Help/FAQs

A: You will use the same username and password that you use to log in to My APCO. If you have forgotten your login credentials or need assistance with your login information, click here.

A: From your profile page, click edit pencil next to "Contact Details" and then click "Edit All Contact Info" under the profile pic on your My APCO profile page.

A: Go to "My Profile” and click on the “Settings” tab. Choose "Privacy" from the drop-down menu. This will let you control what information is visible to whom. After you’ve made changes, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page.

A: First, you must have an APCO Membership. Then you may use the "Directory" tool found in the main navigation bar, which lets you search for other members based on:

• First and/or last name
• Company/Institution name
• Email address

Switch to the “Advanced Search” tab to increase your search to:

• City
• State
• Country
• Community
• Education

A: There are several ways to add contacts. When you perform a search in the Directory, you will see an “Add as contact” button to the right of each person in your search results. Just click this button to send a contact request. If you click through and view an individual’s profile, you can click the contact request link to the right of his or her profile picture.

A: Creating this virtual address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages through the community site to stay in touch, ask questions or even build a referral network. Additionally, when you view another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see any contacts you have in common. You can also choose to let your contacts view certain demographics in your profile that others can't.

A: Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members.

A: Go to “Communities” in the main navigation bar. Select “My Communities” to view the communities you’re currently a part of.

A: Hover over “Communities” and click on “All Communities” in order to see a list of available communities. Click on the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join," then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest, Legacy or No Email). Note some communities are "System" generated, which you can only be a member of based on region or relationship(s) to APCO International (e.g., Membership, Chapter, Committee, Workgroup, Class Status, etc.).

A: Under "Communities" > "All Communities," there is a button called "Create New Community." This will open a "Manage Community" page that will prompt you to name the Community, set the viewing permissions, create an affiliated Resource Library and Discussion Group, and invite other users to join the Community.

A: Go to your Profile and click on the "My Account" tab and choose "My Subscriptions" from the drop-down menu. For each discussion, you have the following delivery options:

• Real time: sends an email every time a new message is posted
• Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day
• Plain text: sends real-time text versions of the posts, which are compatible with Blackberries and most other handheld devices. This option also allows you to reply without logging into a web browser, but it does NOT allow you to include attachments with your post.
• No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging into the community site.

See PSConnect Guides for more details and visuals.

A: If you stop receiving emails from community subscriptions you do not have set as "No Email" under "My Subscriptions," it could be due to a block created by PSConnect, usually due to a hard bounce, which may be investigated by your IT department. However, to lift the block go to your PSConnect Profile > "My Account" tab and choose "Email Preferences" from the drop down menu. On that page you should see a message in a yellow box giving you the option to “Fix the issue” after you’ve verified the email address is valid. When you click that button, the block is lifted. Afterward, you should receive the appropriate emails the next time a subscription is prompted to send (e.g., Real Time, Daily Digest, etc.). If you do not, please contact us so we may provide your IT department information that should help deliverability.

A:  The following instructions only apply to "Member Created" communities. Go to the community and click on the "Settings" button near the title. Under the "Status" section click "Leave Community."

"System" generated communities are managed based on your relationship(s) to APCO International (e.g., Membership, Chapter, Committee, Workgroup, Class Status, etc.). For instance, if you are no longer participating in a committee, you will automatically be removed from that committee on the appropriate end date. Some of these communities you cannot be removed from if no such end date criteria exists. Furthermore, the "Communications Open Forum" is one community you cannot leave.

A: Click “Reply to Discussion” to send your message to the entire community or “Reply to Sender” to only send your message back to the sender; both links are located to the right of the post. We recommend replying to the sender for simple comments like “me, too” that add little value to the overall discussion; and replying to the entire community when you are sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.

A: Go to “Participate" > “Post a message.” From an email (HTML version) for a particular discussion forum, you can use the “Post New Message” link under the community name.

A: If images are not appearing, it is likely that your email client is set to suppress images. This should be something you can change in your security or viewing options of your email client.

If you would rather receive text-based email, go to your PSConnect Profile and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "My Subscriptions" from the drop-down menu. Select the “Plain Text” format option near the desired community.

A: Yes. Enter a keyword in the search bar. From the results page, you can filter on content type, date range, and more. 

A: Locate the community you are interested in viewing from the appropriate communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Discussions” tab. If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. Above the messages you can open up the thread tree to get a preview of all the replies to the original discussion or other replies. “Show original message” at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion.

A: If you know which library the resource might be located in, find the community on the appropriate communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Library” tab. If you do not know the location of the resource, enter search terms in the main search box the same way you might enter search terms into Google or another search engine. Then you may filter by "Library Entries" to produce only direct links to the resource. To the right of each result are links to the community and library it resides.

A: Yes. Enter your desired keyword in the main search box. From the search results page, under "More Filters," click the check box next to the specify file type (e.g., Document, Image, Spreadsheet, etc.)

A: The libraries are populated in two ways: When you include an attachment in a discussion post, the system automatically places it in the library. You can also upload documents directly by using the “Share a file” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create a new library entry" on any community's library page. Library resources are not required to be associated with a discussion thread.

A: Select the “Share a file” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create a new library entry" on any community's landing page. Please note that uploading a document is done in a few steps, and each step must be completed before you can move on to the next:

• Choose a title for your document, include a description (optional), select the library to which you’d like to upload it, select a folder to which you’d like to upload it (optional) and choose an Entry Type (most will be "Standard File Upload," but be cognizant of any copyright licensed material). Then click “Next.”
• Browse and upload your file or use the Drag & Drop feature. Click “Next” if you want to add tags to your file or click “Finish” (you may have to scroll down to access these buttons).

See PSConnect Guides for more details and visuals.

A: The system supports dozens of file types including hyperlinks, standard files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), webinars, images and YouTube videos.

A: Tags are another way of organizing and searching for documents. You can help others find the file you uploaded by including tags when you upload it. There are many pre-loaded tag categories to choose from.