preferences. We hope that everyone wants to receive interact, but if you don't want to be listed in the member directory, here's your chance to let us know. Perhaps you want to get mail about APA products and services, but not from other organizations that rent our mail lists. Tell us here.

Once you're logged in, My APA "follows" you as you navigate through our website, so you can refer to your basic membership information or follow one of its links at any time. We think My APA is a terrific addition to our website, and it's going to get better. We'll keep you informed as we add new features.

Those are just some of the highlights of My APA. You'll find it improves your ability to manage your relationship with us and makes our outstanding website easier and more rewarding than ever. Give My APA a try and let us know what you think.

W. Paul Farmer, AICP
Executive Director