Help Using The Exchange

The Open Forum is the discussion group for questions that do not relate to one of the Practice Groups (see above) on The Exchange.

You can post a message either by visiting The Exchange website or using the email client of your choice.

To post via the website:
You can post a message to any Practice Group to which you are subscribed by selecting “Post a Message” under the “Practice Group” menu on the navigation bar. You will be asked to select a Practice Group and enter a subject line. Type your message in the window provided. You may attach as many files as you wish to your post (see “How Do I Upload A File?” below). You may cross-post to one other Practice Group. Replies to your message will be sent to you according to your subscription setting. If you are not currently subscribed to the Practice Group for which you want to post a message, you will be asked to subscribe before you can post.

To post via the email client of your choice (Outlook, Gmail, iCloud, etc.):
To post a message via email, simply send an email to one of the following email addresses. For future reference, save your favorite Practice Group email addresses in your Contacts.

When you reply to an email from The Exchange through your email client, replies are sent to the entire Exchange. To reply to the sender only, use the "Reply to Send via Email" option in the original email. PLEASE BE MINDFUL that your email will reach hundreds of members, so think of the value of your email when you press REPLY versus “Reply to Send via Email.”

Tip: Be as descriptive as possible in your subject line. The clearer your subject line, the more likely you are to get responses. This will also enhance the search function for later research.

Cross-posting: To avoid repeated messages on The Exchange, we encourage you to post in only one Practice Group at a time. If necessary, you may post to one additional Practice Group.

You can control the amount of email you receive from The Exchange by customizing your subscription settings. You can find a list of subscription options by going to the “Practice Groups” menu on the navigation bar and selecting “Manage My Subscriptions.”

The following subscription options are available on The Exchange:

• Real Time - Receive and respond to messages as they are posted. If you have a question and need an answer immediately, this is the option for you. Your query will go out to all subscribers as soon as you post it on The Exchange. Responses will come back to you as soon as they are posted.
• Daily Digest – A daily digest provides a summary of the postings in a Practice Group in the last 24 hours. Review all the posts within a Practice Group at once via a daily digest. You may subscribe to as many digests as you like. You will receive one digest for each Practice Group.
• Plain Text - This is a text-only version of Real Time.
  You can change your subscriptions at any time. You can subscribe to each Practice Group whichever way suits you best.

In order to participate fully on The Exchange, please be sure to add the following email domain and IP addresses to your safe sender list:

connectedcommunity.org

54.240.14.78
54.240.14.79
54.240.14.80
54.240.14.31
54.240.14.32
54.240.14.106

This will ensure emails from The Exchange are not bounced back or caught in your spam filter.

Tip: As an alternative to receiving any email from The Exchange Discussion Groups, you can "Browse Discussions From Last 24 Hours." This option can be found under the Practice Group menu.

No. The Exchange Discussion Groups are email discussion lists. Once you hit “Send,” your post is delivered to the list and is distributed to all subscribers. Please review the content of your post just as you would any email you send from your email client.

You can go back and edit the archive version of your post, but this will not change the message that is sent to the discussion list. Again, please review your message carefully before hitting send.

If you find any posts in the Practice Group Communities or Open Forum to be offensive or objectionable, please contact NELA via email at nelahq@nelahq.org. If it is determined that removal of a post (or posts) is necessary, NELA will make reasonable efforts to do so in a timely manner.

You can view all messages posted in the last 24 hours by selecting  "Browse Discussions From Last 24 Hours" under the Practice Group menu. This is a great way to see what is happening across The NELA Exchange community.

Tip: As an alternative to receiving any email from The Exchange Discussion Groups, you can use the “Browse Discussions From Last 24 Hours” feature to view all posts on The Exchange made within the last 24 hours.

Each Discussion Group, Committee, and Task Force on The Exchange has a Library. You can upload a file to any Library for any Discussion Group, Committee, or Task Force to which you are subscribed by going to the “Libraries” menu on the gray navigation bar and selecting “Upload A File.” When you upload a file, you will be asked for the following information: Title, Description, Library, and Entry Type. Your basic file upload (PDF, Doc, Docx) will be a “Standard File Upload.” You can upload as many files per entry as you wish. You also have the option to add tags to your entry. If you are familiar with HTML, you can include it in your description. The next window allows you to select and upload your file. Select your file by clicking on the gray “Select Your File” button. Once you have selected your file(s), you must click on the gray “Upload File(s)” button to complete the process. You will see a progress bar showing your file(s) being uploaded to The Exchange.

 Tip: Be as precise as possible when adding titles and descriptions for your files. The more precise information you provide in the title and description, the better the search results.

When possible, tags should be attached to your entry for quicker sorting. Tags are keywords you can attach to shared files or blog entries that help organize The Exchange. To add tags and keywords, click on “Next” after you have uploaded your file(s). Tag groups include: Topic, Court, Statute, Keyword, and Agencies. Files without tags will still be included in searches, but may not be at the top of the results. If you do not see a tag that you think others will find helpful, let us know and we can create one.

You can update your contact information online here: https://www.nela.org/membership/my-account/.

Please allow up to 24 hours for your updated information to appear on The Exchange.

There is a known issue with AOL users receiving email from the discussion lists. Below are some simple steps you can take to ensure you can fully participate on The Exchange.
 
You will need to add "DoNotReply@ConnectedCommunity.org" to your AOL address book by following these steps: 

1. From your AOL email inbox, click the "Mail” menu and select "Address Book."
2. Wait for the "Address Book" window to pop up, and then click the "Add" button.
3. Wait for the "Address Card for New Contact" window to load.
4. Once loaded, cut and paste "DoNotReply@ConnectedCommunity.org" into the Other email field.
5. Make our address the "Primary Email" address by checking the associated check box.
6. Click the "Save" button.

If you are already a subscriber to The Exchange but our email is not getting through to you, our email may be in your AOL Spam Folder.  Please use your web mail to check your Spam Folder.  If our email is in your AOL Spam Folder, open our email and click the This Is Not Spam button.

For further assistance with The Exchange, please contact the NELA National Office at (415) 296-7629 or email Pedro Valverde at pvalverde@nelahq.org.