General FAQs

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General | Top

Q: What is the Foundation for Manufacturing Excellence (FORME)?

A: FORME is the educational foundation for NIST-MEP Centers. The primary goal and focus of the Foundation is to assist in providing continuing education to the nationwide system of manufacturing center members. FORME, a 501c3 trade association, is a subsidiary organization of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition (ASMC), which was established in 2015.

Q: What services does the FORME provide to its members?

A: In its short existence, FORME offers a number of services for its MEP Center members and staff including:

- Center Best Practice Conferences
- MEP Center Re-Competition Consulting Services
- Core Consulting Skills Certification
- MEP Center Salary Survey
- Manufacturing Reports and Surveys
- MEP Center Connectivity Calls

The combined Community and Learning Management System of MEPU Community and MEPU Learning is the highest value-added member service FORME offers.

Q: Is my Center (and therefore, its employees)) a member of FORME?

A: Currently, MEP Centers in 38 states and Puerto Rico are members of FORME. To become a member, please contact Carrie Hines, FORME’s Executive Director.

Q: How can I join the MEPU Community?

A: The Foundation’s MEPU Community is open to all employees of MEP Centers throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. To request an invitation to join, please contact your Community Manager or call (785) 218-8669.

Q: What can I do on the MEPU Community?

A: Members are able to identify subject matter experts within other MEP Centers, and can post questions or topics for discussion. Members can share documents and resources related to your positions at MEP Centers. You can comment on and discuss what others have posted. Or you can simply observe and learn from what other Center Employees have posted.

Q: Will my mailbox be overrun with emails from the MEPU Community?

A: No. The default setting will send you an email once a day summarizing the previous day’s activities but you can change that setting in your profile to get updates in real-time or to receive updates just once a week.

Q: Why is the FORME sponsoring the MEPU Community?

A: The Foundation serves the network of MEP Centers in the United States and Puerto Rico and we can accomplish more by working together to consolidate and share knowledge, resources and build comradery. MEPU is a powerful way to make our network stronger. 

Q: What is my username/password?

A: If you have forgotten your login credentials or need assistance with your login information, please click here.

Q: How do I update my contact information?

A: To change or update your contact or profile information, please contact your Community Manager.

Q: How do I control what information is visible in My Profile?

A: Please navigate to your profile page, then select the "My Account" tab and choose "Privacy Settings" from the drop-down menu. This will let you control what information is visible to whom.  After you’ve made changes, click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.


Contacts / Connections | Top

Q: How do I find other members?

A: Click the “Network" or "Directory” link found in the main navigation bar. The Directory lets you search for other users based on:
  • First and/or last name
  • Company/Institution name
  • Email address

Switch to the “Advanced Search” tab to refine your search results by:

  • City
  • State
  • Country
  • Community
  • Education

Q: How do I add contacts to my contact list?

A: There are several ways to add contacts. When you perform a search in the Directory, you will see an “Add as contact” button to the right of each person in your search results. Just click this button to send a contact request. If you click through and view an individual’s profile, you can click the contact request link to the right of his or her profile picture.

Q: Why should I add contacts to my contact list?

A: Creating this virtual address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages through the community site to stay in touch, ask questions or even build a referral network. Additionally, when you view another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see any contacts you have in common. You can also choose to let your contacts view certain demographics in your profile that others can't.


Communities / Discussions | Top

Q: What are communities?

A: Communities is a platform to enable you to participate in discussions and share resources with other MEP Center Employees

Q: What communities do I already belong to?

A: Go to “Communities” in the main navigation bar. Select “My Communities” to view the communities you currently belong to.

Q: How do I join/subscribe to a community and the affiliated discussion group?

A:  Click on “Communities” in the main navigation and click on “All Communities” in order to see a list of available communities. Click on the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join," then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest or No Email).

Q: How can I control the frequency and format of emails I receive?

A: Navigate to your profile and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu.  On that page, there are subscription options: Real Time, Daily Digest, No Email.  

For each discussion, you have the following delivery options:
  • Real time: sends an email every time a new message is posted.
  • Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day.
  • No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging into the community site.

Q: How do I leave a community or unsubscribe from a discussion?

A:  Go to your profile and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu. Here, you will see a list of available communities and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select "Leave Community” under the Actions column for the discussions you wish to leave.

Q: How do I respond to others’ posts?

A: To respond to a discussion post, please navigate to the discussion post and click “Reply to Discussion” to send your message to the entire community.  To send a message to the only author of the post, please select “Reply to Sender” (located in the "Reply to Discussion" drop-down).  We recommend replying to the sender for simple comments like “me, too” that add little value to the overall discussion; and replying to the entire community when you are sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.

Q: How do I start a new discussion thread?

A: Go to “Participate" > “Post a message.” From an email (HTML version) for a particular discussion forum, you can use the “Post Message” link located at the top of the discussion email.

Q: I’m having trouble viewing the HTML email messages. How do I fix this?

A: If images are not appearing, it is likely that your email client is set to suppress images. This should be something you can change in your security or viewing options. If you would rather receive text-based email, go to your profile page and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu. Select the “Plain Text” format option for each of the discussions you are subscribed to.

Q: Can I search for posts across all the communities?

A: Yes, please enter a keyword in the search bar located in the main navigation. To refine your search results, please select "Show Advanced Search".

Q: How do I see a listing of all of the posts to a specific Community?

A: Locate the community you are interested in viewing from the appropriate communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Discussions” tab. If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. “Show Original Message” at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion.

Libraries | Top

Q: How do I find resources that may have been uploaded by other members?

A: If you know which library the resource might be located in, find the affiliated community via the All Communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Library” tab . If you do not know where the resource might be, enter search terms in the main search box the same way you might enter search terms into Google or another search engine.

Q: Can I search for specific file types?

A: Yes. Enter your desired keyword in the main search box. From the search results page, click "Show Advanced Search."  Then click on “Search for Specific File Types.” This gives you the option to specify file type: Document, Image, Spreadsheet, etc.

Q: How do the libraries get populated?

A: The libraries are populated in two ways:
1.  When you include an attachment in a discussion post, the system automatically places it in the affiliated library.
2.  You can also upload documents directly to a library by using the “Share a File” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create New Library Entry" button on any community's library page. Library resources are not required to be associated with a discussion thread.

Q: How do I upload a file?

A: Select the “Share a File” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create New Library Entry" on any community landing page. Please note that uploading a document is accomplished by completing a few steps, and each step must be completed before you can move on to the next:
  • Choose a title for your document, and include a description (optional). Select the library to which you’d like to upload it, and select a folder to which you’d like to upload it (optional).  Then, choose an Entry Type (most will be Standard Files, but be cognizant of any copyright licensed material). Once you have completed these steps, please click “Next.”
  • Upload your file.
  • Select “Next” if you want to further describe your files and/or add tags to your file.  Otherwise, please click “Finish” to post your library entry

Q: What kind of files can I upload?

A: The system supports dozens of file types including hyperlinks, standard files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), webinars, images and YouTube videos.

Q: What are the “tags” for?

A: Tags are great way to organize and categorize content on your site. Tags can be applied to blogs, library entries, events, and glossary terms.  Tagged items are prioritized in the search results.