1717 Ken Thompson Parkway, 941-388-2355

Help

Navigating around the web site

An Information Menu runs horizontally along the top of every page.  These menu items can be used to access information about different aspects of the Squadron.  Some of the menu items have sub-menus; hover over each item to see its sub-menu.

Much of the site’s content consists of News Articles, published regularly.  The results of a regatta, for example, would be published as a News Article soon after the regatta ends.  Excerpts of these News Articles appear in the main body of the Home Page, most recent at the top.  Click on the excerpt headline to read the full article.  Scroll down to see earlier article excerpts.

News Articles can also be accessed by the Category (or sub-category) which they were filed under, and by Month of Publication.  Click on “Find Articles by…“ in the sidebar of the Home Page to access News Articles by Category or Publication Date.

There is a Search Box   at the top of the sidebar which can be used to find any News Article.  For example, enter “Labor Day Regatta” to find all News Articles on that topic.

When a News Articles permits comments to be posted, then a comment can be created by anyone – as described here;  or existing comments can be read at the end of each article.

The sidebar(s) also contain:

Upcoming Activities:  which highlight the imminent activities on the Activities Calendar (note that this is not a complete list of activities).  Click on each of the activities listed to see its full details.

Activities Calendar:  a calendar representation of upcoming (and past) activities.  Hovering over a highlighted date will pop up a list of activities in small type scheduled on that date.  Clicking on a highlighted date will show a list of excerpts of scheduled activities for that date.  As with other article excerpts in the right column, you can click on the headline to see the complete activity article.  There is also a full page calendar available as “Big Calendar” under the “membership” menu item.  On the Big Calendar, hover over an event to view the time of day when it begins.  If the event has been opened from the Big Calendar, then hover over Past or Future Dates to view its begin time.

User Access:  allows registered users to login, and new users to register.  Squadron members are automatically preregistered within one month of joining.  You do not need to login unless you intend to post a classified ad, or wish to access members-only information.

Other Tools:  note that the sidebar may wrap around the bottom of the page, so scroll down the page to discover other tools in the sidebar.  These may include recent comments, weather forecast, site visitor locator, and more.

Posting Comments

Many of the articles on this web site are enabled for Comments.  Look for this
Comment on this Article or this Read or Add Comments
in the article header.
Where comments are enabled, your comments are welcome and appreciated.  You do not need to be a registered user in order to add a comment, but you will be asked for your name, and a valid email address (the email address will not be visible in the published comment).  Your comments may be moderated (held for appropriate content review) – but, when published, will be visible to everyone.  If you have stored a photo at gravatar.com associated with the email address, that photo will appear with your comment.

Share your sailing experience with others by writing a short (or long) article for this web site.  Articles with photos are particularly welcome.  Drop an email to the webmaster to discover how.

Members-only Sections

Some parts of the web site may be visible only to members who are logged in.  An example is the Member List.  This item will appear under the Membership menu only when the member is logged in.

Posting a Classified Ad

You can post a Classified Ad related to sailing on this web site, and add pictures too, if you wish.  But first, you must Login (and if you are not a member then you must also register).  Once logged-in, if you are not at the Profile page, then click on “My Profile” in the “User Access” box in the sidebar.  Once at the Profile page, look for “Posts” in the top left corner, and click “Add New”.

Create a headline for your Ad in the first box, then create the text of the Ad in the area beneath the formatting buttons.  Hovering over each of the formatting buttons will show its function.  You can upload and insert images for your Ad by clicking one of the  Upload/Insert buttons.  Or you can choose an existing image from the Media Library accessed via the “Add an Image” dialog.

You can your Ad at any time – and, when it is complete, Submit it for Review

After your Ad has been reviewed, it will be published and visible on the web site, and you will be able to Update it – or Delete it completely by logging in again, and navigating to your Profile page.

