Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to be a member of ALFA to join ALFA Exchange?

No. ALFA Exchange is open to senior living professionals from big, medium and small companies, nationally. If you would like to create an ALFA Exchange account, or refer someone else to ALFA Exchange, please visit https://www.alfa.org/assnfe/EnrollSubscription.asp?ENROLLTYPE=1.

How do I sign in to ALFA Exchange?

To sign in to ALFA Exchange you simply type in your ALFA.org username (work email) and password. If you do not remember your password, type in your username and click "login" and your password will be emailed to you. Once you establish your password, you will use this same login criteria for ALFA.org, ALFA Exchange and the ALFA Career Center.

If you do not have a username and password, create an ALFA Exchange account.

I'm worried about my privacy, and the privacy of my personal contact information. How is my data protected?

Your privacy and security is important to us. ALFA Exchange members have the ability to control what parts of their profile are visible to different groups (contacts, ALFA Exchange authenticated members, the public, nobody). Learn more about your privacy by visiting the "My Privacy Setting" page under the "Profile" navigation tab. If you ever have questions about the security of the information posted on ALFA Exchange, please feel free to contact Exchange@ALFA.org.

How is the 'Complete Your Profile' "completeness" calculated?

Below is the breakdown of the values that are used for calculating completeness. These are database driven, so, for things like Job History, Education, Contacts, and Demographics the user gets points for each one they enter. Therefore, the number can go over 100. But, the "complete your profile" bar is capped at 100 points.

Profile Breakdown:

• Contacts 1 point (for each contact)
• Bio/Summary 10 points
• City 5 points
• Company Name 10 points
• Education 5 points
• Email Address 5 points
• First Name 5 points
• Job History 5 points
• Job Title 10 points
• Last Name 5 points
• Picture 10 points
• Demographics 2 points (for each checked box)

The values listed, plus demographics, are all added up. If the value is 100 or more it is considered complete. This is to account for the fact that a user might be missing something, but it may just be because they don't have anything to enter there. For example, if we had a Certifications demographic, and a person didn't hold any certifications, a user is still able to get to 100% "complete" - i.e., they have entered everything they have.

I want to share my blog with the general public. Can people who do not have accounts with ALFA Exchange view my personal blog?

Yes. ALFA Exchange members can set their blog permissions to Public and then provide the URL on another site as a hyperlink. To make sure your blog is set to public, click on "My Privacy Settings".

Resource Libraries

I want to post recent articles from our online newsletter. How do we set this up?

The best to pull content from ENewsletters, Journals and other publications into one central repository is to use a Resource Library and post those items as PDFs. The Resource Library comes with comment functionality and related links functionality so members can comment on them. You can use the In the News announcement to point to the resource library document. You can also create a standalone resource library and give access to it based on the security settings. For example if you do not add the 3rd level of access then only administrators (staff) will be able to put in new content. See below for a screen shot of how a Higher Logic client set up such a In the News section to their Connected Community Web site.

What file types are supported on the video types?

These are the list of video types that we have tested and that can convert and stream

1) MOV
2) MPEG
3) MPG
4) M4V
5) MP4
6) MPE
7) AVI
8) WMV
9) FLV

Groups & Discussions

Our Group discussions are getting caught in SPAM filters. What do I do?

ALFA Exchange members should whitelist egroups.alfa.org so that mail does not get caught in spam filters. If a list has a message bounce back to it from a subscriber 3 times then it will put that subscriber on hold. If this happens they will get a message such as the one below. This email message is to notify you that your membership to ALFA Exchange has been put on "hold". This means that you will not receive mail.Your subscription has been held because at least 3 recent messages have been either bounced by your email system, or could not be delivered at all. Your membership can be restored to "normal", by sending the command "unhold" to lyris@egroups.alfa.org Note that if your email address continues to reject mail your subscription will once again be "held". You may want to contact the people responsible for your electronic mail to determine why your email address has been having trouble.

Who can see the content posted in ALFA Exchange Groups?

Different groups have different security settings. Most groups are viewable by the public, but only authenticated ALFA Exchange Members can post files, comment on a discussion and/or post a discussion. Messages and posts are all accompanied with the name of the person who posted it which aids in generating accountability.

Who reviews the site content to make sure the content is appropriate in nature?

ALFA does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and do not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to ALFA’s attention, we will take all appropriate action. Discussions and groups are self-moderated which means that if a group member flags a post as inappropriate, ALFA will be notified and decide whether or not to take action.

How do I change my subscriptions to discussion groups so that I can receive real time email notifications instead of the daily digest?

Your Discussion Group subscriptions can be managed by clicking on "My Subscriptions", located under the "Discussion" navigation tab.

Assistance

I still have questions. What do I do?