Please call 1-404-727-3049.

You can confirm the AAR's hours of operation under "Office Hours" on the Contact Us page.

Following are some common reasons that members find themselves unable to log in to the Members-Only pages. If you need to establish your membership for the current year, more information for doing so can be found on the Join or Renew page.

• Membership Expired or Not Yet Active: If your membership has lapsed or is not yet active (meaning that you joined for next year rather than the current year), you will not be able to log in. More discussion of not-yet-active memberships can be found under the question, "If I joined last month, why does the online login system say that my membership is not yet active?"
• "Cookies": The website uses "cookies" to track the login status of site visitors, and if cookies are not accepted by your browser, it will not be able to recognize the fact that you have logged in. More information on cookies can be found on the Cookies and JavaScript page; this page also will let you know if your browser accepts cookies.
• Firewall: Some firewalls will interfere with cookie handling. If you have exhausted other solutions, try disabling your firewall briefly to see if it resolves any difficulty that cookie handling may have caused. Similarly, other security programs, notably McAfee Privacy Service, can also block cookies unless configured to allow full privileges to www.aarweb.org.
• Application Processing Time: Under the best circumstances, it takes a few days to process a membership application, even if it is submitted online. At times when we are busy, it can take longer. This potential for delay is another reason why it is important that you not let your membership lapse at the beginning of the calendar year.
• Member ID Entered Incorrectly: If there is no other reason for the login failure, then you may be entering your member ID incorrectly. Please note that an AAR member ID is a letter followed by five numbers, with no intervening space or punctuation. The computer does not consider the letter "O" and the digit "0" to be the same character. Please note the following chart of common errors for the sample ID "Z00987":

ID	Error Explanation
Z00987	Correct ID (no error)
ZOO987	Entered letter O instead of digit zero
200987	Entered digit 2 instead of letter Z.
Z 00987	Entered space between letter and digits
Z-00987	Entered hyphen between letter and digits
00987	Omitted letter

• Last Name Entered Incorrectly: (In this area, we use the term "last name" for the surname or family name, regardless of whether it falls at the beginning or end of the name.) Also, many members fail to enter their last names properly or enter their entire names in the "Last Name" box. We have tried to be cognizant and respectful of the conventions in different cultures for writing names, and we occasionally find members who are surprised that we got it right, and who entered – instead of the last name – the portion of the name typically mistaken for the last name. Please note the following examples:

Full Name	Last Name	Description
Janice Brown	Brown	Typical English configuration
Kim Kyong Min	Kim	Last-name-first configuration typical of Asian and Hungarian names
Juana González Nuñez	González Nuñez	Combined last name configuration typical of Spanish and Latin American names
Sukarno	Sukarno	Given-name-only configuration typical of Javanese, Burmese, and Afghan names (technically this is the first name rather than the last name, but we assign it to the "Last Name" field to avoid confusion during the login process)

If we have your name listed incorrectly in our database, please contact us so that we can update our records appropriately.

• Diacritical Marks: Characters with diacritical marks must be entered as they appear in our records. For more information, and for a list of codes you can use to properly enter these characters, see the Diacritical Characters page. 
• Field Left Blank: Some people mistakenly enter only the last name or the member ID – but our system requires that both be entered.
• None of the Above: If you still cannot identify a reason that you cannot log in, then please contact us at membership@aarweb.org or 1-404-727-3049 to find out why the login system is not working for you.

A proper login (for a fictitious member) will appear as follows on the Login Page:

The likely explanation is that you are using a shared computer, and another member has logged in (or attempted to log in) before you. In this circumstance, the solution to this problem is to close your Web browser (all windows, not just the window in which the error appears) and then return to the AAR website. In rare cases, because of a browser glitch, it may be necessary to reboot the computer.

If this does not resolve the problem, please contact the AAR at membership@aarweb.org or 1-404-727-3049 so that we can investigate the issue.

1. We take credit card payments only on secure web pages. Please familiarize yourself with the ways to identify if a page is secure in your particular Web browser (this information should be available in the Help screens or in the online documentation).
2. We process your credit card payment with PayPal, a trusted name in online payment processing.
3. Credit card numbers are never written to any database on the AAR website; they are transmitted securely to PayPal which in turn transmits an approval or denial code back to us.
4. While we do use cookies in some contexts to retain the credit card information from one screen to another, those cookies are cleared as soon as the payment is processed. In any event the cookies in which we store this information are "non-persistent cookies," meaning that they are never written to your computer's hard drive or to our server's hard drive, and that they disappear as soon as you close your web browser. More information on cookies can be found on the Cookies and Scripting page.
5. We remind our staff and our members that credit card information must never be sent by e-mail, as e-mail is not a secure medium. Further, we have a policy of refusing credit card payment information that is submitted by e-mail to discourage unsafe practices regarding credit card transmission. 