Registration & Login

Squadron Members

All members of the Sarasota Sailing Squadron are pre-registered within one month of joining, with the E-mail address which they submitted with their membership application or renewal .  This address serves as your Username for logging in to the Squadron web site.  If you have not already created a password, or have forgotten it, then click here and follow the instructions detailed in “Lost your password?” below.  If you already know your password, then click here, and login using your E-mail address as the Username.  You can change your E-mail address any time by contacting the office, but please allow up to one month for the change to be reflected at the web site.  Additionally, those members who use the same E-mail address at social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, etc can login by proceeding to the login dialog by clicking here, then clicking the icon representing their social network site, and using their social network site password to login to the Squadron web site.  Once logged in, go to to the Home Page by clicking “Visit Site” at the top center of the Profile page.

Non-members

Non-members who are not already registered should click “Register”, and be prompted to create a Username, and provide an E-mail address. Usernames are not case sensitive, must be unique, up to 60 characters in length, and can contain letters, numbers, and special characters.  A temporary password will then be E-mailed to you.  Note that you will be able to login with either the Username you created, or your E-mail address.  When you have received your temporary password, enter it into the same “USER ACCESS” box – either with your E-mail address or Username.  Once logged in, you will be directed to your Profile page.  At the Profile page, you can scroll down to locate the “New Password” section, and enter a new password of your own choosing in both of the new password boxes.  Click on the “Update Profile” button to save your new password.  Return to the Home Page by clicking “Visit Site” at the top center of the Profile page.  Please note: Administrators do not have access to passwords!  If you forget your password, you will need to follow the “Lost your password?” procedure below.  Note that, once registered, you can use either your E-mail address or your Username to login.

Lost your password?

  1. Locate the “User Access” box in the sidebar, click “Login”, then click “Lost your password?”.  Or click here to go directly to the Lost Password dialog.
  2. Enter either your E-mail address or Username when prompted, and click “Get New Password”.  An E-mail will be sent to you immediately.
  3. Click the link inside of the E-mail message as directed.  You will then be presented with a dialog which allows you to create a new password.  Make a note of your new password!!!
  4. Enter your new password (twice), then click “Reset Password”.  You will now see a dialog confirming that your password has been reset, with a link to the Login page.  Once logged in, go to to the Home Page by clicking “Visit Site” at the top center of the Profile page.

Online Payments

are offered for certain events.  If a “Pay Now” button is encountered, and you wish to make an online payment to the Squadron, click the “Pay Now” button.  You will be directed to PayPal, which is used to process online payments.  You do not need to be a PayPal member to make a payment at the PayPal site, although it is free to join.  The financial transaction will be processed completely by PayPal.  The Sarasota Sailing Squadron neither stores nor has access to any credit card or bank information which you provide to PayPal.  Once you have completed (or canceled) payment via PayPal, you will be returned to the Squadron web site, and your payment status will be available to the Event Organizer.

Sharing Photos

If you have a local sailing photo suitable for our web site header, then please share it with the webmaster.  It must be 960x190px, or have an aspect ration of 5:1 (width versus height) after cropping.  Otherwise, you can post individual photos on the Squadron’s web site yourself by clicking here.  Photos should be related to sailing, and appropriate for all audiences.  You will be notified when your photo has been published.

If you have a public collection of photos in Picasa Web Albums (from Google) or FlickR (from Yahoo) then we can “shadow” those on the Squadron’s Photo Albums web page.  Contact the webmaster for details.

Article Feeds and Subscriptions

You can subscribe to articles posted on the web site and read them with applications like Google Reader, or subscribe to have articles emailed to you using FeedBurner.  Look for buttons like this feed_icon on the home page.  To specialize a feed, say, to limit the feed to articles about racing results, you will need to subscribe with a custom URL, like http://SarasotaSailingSquadron.org/category/racing-results/feed  Contact the webmaster for further help.

Calendar Feeds

You can subscribe to the calendar on this web site from Google Calendar, or any other application which accepts the iCalendar (ICS) format.  The URL to subscribe to the calendar is http://sarasotasailingsquadron.org/ical  You can merge the Squadron calendar with your own personal calendar this way.

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