Announcing orcaonline.org Members Only Area

[kyreels]

I am pleased to announce the new Members Only Area on www.orcaonline.org. This new web page is accessible to logged in full ORCA members and enables you to view all the online member resources we have available, including your latest Membership Directories, the new Reel News searchable index, and for the first time ever, more than 160 Reel News magazines in PDF format. You can search and read every newsletter or magazine that ORCA ever published. This is available on your computer, tablet, iPhone. Imagine being at a reel show and picking up your phone and searching for a reel and getting every publication available on that reel. Or find your buddy in the directory and call him to ask him what the heck is up with this reel.

Thanks to Ron Gast, David Lehmann and Bryce Tawney for help in developing this resource. Look for continued updates and more stuff coming to the Members Only Area. You must be registered and logged in on orcaonline.org. Don't forget to tell it to "Remember Me" so you don't have to login each time. Note that we had to break the viewing of The Reel News into two parts by years, but we will combine those at some point in the future.

Please provide any feedback on this topic. We would love to see how you find features and use the site.

[RonG]

Aren't we lucky to have a great Webmaster like Matt? He gets it done!

[Steve]

Aren't we lucky to have a great Webmaster like Matt?

Yep! Thanks, Matt!

[Paul M]

This is a huge member benefit IMHO. Nice job Matt, Dave, Ron and Bryce!

[Midway Tommy D]

What a great asset to be the beneficiary of! A big thanks to all involved!

[Brian F.]

Aren't we lucky to have a great Webmaster like Matt? He gets it done!

Ohhhh, yes we are all VERY lucky! Thank you, Matt, Ron, Dave and Bryce!

[spadej1]

This is a very amazing resource! Thank you to all who helped make it happen.

[Jason]

Fantastic job to all those who made this happen. Scanning must have been a ton of work.

Do I dare throw away my paper copies? I could free up some shelf space for more reels.

[kyreels]

Do I dare throw away my paper copies? I could free up some shelf space for more reels.

Interesting question. I have paper computer manuals and books from 1970 onwards that I am still culling and throwing out. I have magazines, papers, manuals, and so much that we used to value that is indeed online. Figuring out what to keep and what to toss is a big issue. The same is true of music, video, and any form of recorded human history. Are you a hoarder or a collector? It is a tough question.

In the end, we each answer the question based on personal space and values. I am keeping my Bell Systems Journals from the 70s and 80s due to historical value. I am keeping my Music CDs just because. And I am keeping my ORCA hard copies because I like them. But having them online is really cool.

I have to decide what reels and lures to get rid of however.

[kyreels]

The May issue of Reel News is now posted in the members area. I got my hard copy yesterday, and it another outstanding issue!

I was at the Weirton Show last weekend, and used the Reel News link on my iPhone to look up Hendrix identification articles. It was very handy.