About the website & email migration

What is happening and why

Our websites are moving to a new home. The service that has hosted californiadar.org and the chapter websites is being retired, and we are moving to a newer, safer one. Two things are changing:

1. Where our web addresses point. Behind the scenes, the internet uses a small “address book” to find our websites and to deliver our Microsoft 365 email. That address book is moving from the old hosting company to a new provider. We are doing this step first so that email keeps flowing no matter what happens to the old server.
2. The websites themselves. Every state and chapter website will be rebuilt on MemberClicks. Until a site is ready, its old web address will simply take visitors to our temporary home page at californiadar.org.

Photos and documents from the old sites are being recovered from backups and checked before they reappear on the new sites. Nothing is copied over blindly.

What members will notice

• Websites: starting on the changeover day, chapter and state web addresses will lead to the temporary home page until each new site is ready. Old links still work — they just land on the temporary page.
• Email: your email should keep working exactly as before — same addresses, same mailboxes, same Outlook settings. We copy and double-check every chapter’s email settings before anything is switched. If your chapter’s email misbehaves, use the buttons on your chapter’s card below.
• Requests: if your chapter is ever asked to change a “DNS record”, or anything about your web address, send it to the state webmaster — those changes are no longer made by the former hosting company.

Questions

Who do I contact? Use the “Details & requests” button on your chapter’s card, or the state contact page. Will my chapter email change? No — addresses, mailboxes and Outlook settings stay the same. Why move at all? The old hosting is being retired; the new setup is safer, easier to look after, and puts every site on one modern platform. When do we get our website back? When it is rebuilt on MemberClicks; this page will show that as a step when the time comes. What do the “Step 3 of 7” badges mean? Each chapter’s card tracks seven checks — from “we know about this address” to “email confirmed working” and “website verified”. The badge shows how far along your chapter is.