In the old days (like up until this week), this was my Wednesday morning routine:
* Drive out to Herald, CA, where the CBA Web server was housed in a secret little wooden building in the middle of huge sheep pasture. Hint – there was crescent cut into the door.
* Unlock the Web HQ building.
* Check the kerosene lamp hanging within the shed. If necessary, add kerosene, adjust the wick and light the lamp from the box of Strike-Anywhere matches on the floor beneath the lamp.
* Prepare the Web Updater by priming the carburetor, adjusting the choke, advancing the spark just so, then yanking on the cord until the machine coughed to life, belching plumes of oily blue smoke.
* Sit on the little milking stool and begin translating my Welcome Message from text to Machine Language, consulting the dusty, dog eared, heavy primer for tips. Once translated, run the compiler and begin uploading my weekly Welcome Message.
It was a ritual I had come to love.
But starting this morning, everything changed. At 6 AM, the CBA Webteam black van screeched to a halt in front of my house. Two men in dark suits and sunglasses entered my home (I don’t know how they got in or charmed my dog) and swiftly and painlessly injected a chip into my neck that gives me access to Column Archiving Profile Operations (CAPO).
Now, I only have to read the column I’ve written, and the column is beamed right into the website – from my eyes, to the chip in my neck and from there, Wi-Fi to the General Receptacle Upload Nexus (G-RUN for short) and that’s all there is to it! I barely have to wake up!
But enough of the back room, nerdy stuff! I just LOVE the new CBA website, but I admit I have been checking the Message Board with some trepidation. People in general don’t like change, and the CBA membership seems to like change even less than the general populace, and I feared a kneejerk backlash against this most visible of changes.
Boy was I wrong – the feedback seems to be overwhelmingly positive, and while some of that can be attributed to the general wonderfulness of CBA members, I think the real credit goes to the team that planned this massive project and pulled it off.
I have been through several website changes where I work, and each one brought groans and exclamations of “I hate it!”. Invariably, people grew used to the new sites and came to appreciate them, but it was only after a very awkward adjustment – the CBA may have beaten this trend, and I am SO impressed! Nice work, everyone. I know Rick spearheaded it, but I know he had expert help, because enlisting and motivating expert help is one of Rick’s most remarkable traits. The results are stunning!
