Network members have recently been enjoying the benefits of behind-the-scenes professional assistance when they call for help with website log in problems or to explore why they haven’t been getting our monthly member bulk email. In November, the Network availed itself of the outstanding opportunity to hire an experienced information technology professional. I’d known John Murray for years, having contracted with him for IT services he performed as a second job. Now, with John’s move over to full time employment at the Network, we are taking full advantage of his various skills and so are Network members. It is our pleasure to introduce this newest staff member to our Network family members so that there’s a face with the assistance you might call on him to provide.
--Gila Hayes
Hello everyone! I’d like to introduce myself to all in my new role as IT director for the Network. A bit about me: I’ve been involved with technology since the late 60’s, first in audio, transitioning to television broadcast engineering, then computing/networking in the late 80’s.
I’ve always felt that tech should be a conduit, not an impediment. The Network’s website has been my responsibility since 2008; its success and shortcomings along the way have been completely my responsibility. Working with Gila, Marty, Vincent, Josh, Jennie, William and Nancy is a real privilege; dedication to customer service is our top priority. All that being said, I thought I’d answer a few common questions that we get from time to time:
What information does ACLDN store about me? At this time we store personal member information, including home address, email address, household members, past interactions, notes and member communication preferences in a private database. There is currently no connection between this database and the Network website member logon database. If/when you provide update information via the website, we manually transfer that to our private database. In regard to purchases, understand we DO NOT store financial information – we merely securely forward it to our credit card processor, Authorize.net. That’s why you’ll receive a notice directly from them when joining/renewing/donating to us.
You obviously maintain a mailing list of all members, how do you manage that? First off, ALL member information is private! We have NEVER, and additionally NEVER WILL, share this information with ANY third party. For example, after buying a home or car, getting a loan, or insuring your new purchase, you’ll no doubt begin receiving numerous solicitations from a variety of services who got your name, phone number and address when you agreed to undergo a credit check. We hate that when it happens to us, and so at the Network, we promise that we will never share our membership lists.
OK, how can I control what and what is not being emailed to me, what are my rights here? Two-part answer: First off, bulk mail (unsolicited); every mailing we send out has an unsubscribe link at the bottom, clicking this immediately notifies us of your preference. We take this seriously, and will not email you again unless you explicitly contact us and update your preference. Second part: If you attempt to reset your password, or other-wise contact us one-on-one, such as filling out a form (solicited), you will always get a response from us.
Got it! So can you explain why have I not seen monthly Journal Announcements from you lately? Hope you don’t mind another 2 part answer: First, we are very careful about our mailing list, ensuring that all on it actually have valid working addresses - this ensures our reputation with your email provider; our bounce rate (ie: outright rejection by your mail provider) is very near zero, and is generally caused by a full mailbox, or other major individual email account issue. Secondly, what happens to our message after being accepted depends a lot on you; opening our message (as opposed to just seeing it in your inbox) is important in that this hints your email provider. Consider adding info@armedcitizensnetwork to your address/contacts to help ensure delivery.
I’m very worried about political climate and news/fakenews/social networking. So are we! Our purpose is simple, providing our members support after a legitimate act of self defense. To that end, beyond our membership education package, we are now providing online well reasoned, topical video content at https://armedcitizenstv.org.
I hope this helps - and that you will consider me immediately available if you have any issues or questions! During business hours, call and ask for me at 888-508-3404 or email me anytime at
To read more of this month's journal, please click here.