March 28, 2024

Lace up your hiking boots and get ready as we blaze a new trail on the world wide web!

After several months of development and testing (thanks to help from our valued CVT Rewards members), we are now ready to open up our new website to all Trailblazers!  Here you will find a lot of Meetup-like features including an events calendar, photo albums, forums, messaging, and more…plus a new and improved points system that applies to everyone!

The new events calendar has lots of activities already scheduled.  RSVPs for most of these are set to open on Saturday, April 1st, which is our official grand opening…no foolin’!  The grid calendar allows you to filter by categories like event type and hike difficulty, and there is a list view as well.  As a member, you can submit you own event here.

Before next Saturday, here are a few things you should do to get ready:

  1. If you haven’t already, create an account.  Please use your real first name, or whatever name you go by on Meetup.  If you already have an account, review your profile (new questions were recently added).  Upload a photo if you haven’t already, and check your privacy and email settings.
  2. Bookmark this site!
  3. Subscribe to our blog.  We’ll be using the blog to communicate group news and event announcements.  By subscribing, you’ll get these updates sent directly to your email inbox, so you won’t miss out on anything!  Check out these articles on CVT Points, Sharing Photos, and Email Notifications.
  4. You may want to purchase some Trail Bucks.  Trail Bucks are the official currency of CVT!  You’ll need them to RSVP for most events, as we are dropping the “CVT Rewards” program and going back to the pay-per-event system.  It’s a little more fair and cuts down on no-shows.
  5. If you find any issues with the site (broken links, slow page loads, formatting problems, etc), or have any questions about how to use the site, please post them on the support forum.  This can be a resource to others who have similar issues.

Other points of interest:

  • We have a lot of Facebook-like features available to us.  You can “friend” other members, post status updates, “like” other members’ updates, upload personal photos, and send private messages to other members.  Please note that much of the content on the new site (event details, member info, etc) is restricted to logged in members.
  • You might want to check out the photo albums as well.  These are all from the Meetup site (I have local copies of most of them).  I’ll be adding more over time.

That’s it for now!  Keep checking back for more updates!

11 thoughts on “Getting Started

      1. I looked at one of the upcoming events. It doesn’t list trail bucks cost. Will the cost be the same for each hike or will longer day hikes cost more? I understand overnights would be more. How is it determined?
        My husband may start coming on some hikes as my guest, and I’ll need to calculate how much to put on account.
        Also, as long as I change RSVP before RSVPs close, will money be added back to trailbucks?

        1. It’s a dollar (one Trail Buck) for each event. I thought about making it cheaper for local hikes vs. day hikes etc, but I wanted to keep it simple for now. Refunds are not automatic unless the event is canceled, but you can request it. 🙂

  1. Facebook login should work now. Let me know if you have any issues with that. Make sure you fill out your profile.

  2. If you renewed “CVT Rewards” membership in the last few months, I’ll credit you a few Trail Bucks since you didn’t get a full six months. And if you ever had points in the past, I’ll try to dig those up and credit you for those. I’ll keep you posted on that.

  3. I asked about the credit because I wanted to understand more about RSVPing and Trail bucks. Example: initially,I said yes to Leigh’s White Trail Blaze hike that’s happening today, but then, 2 weeks ago, I had to change RSVP. So, when, I say, “yes”, my trailbucks are deducted, but then I had to withdraw… Will there be a credit immediately? Do I have to request? Or do I just lose that buck?

  4. Leigh’s hike is on the Meetup site, so no cost associated with that.

    Here, Trail Bucks are automatically deducted when you RSVP. If you change your RSVP later, it isn’t automatically refunded, but you can request a refund and I can do it manually.

  5. Has anyone else had issues with iCal or Google Calendar not syncing with the links on this site when you RSVP?
    Thanks

  6. Nope, never mind, I think it’s working now. Probably user error, please disregard the last comment about the iCal, thanks.

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