State Society Update
Welcome to the ACPEN State Society Update page! The purpose of this area of ACPEN.com is to provide a place where state society partners can find out what’s happening with ACPEN without our clogging up your email in box with long newsletters, or items that may not pertain to your specific organizational role.
Below, in “latest-first” order, you will find announcements of changes to scheduled ACPEN courses, new course offerings from the network that are produced either by state societies or by the network itself, or the wide range of operational issues that come up every day to support our goal of better communication with affiliate members.
We will also list questions, marketing approaches that other states alerted us to, or suggestions for courses that we have been asked to bounce off of other states, so that you can give us your thoughts, ideas, suggestions for improvement, etc.
In addition, we will use this area as a way to provide you with new product information as those begin to appear, along with improvements in the ACPEN webcast system, the on-line catalog and tips on using the admin site. This page is NOT intended to replace the direct support that we like to provide for you. You should always feel free to contact myself (Anne Taylor), Jim Parente or Jim Carder—or anyone on the ACPEN team if you have a question or need help.
To make this page as user friendly as we can, we have established a direct link from the ACPEN.com website homepage. Just click on State Society Update page when you get there and you’ll be brought here directly, without further navigation.
Next, to alert you that there is new information, we will send you a very short email, telling you that there has been an update to the State Society Update page, and the general subject, such as “New Network Course Announcement,” or “New ACPEN webcast catalog feature,” or “ACPEN Network Advisory Committee meeting agenda.” You can then choose to go to the website and check out the information or, if it is not in your area of interest, you can ignore it, or get to it later, when you have more time.
When you get to the site, you can look for the same heading and date as in the alert email, and scroll right to that. Of course, your welcome to browse all of the information but we know how busy you all are, so we want to give you what you need quickly.
Information in this area will remain in place for a substantial period of time—as long as it seems relevant. We’ll purge it periodically to keep the length manageable. Let me apologize for the length of this explanation but we hope that this feature of the new ACPEN.com website will benefit you in time saved going forward, and make ACPEN products and services more valuable to you and your members.
Sincerely,
Anne Taylor
Update Index
The ACPEN Team Has New E-mails Addresses updated 8/17/09
ACPEN Network Meeting Reminder updated 6/19/09
Updated ACPEN Support Information for Your Website updated 6/12/09
Tele-seminar and Webinar Opportunities updated 5/1/09
Definitions of ACPEN
Technology Formats updated 5/1/09
Tele-Seminar CPE Accreditation updated 5/1/09
The ACPEN Team Has New E-mail Addresses
The ACPEN team has new e-mails through the acpen.com site that we will be using from here on out. Our new contacts are listed below and can also be found on the Staff and Contact Info page.
anne.taylor@acpen.com
ACPEN Network Affiliate Manager
ann.graham@acpen.com
Satellite Site Coordinator
sally.smith@acpen.com
Accounting Manager
jeff.parente@acpen.com
Manager of Graphic Design and Technical Support Services
jim.carder@acpen.com
Director of Sales & Marketing
jim.parente@acpen.com
Chief Operating Officer
ACPEN Network Meeting Reminder
Please remember that you are invited to attend this year's ACPEN Network Advisory Committee meeting on July 28, 2009. As usual, it will be held in conjunction with the AICPA Interchange meeting that begins at noon on that date. The ACPEN meeting will be in the same hotel, the Ritz Carlton Orlando Grand Lakes, in Orlando, FL. The meeting will begin at 8:30 am and end about 11:30 am. Representatives of all ACPEN state societies are invited. We will cover new developments and products, marketing, course content, webcast production basics, and more. It is also intended to provide state societies with a chance to provide input to the direction of the ACPEN Network. If there are any items that you would like to place on the agenda, write Anne Taylor or Jim Parente. We will send a more detailed agenda in about a month with a room designation and location. As usual, breakfast will be provided for meeting attendees.
In the meantime, if attending the Interchange meeting, try to get there in time for the ACPEN meeting.
We hope to see you here.
Jim Parente
Updated ACPEN Support Information
for Your Website
I wanted to send you all some updated information that may be helpful to include on your website. I know many of you have this information, and some may still need to be changed to reflect our current information. I have been getting feedback from technical support on questions that are coming up from your registrants on a regular basis. We have developed a very extensive FAQ page that is part of every catalog using that information. (Your link is specific to your state society and the address is the same as your catalog with "/page/faq" at the end.) One of the really helpful aspects of our new relationship with Biz Vision, is that they have been doing ongoing analysis and tracking of support inquiries and categorizing the major issues.
http://catalog.acpen.com/page/faq
Here are a few issues that we are hearing frequently:
1. Old Test links on Websites: Please let me know if you do not have the new test link that I sent a month or so ago. It will be something like this (Your link is specific to your state society and the address is the same as your catalog with the /webcast/test.php at the end):
http://catalog.acpen.com/webcast/test.php
**Please remove old test links from any information related to ACPEN— we no longer stream using Windows Media, we use Flash, so the old test links will not confirm that a person will be able to view one of our webcasts.
2. Technical Support Information— if you post technical support information on your site, please post the following . . . this is the most recent information with current email address/phone number/hours.
For technical support please contact the ACPEN Help Desk at 1-800-747-1719. For less urgent questions, you can also submit an email request to help@acpen.com and a technician will contact you within 1 business day. The Help Desk is available to assist you Monday - Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM CST, excluding holidays. On the day of your webcast in addition to these hours, they will be available by phone at least 60 minutes before and 60 minutes after the webcast.
