WEB SITE UPDATE
Excerpt from Winter Newsletter 2008
By Stephanie Steigerwaldt, Web Editor
2007 was a big year for the Web Site Committee! To read in-depth
about the year’s accomplishments, download the Web Committee’s
year-end Web Site Summary.
Our most exciting
year-end announcement was that MAPA received 20 submissions from diverse
employers including prominent law firms, government entities
and private and public companies. These employers were Heller Ehrman
LLP; U.S. Small Business Administration; Cypher Services, Inc.; Boardman,
Suhr, Curry & Field LLP; CUNA Mutual Group; Kepler & Peyton;
Midwest Paralegal Services, Inc.; Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C.; Red Prairie;
U.S. Department of Justice; Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman,
P.C.; Solheim Billing & Grimmer, S.C.; Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation; WPS Health Insurance; Hupy and Abraham S.C.; and Koshalek/Nesson
Law Office.
The submissions included 13 paralegal positions, two legal assistant/secretarial
positions, and five “other” legal positions including a contract
specialist, legal clerk, senior law specialist, contract associate, contract
administer, and remote document coder (independent contractor). The majority
of these employers were seeking paralegals with specialization in civil
litigation, disaster recovery, document coding, intellectual property,
corporate law, probate law, contract law, real estate, personal injury
and insurance defense litigation.
We look forward to 2008 as we focus on two primary goals of building
a greater sense of community among members and increasing MAPA’s
visibility within Madison’s legal community. We’ll have more
to share in MAPA’s Spring Newsletter, so stay tuned! And please
let us know how we are doing by sending feedback to president@madisonparalegal.org.
WEB SITE UPDATE
Excerpt from Summer Newsletter 2007
By Barb Morin, President
The Web Site Committee, Web Editor, Stephanie Steigerwaldt, and Webmaster,
Ken
Rouiller, have made some enhancements to MAPA’s web
site since the Spring Newsletter. The Members
Only section now includes an Executive
Committee
Archive to make Executive Committee
Minutes, Financial Reports, the Budget and the Survey available to the
Membership. The Executive Committee and the Web Site Committee want you,
the members, to be informed
of what the Executive
Committee
is doing, as well as allow you to track the financial status of the
organization. Another addition to the Members Only section is
that a copy of the Bylaws is now available and the newly updated
Standing
Rules will be added soon.
In addition, photos
have been added on various web pages and Ken has made some global formatting
changes so that the
appearance of the web site is more visually acceptable on various
sizes of computer screens and to improve printing
quality. The Web Site Committee will continue to
enhance the site, and we would like any feedback
or suggestions you may have to make your web site
even better.
WEB SITE UPDATE
Excerpt from Spring Newsletter 2007
By Stephanie Steigerwaldt, Web Editor
Since the launch of the new web site in February, the Web Site Committee
has continued to fine-tune the web site and prioritize future enhancements.
We appreciate the feedback we have received thus far and hope it
continues. Please
keep it coming!
The web site portion of the MAPA
Survey results indicated specific interest
in:
1) Providing members’ professional contact information, 2)
A message board for sharing professional and extra-curricular information,
3) Keeping
the membership informed about future web site enhancements, and 4)
Job search assistance and methods to gain professional experience.
Here is the Web Site Committee’s response to this feedback:
1) The Executive Committee is reviewing the logistics of how to contact
members to see if they are interested and willing to have their professional
contact information posted.
2) The Web Site Committee thinks a message board is a great idea!
There’s
no better way to create a real sense of “community” on a
web site. However, such an interactive tool requires specific guidelines
of use, a significant commitment of time and energy to monitor, and the
technical know-how to design and administer. So, while this is a priority
on our “Web Site Wish List,” quite a bit of research needs
to be done. We’ll keep you posted!
3) In terms of keeping the membership informed about future web site
enhancements, MAPA’s quarterly newsletter is
the best source for this information, along with the Web Site Update
link on the Home Page under “What’s
New.” We
will continue to update this page to keep you updated with web site
development.
