Letter from the President - November 2014
As I write this letter to you, AUGI’s website has been undergoingsome growing pains. By the time you read this letter the site should be running smoothly. However, you may be wondering what was going on over the last month or so.
Within the last six months it was recommended to the Board of Directors that the website be moved to a better performing server. The reason for the recommendation was because AUGI’s site experiences quite a spike in traffic after publications are released. This is obviously good news because it shows that you, the member, appreciate the publications and want to read them.
The Board directed that the website be moved to a better performing hardware at the hosting company. This was done utilizing the hosting company that AUGI has had for several years. The operating folks at AUGI were generally satisfied with the hosting company’s performance to that point.
Then the unexpected happened. The hosting company experienced a loss of functionality. Service was interrupted, not only for AUGI, but many other sites the company was hosting. Although AUGI had priority for service restoration, so did other sites being hosted by the company. Both AUGI’s operational folks and the Board of Directors were unhappy with the response and resolution time by the hosting company. It was time to make a change.
The Board of Directors accepted the recommendation of a new hosting company and directed that AUGI’s website be moved to that new hosting company. The transition was not quite as smooth as planned. There are a lot of components used to provide the services to which our members have become accustomed.
In particular there were some issues with the AUGI Forums integration and password changes. The issues with the website migration have been resolved. The Board of Directors has also asked the management team to resolve the lingering issue with the website-to-forum passwords.
Most of the recent issues with the website were due to the loss of service at the original hosting company and the subsequent move to a new host in a short period of time. The Board of Directors apologizes to the AUGI membership for the disruptions in service. The Board of Directors has confidence in the management team’s upcoming website refresh.
Moving forward, there will be more changes coming. These changes will be planned. The lessons learned during the abrupt transition to a new hosting company will be applied during the planning and implementation phases.
Yes, change can be painful. But when all is said and done, AUGI will be able to provide you with even more benefits.
R. Robert Bell
AUGI President/Chairman of the Board
