CAIDP was founded in 1993 to give Canada’s international development professional a voice and to provide a forum for members to exchange professional information and engage in professional development. In 2005 CAIDP members told the in-coming board to use information communications technology (ICT) to share information and provide a forum for discussions of practical issues in international development. They recommended that we: expand the CAIDP Hub listserv, explore the use of social media, and create a vibrant website.(1)
CAIDP has responded. The CAIDP Hub has about 1,300 subscribers, CAIDP social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) have an additional 1,900 subscribers and the CAIDP website, which contains some 3,000 pages, many of them member created, receives over 2,200 visits per month.
One of the areas of the website containing member generated content is this Forum area. Forums were designed to allow members to take conversations started on the CAIDP Hub to a new level by hosting a site where members could hold a discussion on any topic of interest. Members can start Forums at any time and a dedicated spot is assigned to the Forum that allows all messages in the chain to be accessed in one spot. In addition, members can share documents and links.
Members can let others find the posts on the website or let them know of new posts via the CAIDP Hub. They can also elect to share their posts via CAIDP’s Twitter Account.
Posting information to the Forums is simple:
- On the CAIDP Website Home Page look for "Member Login" (Bottom left)
- Sign-in to your CAIDP account
- Click on Add Content
- Click on Create Forum Topic
- Select a Forum (category) where to post your Forum Topic.
- Complete your post
- Save (or Preview first) your post