CPSP now has a new website, CPSP.ORG. No. It’s not the one shown here. It was created some where around 1998 and certainly not the one we have been using over the last twelve years or so.
You are now using the new website! It is a new look. You will find it much easier to navigate and will serve as a valuable resource to retrieve forms and documents such as Standards, Certification, Accreditation, Chapter Life, etc. You will also use its many online feature such as paying dues, and registering for CPSP events. More features are forth coming.
The Pastoral Report (PR) will continue to be an important presence to help readers to stay in touch with CPSP and its dynamic unfolding as a cutting edge certifying and accrediting organization in the clinical pastoral field. The active presence of the PR on CPSP.ORG is to insure we have a dynamic website with new information posted on a regular basis. This is in contrast to a “poster website” that rarely invites people to visit unless they need certain information. Besides, the PR has provided a forum for some of the most gifted writers in the field to publish their works.
Designing a professional website needed for a large organization such as CPSP is a daunting and expensive task. Even more so given CPSP is non-profit organization with limited funds for such an expenditure and CPSP’s commitment to “travel light”.
Krista Argiropolis, CPSP Administrative Coordinator, in 2012 along with Charles Kirby, Treasurer, landed on Wild Apricot as a platform for the CPSP website. It enabled CPSP to manage an amazing amount of “backend” services” but was not up to speed to manage the Pastoral Report. Krista Argiropolis, however, was able to merge Wild Apricot with the Pastoral Report web platform. This was not perfect as we all know. But CPSP’s commitment to “travel light” would not allow for CPSP to spend $10,000 - $25 000 to turn the project over to a professional website developer.
In the spirit of “time heals all”, an upgrade of the Wild Apricot software was rolled out recently that included new themes, as well as the features making it possible to publish the Pastoral Report using Wild Apricot’s platform and also integrate the “backend” features.
Charles Hicks, CPSP Administrator, and Krista Argiropolis, CPSP Administrative Coordinator, went into action with this new development from Wild Apricot . Charles Hicks ran Wild Apricot by the IT staff at his law firm as well as did considerable personal testing of its features. Krista Argiropolis also engaged in considerable examination of its features. The results were all thumbs up. In addition, they determined that the new CPSP website using Wild Apricot has been designed with a customized theme to meet Google Developer’s standards for mobile-friendly websites, and scales automatically to fit any screen width, like on mobile phones or tablets. This is no small feature given that at an ever-increasing rate of visitors to websites are on mobil devices.
As a community we are indebted to Charles Hicks and Krista Argiropolis. They have spent an enormous amount of hours and energy to bring the new CPSP.ORG online.
I digress. Many years ago when I became Editor of the Pastoral Report, I published about six editions of the Pastoral Report. Of course these were hard copies. It was a demanding, time consuming as well as an expensive ordeal. How many times I waited at the counter of a copy shop to pay for hundreds of PR copies to see typos. Ugh! This does not even mention keeping an up-to-date data base, hand addressing for mailing and licking hundreds of stamps.
The web, however, was just getting launched. There were serious questions as to its viability for the public. Reliable sources suggested it was a fad and would soon die as did the CB Radio fad. I was fascinated, however. I made the decision to move the CPSP and the Pastoral Report from a print-base publication to a cyber publication.
Of course there were many complaints about the decision. Many were already complaining that their work place was now ordering them to use email. Regardless, CPSP went cyber. As far as I know CPSP was the first pastoral care and counseling organization to have a web-based publication.
Like any new websites, we expect glitches and we welcome your feedback, criticism and suggestions. CPSP.ORG will be a work in progress, just like CPSP.
Perry Miller
Pastoral Report Editor
Communication Director
perrymiller@gmail.com