March 2014 edition.

March 2014 edition.

If you are a member of the American Numismatic Association, you should have received your copy of the March edition of The Numismatist. Those of us with Basic membership, who access The Numismatist electronically via the website or the app, should have access to the March issue.

Once you open your copy, you might want to check out the article on page 67. It is written by your favorite numismatic blogger talking about the work being done by the ANA and the Technology Committee on the new ANA website.

Please read the article, but I want to reiterate two points:

  1. The technology committee is made up of ANA members who are volunteering their time and expertise to ensure that everything regarding the building of the website is in the best interest of the ANA. Long time readers know that aside from my background in information security, I had been a critic of how the ANA was technologically unsophisticated. They benefit by bringing in members, especially those of us who have been critical, to help them move forward in a way to best benefit the organization.
     
  2. The work being done by the ANA staff in Colorado Springs has been tremendous. First, it was a great idea by then Executive Director Jeff Shevlin to hire (the now defunct) Amos Digital to really kick start the process. Amos Digital did an excellent job helping the ANA manage the request for proposal (RFP) process and coordinating the review and selection process. It is unfortunate that Amos Press disbanded Amos Digital because they had a great team.

    Since becoming Executive Director, Kim Kiick has really done a wonderful job in working with the Board, the Tech Committee, and the selected vendor. In fact, Kim and her staff has worked so well with the new vendor that they have found additional cost savings while maintaining the standards we techies want to ensure is maintained throughout this process.

Writing an article for The Numismatist is more difficult than a blog post because of space limitations. There is only so much that can be said in a limited amount of space. Since I do not have those limitations here, I want to take the opportunity to praise the work of the one person who has really done a tremendous job for the ANA.

For those who do not know, Jake Sherlock is the magician behind the scenes making the cobbled together technology work in trying to make the ANA appear technologically friendly. From helping to maintain the website whose software is sorely out of date to figuring out how to broadcast meetings from the ANA convention, Jake has worked hard with very little to do a lot for the association.

What makes this even more awe inspiring is that Jake does not have a technical background. I am sure he will correct me, but I think he told me his background is in communications and public relations. He should be commended by everyone associated with the ANA for stepping into this role and making a big difference.

Once the new technology is in place it will be fun to see what Jake can do with modern tools.

Thank you, Jake!

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