VOICE ARTICLE July/August 1996

Computers, E-Mail, the Internet and more!

"California State Association now Online"

By Spence F. Burton, Former President Branch 214
and Webmaster for the CSALC

(Part three of a series on computers.com)

At the conclusion of the recent California State Association of Letter Carriers Convention in May, I was appointed to the position of Webmaster for the CSALC. It is such a great honor, being appointed as Webmaster of the First NALC State Association Webpage anywhere in the USA, that I will never take my duties and responsibilities lightly! My duties include: design, HTML coding, layout, and general maintenance of the State Webpage on the Internet. Any potentially controversial material will be approved by the CSALC before being posted.

Upon returning home from the Convention, I immediately set out to design the page. In early June, the first version was already up and running at its permanent location. CSALC President, Alex Mallonee, contacted the "internet provider" and we hit the road in a "full gallop"! Since then, I have completely redesigned the "masthead", and have added many new links to Union and Political sites on the Web. You can even access the individual Webpages of all the members of the Congress from the state of California, directly from the CSALC page. Some of these are not very extensive, but Senator Boxer's is one of the best I have seen so far!

Some of the information available at the CSALC site includes:

  1. ByLaws of the State Association
  2. Current Officers
  3. National Business Agent and his Staff
  4. Resolutions passed at the May CSALC Convention
  5. Target Congressional Districts in the Nov. Elections in CA
  6. Hatch Act Information
  7. Links to both Houses of Congress
  8. Links to NALC Branches who have Webpages
  9. Links to other Labor Unions
  10. Information on the June 19th Picketing, with some photos
By the time you read this article, I hope to have much more information available for you! A list of Legislative Liaisons for all the Congressional Districts in California is presently in the works. If you have any additional suggestions or comments on the CSALC Webpage, you can use my normal E-Mail address below, or E-Mail me at: csalc@SpenceBurton.com

On the National front, we were told at the State Convention that the National NALC was working on their own Webpage, and by the time you read this article they announced that it would be Online! If I obtain the URL (location) before this issue of the VOICE goes to print, I will add it to my signature box included with this article. You can link to the APWU National Webpage from the CSALC site right now!

I encourage every branch in California to get Online! If your branch cannot afford the computer equipment or the $20 per month fees to an Internet Provider, then there should be at least one member in your branch that has access to the Internet! Ask around, you will probably find several members who have AOL (America Online), Prodigy or other Internet access. Get those members involved, so that they can share the "instantaneous" information available on the Internet with the rest of the Branch! Every station and City in Branch 214 should have at least one such "contact person".

Branch 214 is still experiencing problems with its current Internet Provider, and they will be changing services soon. I hope to be working with Tony Gallardo on a Branch Webpage in the near future. Any members wishing to volunteer their "talents" on this project should contact me.

I hope to be upgrading to WIN95, on my main computer, after returning from the NALC Convention in Orlando. At that time, I also hope to upgrade several pieces of software that will enable me to better maintain and develop Webpages. MS Office for WIN95 has a free "Internet Assistant" program that allows you to write HTML code (Webpage language) without ever having to see the code. It automatically "codes" your work from within MS Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint! That, combined with a program from Microsoft called "FrontPage" (cost approx. $100) will enable virtually anyone to design and maintain a Webpage!

If you want more information about anything in this article, or have any suggestions for future articles, or computer usage in the NALC, you can reach me at: 


Spence F. Burton
PO Box 5522 Petaluma, CA 94955-5522
E-Mail me at: NALC214@SpenceBurton.com
Visit my WEB page at: http://www.SpenceBurton.com
Visit the CSALC WEB page at: http://www.csalc.org/

If you want to have your WEB Page "linked" to mine, or want to have your WEB site listed in a future issue of The Voice, just let me know. Several other NALC branches have direct links from my site.
Together we can help bring our union into the 21st Century!

This  page was originally placed online on July 1, 1996
This page was last updated (Links/address ONLY): February 13, 2005
Return to Spence's Main Page  My Home Page E-Mail E-Mail me at: NALC214@SpenceBurton.com

© July, 1996 All Rights Reserved -- permission to copy non-personal information (excluding "coded" calendars and graphics, except for link purposes) is given, as long as appropriate recognition and written notice is given to the author. No personal information from GEDCOM files etc. may be copied in ANY WAY , without my express written consent! This page was originally produced using MS Word Internet Assistant and enhanced significantly with Netscape Gold Ver. 3.0. It is best viewed with Netscape Version 2.0 or better, with a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels!