Community Connections and VBI Overview

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Community Connections and VBI Overview

• February 5, 2016

2
What We Will Talk About

• What the Community Connections and Virtual
  Business Incubator Programs are
• The registration process for the programs
• What the TLT needs to do before the programs are
  launched

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Community Connections

• What is the Community Connections program?
• Provides professional web hosting service to
  non-profit and community organizations for a
  small fee (20 per year)
• Gives organizations a web presence
• Gives organizations an opportunity to increase
  communication and interaction with members of the
  community

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Community Connections

• What services are provided with a Community
  Connections account?
• Web hosting for a web site (up to 20 megabytes of
  text and graphics)
• Two permanent email addresses
• An online mailing list (listserv) that allows up
  to 100 subscribers

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Virtual Business Incubator

• What is the Virtual Business Incubator (VBI)
  program?
• Provides home and micro businesses (5 or fewer
  employees) with professional web hosting service
• Provides marketing and business management
  assistance to help understand how to integrate
  the Internet into their business through
  Community Readiness Workshops

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Virtual Business Incubator

• What services are provided with a Virtual
  Business Incubator account?
• Web hosting for a web site (up to 20 megabytes of
  text and graphics).
• No charge for a VBI account until June 30th,
  2005. BEV will no longer host the account after
  June 30th, 2005.
• One permanent email address
• An online mailing list that allows up to 100
  subscribers

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Community Connections and VBI Registration Process

• The customer signs up for the program online
• An email with the registration details is sent to
  the registrar
• BEV will set up a webmail email account for the
  registar to use. Webmail makes sharing an email
  address easier because an email client (like
  Outlook) is not required to check for email.

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Community Connections and VBI Registration
Process

• Customer goes to the registrar
• Registrar verifies identity of the customer
• Registrar prints out 3 copies of the registration
  email
• Customer and registrar sign all 3 copies of the
  registration email

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Community Connections and VBI Registration Process

• The registration email is forwarded by the
  registrar to the BEV
• Printed copies of the registration email are
  distributed
• 1 copy to the customer
• 1 copy to the registrar
• 1 copy is mailed to the BEV.

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Community Connections and VBI Registration
Process

• After receiving the printed copy of the
  registration email BEV will
• Set up the account
• Send the customer instructions for using the
  account either by email or postal mail
• Notify the registrar by email that the account is
  set up
• Send the customer a bill. Registrar is NOT
  involved in the billing process.
• The registration process is complete!

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What the TLT needs to do before launch

• Designate an individual (or individuals) to be
  the registrar for the county
• Choose a place and time that customers can go to
  complete the sign-up
• Gather local web design resources
• Send any additional policies and procedures to
  Jaime at jshetrone_at_vt.edu

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Questions about Community Connections or VBI?