4) Lastly, we hope that members looking for assistance in their job search
and ways to gain professional experience will visit the Members
Only Job Posting and Career
Corner sections of the web site. Job
seekers will be happy to learn that since January, we have received seven
job submissions from prestigious firms and companies! (Check out the
Spring Newsletter to
see which firms and companies have submitted open positions!)
Six of these submissions were for paralegal positions and one was for
a document coding independent contractor position. The site currently
has three postings due to expire within the next few weeks. So, if you
are curious about what is going on out there, check it out!
Another enhancement in response to MAPA’s Survey is the posting
of links to some of NALA’s educational events. Keep an eye on the “Upcoming
Events” section on the Home page if these events are of interest
to you.
Finally, the Executive Committee believes that transparency of MAPA’s
administration is important to the membership. To achieve this, the Executive
Committee is discussing the pros and cons of creating a “Members
Only Executive Committee” section where members can access
a variety of documents including Treasurer's Reports, Budgets, Executive
Committee
Meeting Minutes, Survey Results, and more. This would also serve
as
an excellent archive for the organization in the years to come.
MAPA'S
WEB SITE GETS A FACE LIFT
Excerpt from Winter Newsletter 2007
By Stephanie Steigerwaldt, Web Editor
After more than six months of hard work, the Web Site Committee is pleased
to announce the launch of a new and improved MadisonParalegal.org!
To achieve this goal, the Committee had two objectives in mind: 1) To
redesign the site with a clean and professional look and feel, and 2)
To provide the membership with a valuable online resource that keeps
members connected with MAPA news, as well as the paralegal profession.
We hope that we have succeeded and look forward to your
feedback! Here’s
a list of useful and enticing features the new site has to offer:
Home Page
Receive a welcoming message from the President, link to what’s
new in 2007, and check out MAPA's upcoming events!
About MAPA
Refresh your memory about MAPA’s purpose, mission and history.
Meetings-Events
Check out all that MAPA has to offer in 2007! Print this page to
slip into your calendar for easy reference! As event dates draw near,
check back
in to conveniently download event flyers and submit your RSVP via
an email link.
Membership
Review all the benefits of MAPA membership and encourage paralegals
interested in joining MAPA to download the application and associated
forms on the
How to Join page. Existing members
can still download the renewal form on the Renew page.
Resource Links
New feature! While the Committee doesn’t seek to create yet
another legal portal, we do think it’s valuable to provide
the membership with frequently used legal related links. To launch
this page, several Executive Committee members contributed
a handful
of their favorite links. You’ll find legal portals, dictionaries,
encyclopedias; sites to aid with federal, state and local
legal research;
and sites dedicated to specific practice areas including criminal
law, personal injury, employment law, patents and trademarks, corporate
law and real estate. But this page is only as valuable as you make
it! Please email Barb
Morin with
your feedback and favorite links to include!
Post a Job
Encourage your employers to post paralegal job openings with
MAPA! Not only does this service promote MAPA’s value
to your employer, it also helps fellow MAPA members, including
student
members, find
new employment opportunities.
Leadership
Check out Who’s Who in MAPA’s Leadership. Feel
free to contact any of your leaders with comments, ideas and
suggestions.
Remember, this is your organization, and they are here to serve
you.
Committees
Find out Who’s Who in MAPA’s Committees. If you’re
interested in joining one of the committees, simply click on the
Committee Chair’s name to email them and get involved!
Members Only
Members need the user name and password to access this
exclusive MAPA Members Only section. If you've forgotten the
user name and password, please submit an email request to membership_chair@madisonparalegal.org.
The Web Committee has worked hard to make the Members Only section
of
MAPA's web site a more valuable resource for the membership. In addition
to bringing a fresh look and more detailed information to the Job
Postings and Newsletter pages, we've added two new pages, Career Corner
and Feedback.
Dive right in, or visit the Members
Only Welcome page to explore
these new and improved resources!
Contact
MAPA members and other web site visitors can contact MAPA via an
email link.
We hope you are pleased with the new web site, that you will use
it often and that you will encourage others to do so, too.
Enjoy!
