Milwaukee -- The Cabinet Makers Association announces the relaunch of its new website. The project, more than two years in the making, has culminated in a ground up rebuilding of the CMA’s online presence, and is now open for business.

“When we began this process, we knew the way people use the web had dramatically changed from the time we launched our old site,” said Dave Grulke, executive director. “Therefore, our efforts were focused to design and implement not only a brand new look, but to integrate functions and features our members wanted with an eye to the future for needs, expectations and desires of other constituents we serve in our part of the woodworking industry.”

As one enters the new site, the intro page directs a visitor to select from one of four categories: Homeowners/Contractors, Cabinet/Woodshop Owners, Woodworking Suppliers and Students/Educators. Once selected, the visitor is then directed to menus for features, pages and articles of the website that would be of the most interest to them.

Here are some of the features built into our new online home:

Information about the CMA, its history, people and a number of its programs are found in the ABOUT drop down menu.

A new and upgraded Shop Finder pinpoints the locations CMA general members in a radius from a zip/postal code or from a city and state/province pair in the United States and Canada.

Industry news and member press releases are included in searchable full article formats. Most of these items are included in the CMA monthly e-newsletter, and a link to sign up for a complimentary subscription is included on many of the web pages.

CMA events, and featured member galleries are shown in both photo and video formats in the Photo Galleries section.

An event listing and calendar shows upcoming events, along with integration to register for CMA events built into the site.

Associate member listings are categorized by type of business and hyperlink to their individual websites.

The Job Board is a self-service classified ad section offering categories for those seeking employment or training, available positions, selling of machinery, tools and supplies, offering services to other woodworkers or the general public and the like. CMA members get free ad posting privileges, while non-member ads are available at nominal rates.

Online member applications are available for both general members and associate members, and the site features a Make a Payment widget for CMA invoices or payments in a secured page for credit card transactions.

The private side of the site includes outstanding member forum and other member-only kinds of information. Dues paying members log into this part of the website with secure passwords. This is the place where members connect between face-to-face events and meetings to share their thoughts and challenges, and to learn from each other.

The Online Education section is where the CMA will announce in-person live educational events and hold live and recorded class sessions for the CMA’s Professional Certification program. Classes for online instruction are now being finalized to be uploaded there in the near future.