For online voting in the AAR election each fall, we maintain two tables: one listing persons who have cast ballots and the other listing the votes cast (without identifying who cast them). A member must log in to access the ballot page.

If the member's ID is found in the table of ballots already cast, then that member is redirected to another page with a message explaining that this vote has already been cast, and that the member cannot return to the ballot page.

If the member ID does not appear in the table of ballots already cast, then when the member presses the "Submit Vote" button after filling out her or his ballot, the votes are appended to one table (without the member ID), and the member ID is appended to the other table (so she or he cannot cast a second vote). Thus, much like the US electoral process, we are able to track who voted but not how they voted.

In the overwelming majority of cases, this is because your Web browser has cached information from a previous time that you viewed the page. That is to say: In order to save load time, it is displaying the page as it "remembers" it, without regard to changes that have been made since then. Web browsers can be configured to cache pages permanently, at specific intervals, or not at all.

Because there are several different Web browsers, running on several different platforms, it is beyond our ability to provide you with instructions on configuring your own cache settings – but you should be able to get this information through the browser's help screens, the technical support service, or your institution's IT department.

As a quick fix, you may be able to force the browser to re-scan the page by pressing CTRL-F5. (We are not aware of any Web browsers that do not recognize this command for a "hard refresh" – but we cannot guarantee, of course, that it will work on your browser.)

Also, be certain that you are logged in as a member: Some information on the website only appears for members.

If you are confident that your browser has not cached old information, please bring the problem to the attention of the AAR IT Office at 404-727-3049. It is possible that the page was configured to display information only to certain people (i.e., staff members, members of a specific committee). We can let you know if this is the likely problem. And if it is an unintentional sitution, we can correct it.

There may be a few explanations:

Opt Out: First, as noted in the AAR Privacy Policy, members have the right to opt out of routine e-mail announcements (such as the monthly e-Bulletins and regional e-mail announcements). Members who opt out will still receive procedural e-mails (notably the annual election information) as well as any e-mail sent to them directly from AAR staff. If you suspect that your record is marked as "No E-Mail Notifications," and if you wish to receive those announcements, please contact us at 1-404-727-3049 or membership@aarweb.org.

E-Mail "White Lists": Some e-mail services will block all e-mail except from addresses that appear on a "white list." The owner of the e-mail account (i.e., you) can add people to the white list. And in some versions the e-mail sender can have herself or himself added by visiting a website and answering questions. The AAR does not have the time or resources to follow up with members, even when we receive replies stating that our e-mail has been blocked because we are not on the white list. AAR e-mails are sent from various addresses ending in @aarweb.org. It is your responsibility to add this domain to your white list, if your e-mail system uses this filtering technique.

Spam Blockers: Some spam blockers intercept AAR announcements as suspected spam. If your spam blocker is under your control, you should add @aarweb.org to the permitted senders list. If it is not under your control, you should have your Internet service provider (ISP) do so on your behalf. The ISP will not accept the request from us – nor should they – but they will accept it in most cases from one of their users (or, if an institution, one of their staff or faculty members).

At the AAR we have made an effort to distinguish ourselves by reflecting members' names appropriately, even when those names do not fall neatly into the first name/middle name/last name model that most databases contain. (For more detail about our attentiveness to this issue, please see the question above: "Why am I having trouble logging into the Members-Only pages?")

For information sent by mail, and for listing in the Membership Directory, we include the suffix appropriately. We omit it, however, in e-mail because of technological limitations that are beyond our control.

When properly displayed, the suffix is separated from the name with a comma; similarly, many e-mail programs separate e-mail addresses with commas. Thus, if we set our system to deliver to (for example) "Alex Jones, Jr. <ajonesjr@aol.com>" most e-mail programs would interpret the comma as separating two recipients (1) "Alex Jones" and (2) "Jr. <ajonesjr@aol.com>". This would be further complicated as the holder of this ajonesjr@aol.com e-mail account would only see "Jr." on the "To" line of the e-mail, and the sender would receive an error because "Alex Jones" wouldn't have an associated e-mail address.

Because most people have their own e-mail addresses, the likelihood of confusion over the appropriate recipient is minimal with e-mail. Therefore, we omit the suffix in this setting.

AAR staff are very diligent in keeping our computers clear of viruses. We have policies requiring employees to use antivirus programs and to keep them up-to-date; we send out reminder e-mails to staff members regularly reminding them to perform these updates; and we scan our computers routinely for viruses. Additionally, we have procedures in place to isolate and repair any computer that we think is infected with a virus. It is unlikely that a virus will be spread through our offices.

