Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for visiting the ARCC blog. We are proud to post news for and about our members as often as we can.

Sometimes it's a bona fide brag book heralding achievements of our members, from expansions to milestones, other times it's an album, sharing pictures that strike a chord. And sometimes, as we strive to do whatever we can to create the chemistry for small business success, it's controversial.

We will always welcome and encourage your comments. The one thing we will not do is post anonymous comments. We are accountable for the content on this blog and take that responsibility seriously. By all means, feel free to submit a comment that opposes our stance or presents another perspective, but if you aren't able to leave your name, we aren't able to post the comment.

Follow this handy link to create an account that will allow you to submit comments.

Again, thank you for stopping by and we hope to hear from you again.

-The Comment Moderator

Won't you come in?

We're having an open house. Ok, not really an open house, more like an open existence. You see, the ARCC is a place that welcomes visitors. Literally.

We recently (and by we, I mean Steve Collyer, Director of Communications and keeper of vast knowledge of local military history) restructured our lobby. The walls are now filled with rack upon rack of brochures, magazines and menus representing our members.

Each day we field countless calls and walk-in visits from people looking for things to do in this area. We also have members pop in for visits. We thought we'd give you a little peek. Stop by, take a look at all we have to offer on the walls, and from our staff, drop off materials for display in the lobby. Let us show you off!



Help yourself to a piece of candy.

ABC'c of commenting

Commenting on a blog is a painless process.

(Unless of course you are the author of said blog, then it may very well be painful if the comments are of the scathing variety. Thing is, if the comments are negative, perhaps the writing was bad, or the subject matter was controversial, or maybe the commenter was just having a bad day.)

Whatever the case may be, we encourage commenting, as such we want everyone, those in agreement with us and those who are not, to feel that they can comment. So, to ensure that everyone has the choice, we thought we'd explain the process.

The Adirondack Chamber Blog runs on the Blogger system. There are other blogging programs: Word Press, Type Pad and the list goes on. We don't need to get too caught up in that, it's not too dissimilar from running shoes - Nike, New Balance, Adidas, lots of brands, but the bottom line is they are all running shoes.

The Blogger system recently became a part of Google. This means that to have a Blogger blog or to comment on one you must have a Google account. You don't need a blog, just an account. A Google account costs nothing, unless of course you factor in the 3-5 minutes it will take you to do it. The only requirement to open an account is that you have an email address, whether it's a Hotmail account, a work account or a Road Runner account makes no difference.

What you do is visit this link.
Once the page loads you are going to be asked to do a few things:

1) Enter your current email address

2) Choose a password with at least 6 characters (A nifty little program will pop up and tell you things like "password" is a weak password.)

3) Re-enter your 6 character password

4) Select your location on a drop down menu

5) Enter the swirly letters that show up on the screen (This is to ensure that an actual human is creating the account rather than some high tech, over my head kind of insidious spam program.)

6) Read the terms (or skip ahead) and click the "I accept. Create my account" button.

7) The following will come up on the screen:

Email Verification
In order to verify that the email address associated with your account is correct, we have sent an email message to (your email address). To activate your Google account, please access your email and click on the link provided.

Once you click that link in the confirmation email you are ready to go.

Check in on the Adirondack Chamber Blog from time to time. When you see something you'd like to comment on you can find a link at the end of the post. It will say 0 comments, or perhaps it will say 9 comments, either way, just click on that link. A new page will come up prompting you to "Leave your comment." Go ahead and do so, if you are not signed into your Google account you can do so after typing your comment.

If you would like to be able to see the post, in the upper left hand corner there is a link to Show Original Post by clicking that the original post will appear on the page. Then you can reference certain sections if you'd like. When you are done you may preview what you have written by clicking a light blue button that says Preview, if you never make mistakes feel free to just click the orange Publish Your Comment button. Then your comment will be sent via email to the blog author's email. Providing there is no inappropriate comment, your comment will then be posted.

Easy. And better than being easy, leaving comments is your way of helping us mold this blog into what you our members would like it to be. So please, leave a comment or send Amanda Magee a note with your suggestions.

Your comments are really something we look forward to receiving, good, bad or indifferent. If you have any trouble don't hesitate to contact Amanda for assistance.

Thanks for surfing with us

We'd like to welcome you aboard the Adirondack Chamber Blog. Thank you for choosing our site as your surfing vehicle today. My name is Amanda, and I am going to be your virtual guide as you travel with us. I'd like to take a few moments to acquaint you with our site.
As with all Internet sites, there is a handy little X in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Of course we don't want you to, but if at any time you feel that you need to exit our site, please feel free to press down firmly on that X with your cursor. If you need to take a break, maybe get up from your chair:




Perhaps go for a spin:





Just over from the X you'll see a little _ by pressing down on that you'll be able to shrink the size of this site and move about of your own volition and return at any time.
As we begin to take off, you'll notice along the right hand side of the site a menu of sorts. We invite you to sample from the menu by clicking on the different offerings we have made available for your surfing pleasure. As is the Adirondack Chamber Blog MO, all the features in that menu are available to you free of charge, however if you feel inclined to open your pockets, might we suggest clicking the _ and heading out to one of the fine establishments in our membership?

Ahem, this is where a link to our hand dandy membership search page would go, but what fancy technical presentation would be complete without a glitch? The ARCC site is currently down.
The guys at the office just let me know that the particular server that the web site is on had a hardware failure and the hosting company is currently working to get it running again. I don't have an eta as of yet but I would imagine that it will be back up soon.

Luckily our chamber office at 5 Warren Street, though challenging to reach (check out Craig Murphy's photo of the construction) is in fact open for business. Call us at 798-1761 and we'll be your membership search directory.

We want you to enjoy your time surfing with us, the Adirondack Applause section, available by clicking the beautiful image overhead at the top of this blog, or the user friendly link you just read in the last line, has a modest sampling of photos and press for ARCC members. Which, reminds us, we are always accepting ideas for that section. Did you catch a photo opp? Perhaps a company CEO in a pirate's bandanna with a faux parrot on his shoulder photo accepting an award? Or a link to coverage given by a media outlet? Let us know by leaving a comment here or by sending an email. Oh yes, you read that right, leave a comment.

You see, surfing this blog is different than traditional surfing. We aren't looking to shuffle you through without so much as a how-do-you-do. We want to hear from you. And yes, we realize that sometimes you might have to give us the equivalent of the complaint about bags of airline nuts being too small, but we need that. So sound off, even if it's a complaint.

That concludes our welcome for today. If this was your final stop we hope you have a wonderful stay, if you are traveling on to another destination we wish you a safe trip. As you plan future virtual outings we hope you'll remember us.