This is a copy of the original opening letter sent out in January to all members:

Aurora Website Development Updates
Most of you are aware of the development of the new Aurora Online Shop. This is progressing well and is on arget for a launch this Spring. The current Aurora website will now no longer be updated. Our plan is to integrate the main Aurora website with the Aurora On-line Shop, hence having one large Aurora site rather than two separate ones. To save duplicating work all efforts are now being channelled into the completion of he new site rather than the upkeep of the old. Our aim is to launch the new Aurora members site first, and hen bolt the on-line shop section onto it afterwards.

The new Aurora site will work very differently to the current one. The main difference is that it will be a dynamic database driven site, where all the content is held separately from the design in a database. What this means to you is that you all will have the capability to update your own pages and add or change images n your galleries.

Currently, around 120 members are registered on the new site, and if you had an Aurora icrosite then your details have more than likely already been entered into the new site database. If you do not currently have an Aurora microsite but have returned your form, then you will also have been registered nd your details may have been entered already. If you had a link to your own website from the Aurora website then you may not be registered.

If you are not registered don’t panic, as everybody in the project will have their own microsite which will ultimately lead to their own online store section. There are a couple of steps you should follow now to help us ith the last stages of development. You should do this regardless of whether you have your own website or not, as even if you have your own you will also be allocated a microsite / store on the new Aurora site.

Everybody who has been registered has already been sent an email to the address that they have on the current Aurora website. If this email address is no longer active then you will need to make sure that you change this to a valid one once you can log-in to the site.

If you have not received your email or think you might not be registered then send an email to info@theauroraproject.org.uk, tell me who you are, and I will email you back with your login details.

Visit http://www.theauroraproject.org.uk/members and log in. You should then change your user name and password to something memorable.

When you are logged in you will be able to follow links to input information about yourself which will appear on the site. This information may already be there. If it is then you can view it and change it. When the site is live any changes you make here will instantly appear on the site.

You should review the images that are currently uploaded for you and change them if necessary. Images can easily be uploaded via the website once you are logged in. If you need some free image resizing software then you can get some here: http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm.

I would recommend uploading square images if possible, but you will be able to upload portrait and landscape images without a problem if this suits your art better. Images will be resized by the system to fit into a box sized 235 x 235 pixels. There is a maximum image size allowed of 150Kb each.

If you have any problems then please feel free to get in touch. Once I have up to date email addresses for all members I will regularly keep you all up to date with progress.