Can we chat?

On April 28 at 1:00 pm (EDT), I'll be participating in a chat in ASAE's Learning Community for Emerging Leaders. The chat topic will be about the CAE exam, so if you have questions about the exam or my experience, I encourage you to join in the chat. I've participated in two earlier chats in the Emerging Leaders Learning Community, and each one had 7-9 people online. I think you can actually view transcripts of the earlier chats online.

I've gotten mixed signals about whether or not you have to be an ASAE member to join the Learning Communities. But if you haven't already signed up for one, the Emerging Leaders community is semi-active and has -- for the most part -- met my expectations. Sign up for the community if you haven't already and take it for a spin.

I haven't heard a whole lot about the learning communities since they were originally launched, but I do think they're an excellent resource. Maybe ASAE is only marketing them to people who haven't yet signed up. The communities are powered by iCohere, and this platform seems like it's state of the art stuff. They have tons of cool features like a shared resource library, chat function, online bulletin boards/forums, robust member profiles, and many, many others.

However, I have found accessing the community to be a little cumbersome. Each time you want to visit the community you have to login. I think that's overkill: This isn't my bank account. Once you login, the community pops up in a new window. I think so many people have pop-up blockers these days that this will be a barrier to people getting involved with the communities. It certainly made things more difficult for me. Also, couldn't they use cookies to remember who I am and make entering the community as simple as clicking on a link or Favorite? How about an RSS feed for the bulletin board/forum, or a daily e-mail digest?

Anyway, I do hope you'll join in the chat on April 28 at 1:00 pm EDT. By the way, there's another chat scheduled for today at 1:00 pm EDT on the ASAE/Center merger.