Tele-seminar and Webinar Opportunities
The past year has brought many changes to ACPEN… all good. In the past, we were not ready or able to address the needs of our affiliates related to other delivery methods, specifically, Tele-seminars and Webinars. With our new ASP and catalog and a new formal relationship with Premier Global, a large Tele-seminar company, we are now ready to launch new efforts and opportunities for affiliates who see value in a quick and inexpensive way to connect with their customers, either for information or CPE.
Tele-seminars: Utilizing the phone for audio only interaction
Webinars: Combining access over the phone and a coordinated presentation of slides online, seen on the member’s computer.
Both options serve a number of unique needs. They both allow for the program to be presented for sale through your existing ACPEN catalog, under a new Tele-seminar/Webinar designation. The benefits include a quick development and planning time frame, the convenience of the speakers contributing from their own offices, no studio production costs or lead time for travel.
In support of these efforts, we have assigned Ann Graham, currently our group satellite site coordinator, to oversee these events.
Financial Issues
We have negotiated an excellent rate on both tele-seminars, those that utilize the telephone only, and webinars, using both the telephone for audio and the web for slide presentations. We will supply a full turnkey opportunity with Ann Graham in charge of servicing your needs.
Rates, after a $150 per event administration fee:
Tele-seminars $.20 per minute or $12.00 per hour per registrant
Webinars $.35 per minute or $21.00 per hour per registrant
Shared programs
As is the case with all other affiliate based webcasts, tele-seminars and webinars where the subject matter has national application, can be offered for sale through the other 41 state CPA societies. In these cases we suggest, after the cost of the program, noted above, the two states involved, the owner/developer of the content receives 60% and the state actually selling the event in their catalog receive 40%.
Town Hall Meetings
Keep in mind that for the simple sake of member communication and information, we can, through our new ASP continue to offer a very inexpensive option allowing for one hour video webcast productions to be broadcast for free to your members at a cost of $5.00 per viewer to you.Definitions of ACPEN Technology Formats
In conjunction with our recent move to our new ASP, and the development of the new ACPEN.com web site, and our decision to begin offering additional technology formats to ACPEN affiliates, we have had discussions about the confusion in the marketplace concerning the various terms used to refer to the different technologies to deliver CPE. There seem to be no generally accepted definitions for these, so we decided to establish—for ACPEN—the following definitions of what we mean when we discuss these several delivery formats. We hope this will help all of us as we communicate.
What are ACPEN webcasts?
ACPEN Webcasts are high quality, studio or professionally produced, full motion, streaming video displays, seen and heard over the internet at the participant’s computer, for full CPE credit. There is no need for the telephone or other connection. The presentation can also allow for slides and materials to be viewed concurrently on the same screen. These are interactive events with materials available online prior to the event, or for an added fee, in hard copy.
What are ACPEN Live Webcast Replays™?
ACPEN courses are also available as live webcasts replays, for full CPE credit, through internet video streaming technology. Participants, with a broadband internet connection, using their own computer, watch a complete ACPEN course that was previously produced and recorded. This experience is supplemented by members of the faculty who are available during the event to answer questions from viewers in near-real time, by email.
What are ACPEN Webinars?
ACPEN Webinars are events where the program is delivered both over the Internet in the form of Power Point or other slides combined with a speaker audio accessed either over the telephone or connected via Voice over IP (using a headset connected to the audio portion, online, through the participant’s computer). Other than the static slides, there is no video display. These are interactive events with materials available online, prior to the event, or for an added fee, in hard copy.
What are ACPEN Tele-seminars?
An ACPEN Tele-seminar is a delivery option allowing users to participate in CPE connected to the presenter by telephone, not the internet. The internet’s role is minor, allowing participants to download written materials to review during the seminar. The users will not be on-line during the tele-seminar itself. Through its technology partner, Premier Global Services, Inc., an ACPEN affiliated state society can offer low cost, high quality CPE that allows users to participate by telephone, listening to and interacting with speakers during the course.
Tele-Seminar CPE Accreditation
Beginning immediately, Business Professionals' Network /ACPEN, through our technology partner Premier Global (PGI), will be glad to provide support for tele-seminars that state societies develop and would like to offer to their own members, as well as to other state societies.
In addition to the attractive cost structure we have negotiated, and the fact that the ACPEN catalog can support these additional courses, which makes registration simple, we need to address the question of CPE accreditation. As you know, BPN is a member of the NASBA Registry of CPE Sponsors and all Webcasts distributed through the ACPEN network are sponsored by BPN. This is also true for Webinars (combination of telephone with internet-based use of powerpoints during the event) which can also be arranged by BPN. At this point, however, Tele-seminars (which involve only the use of telephones, with no significant internet usage) fall under a different category of NASBA accreditation, Live Group versus Live Group, Internet-Based. BPN will be applying for this format as well but, until that is complete, CPE accreditation for tele-seminars will be handled as follows.
The developing state society will be the sponsor within its own state for its customers. Each state society that would like to offer the tele-seminar to its members must:
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Determine that the Tele-seminar format counts for Live CPE credit in its state,
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Agree to serve as the sponsor for the event for purchasers through that state society’s own catalog, and
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Specifically opt-in to the event by informing BPN that they would like to offer the course.
CPE-Certificates and Records: After the course, BPN will issue certificates to purchasers from each state, based on the customer information provided to us by PGI. The certificate will show the appropriate state society as the sponsor on the certificate for that state society’s customers. We will maintain the records of completion for the event on behalf of the each state society sponsor and respond in the event of state board audits.
Once our NASBA accreditation for the tele-seminar format is complete we will alert you that we are able to serve as the common sponsor for future tele-seminar events.
In order to expedite, since we have a May 27 tele-seminar produced by the Society of Louisiana CPAs, you may want to verify whether your state board accepts the tele-seminar format for full, live credit, since all callers are connected live, and there is interactivity with faculty.