While it may not look like there is much here yet, we have been hard at work building a rock solid infrastructure that will power a great deal of highly dynamic content very soon.

Here are some of the less obvious features that are in place right now:

• In talking with many of you, one of the biggest things that kept coming up was the desire for better communication, especially regarding practice cancellations. There are some neat things built into the site based on this issue. Registered users have the option of entering a mobile phone number with their account. Once you have done so, you will receive text message notifications regarding practice cancellations and other time-sensitive information. The alert system is fully operational and you are encouraged to take advantage of it. There is no charge from MOST for this service, but standard text messaging rate apply from your carrier. Since we cannot predict the exact number of notifications that may need to be generated, we recommend that only users with an existing text messagine plan sign up for this service. To sign up, simply click on "My Account" on the menubar above. Select the "Mobile settings" tab and enter your mobile number (with the area code) and select your carrier from the drop-down list. Make sure that you have your phone with you before you submit this information, as you should promptly receive a text message with a four-digit confirmation code which you will need to enter into the provided box. This is a safety precaution to ensure that the number gets input correctly. Once you have confirmed this number, you are signed up and will start receiving notifications as they are issued.

• We have also made it easier to communicate with our team members by using site maintained email groups. This will make it easier for your coaches and other key MOST representatives to provide you with more up-to-date information. In addition to text messages, urgent alerts will also be sent to all registered email accounts. In the near future, you will have additional subscription options via text messaging and email, so you will be able to choose to receive many other kinds of communication through either of these channels.

• Parents can (and are encouraged to) enter up to three swimmers to link to their account. These must be your kids or kids that we have you on record as being the responsible party for. If you need to enter more than three swimmers, please email me at jmalashock@immost.com and I will gladly make provisions for you to do so. Once we get back to swimming in January, we will turn on a couple of other modules that will allow you to track your swimmer's times, attendance, and receive feedback from their practices. Having them linked to your account will automatically enable these features when they are activated.

• The new practice calendar has a couple of really interesting features that are easy to overlook. The more obvious of these is that you can scroll to the bottom of the calendar and check off only the groups that you need to keep track of. This will instantly customize the calendar for you, displaying only the relavent practice times and locations. Note that the colored bar above the practice time indicates the group and the single letter in front of the time indicates the practice location: B for Burke, M for Morton, S for South, H for Hitchcock. When you have more than one swimmer in more than one group, they will be listed by the soonest start time first. In the event of identical start times, the shorter practice will appear first.

• The "HIDDEN" feature on the calendar is one that many of you will grow to love. You will notice a small reddish icon at the bottom right of the display. Clicking on this will provide you with a .ics file that will automatically import the schedule you have selected into many desktop calendar packages, such as iCalendar, Outlook, and others. In the next few days, additional calendars will become available for you to view or interact with. Each calendar will offer the same ability to export the data.

• We have tried to make it easier than ever to reach us with any questions or concerns you may have. You will notice the "Contact" option in the menubar above. Clicking this will provide you with an online message form that includes a drop down selector with a number of different subjects. By selecting the one that best fits your communication, we will be able to respond to your inquiry in a much more effecient manner. Should you not be able to identify the appropriate choice, there is an option for unsure or not listed. Choosing this will direct the communication generically and it will be handed off the the most appropriate individual. Upon submitting your message, you will receive a confirmation along with the name of the person that the message was delivered to. Please understand that your Metro Omaha Swim Team is a volunteer run, non-profit group and that all of the individuals involved have additional, full-time responsibilities. We will try to handle your request as promptly as possible. In cases where you have a more urgent matter, you may send an email to urgent@immost.com and in many cases, you will receive a reply within a few minutes to an hour. No guarantee is made, but this will often be available 24 hours a day for your convenience. Please limit the use of the urgent hotline to legitimate, time critical needs.