Unfortunately, one very common system of computer virus propagation uses a technique known as "e-mail spoofing." What this means, essentially, is this:

1. Alex gets a computer virus.
2. That virus looks at Alex's address book and picks two names at random: Betty and Chris.
3. Then the virus sends an e-mail with itself as an attachment to Chris, and it fakes, or "spoofs," the headers of the e-mail to make it look like it came from Betty. (The virus does this as many times as necessary, until it goes through Alex's entire address book.)
4. Chris receives the e-mail, and very often will recognize Betty's name (because they were both in Alex's address book and are thus far more likely to know each other than two names picked entirely at random). This often leads Chris to be careless and open the attachment, thus spreading the virus.
5. Even if Chris recognizes that the attachment is not to be trusted, it is difficult for Chris to warn the appropriate person because the return address on the e-mail containing the virus is "spoofed" as Betty – disguising the actual (unwary) originator: Alex.

Because AAR addresses appear in the address books of so many people (our members, organizations that do business with us, institutions with which we collaborate, etc.), it is not uncommon for a virus that uses e-mail spoofing to find one (or more) of our addresses in someone's address book.

Unfortunately, because the owners of infected computers are not AAR staff members, we are unable to exercise any control over their virus management practices, and we are usually unable to identify them even after they get an infection that spreads itself by appearing to come from us.

If you are able to view the headers on your e-mails, you can confirm whether a message came from inside the AAR offices by looking at the Received line. There should be only one received line, and it should read as follows (the underlined part varying, depending on the computer it was sent from):

Received: from __________ [170.140.128.___] by aarweb.org with ESMTP

Any message with a header that does not look like this was not sent from inside the AAR Executive Offices.

N.B.: You may, occasionally, receive legitimate e-mail from the AAR that does not have this sort of received line in the header, usually when you receive e-mail from a staff member who is telecommuting, and who is therefore using a computer outside the Executive Offices. Home computers outside the Executive Offices are also provided with antivirus protection, but identifying the structure of the received line for those computers is impossible because most ISPs do not provide static IP addresses.

Every computer has a distinct Internet Protocol (IP) address. For example, the IP address for your computer at this moment is 50.16.17.90.

Some functions on the AAR website are set up to document the site visitor's IP address for security reasons. This will help us follow up more efficiently with website malfunctions, and helps protect both you and us from fraud.

Tracking the IP address is not an issue of privacy. Every website knows the IP address of every site visitor. Indeed, the Internet would not function otherwise.

Additionally, you may wish to know that we do not use this information for marketing of any sort. The IP address would not be an efficient mechanism for such monitoring. And, nonetheless, the AAR has no interest in such activities – without regard to whether or not they are possible.

The first step is to figure out if the problem is on your end (e.g., computer malfunction, browser configuration, Internet connection) or our end (e.g., programming error, missing page).

The first thing you should try is to load whatever page is causing the problem on a different computer. In most cases the second computer will not have an identical configuration, and a successful experience on the second computer will indicate that the problem rests in the configuration or functionality of the first computer. Such issues are outside the AAR's control, but can be reported to your institution's IT support department or to a local computer repair service.

There are some situations in which the second computer would exhibit the same symptoms, but still in response to a problem outside our control – institutional firewall settings, overzealous cookie management on a departmentally installed security suite, local disruption in Internet services. But most of the time, a failure on the second computer will signal that the problem rests on our website.

Website functionality issues should be brought to our attention at support@aarweb.org or 1-404-727-3049. When contacting us, please be prepared with the information we'll need to research the issue. Specifically, please be preared with answers to the following questions:

1. What is the URL where the problem occurs?

It is essential to the process that we know where to find the problem. There are more than a dozen pages on the AAR website that might be referred to (in one context or another) as "the Job Postings page." But each one has a unique web address, or "URL" (uniform resource locator). So it is the URL that you must use to report the problem to us. The URL begins with "http://" or "https://" and appears in your Web browser's address bar.

If the problem is that you clicked on a link on a certain page, and the target page didn't open, we need to know the URL of the page where the bad link exists, and where on that page we must look for the link. Provide as much detail as possible.

2. What happens when you try to go to the problematic page?

Our major problem in responding to reports about website problems is that we are not given the information we need to investigate. It is not enough to say that the page did not load. The important information answers the question, "What happened instead?"

System Error: If the error message was generated by your operating system (in which case it would generally describe itself as a Windows error), the problem is most likely in your computer. In this case, try again on a different computer if you have not already done so. If the problem persists, we can see if our page is generating some code that is causing an execution error, but this is an uncommon scenario.

Browser Error: If your Web browser gives you an error message, the problem may be that you are using an outdated bookmark, or it may reflect a programming error in our site. If you are using a bookmark, try navigating to the page using the menu structure on the main page of our website: http://www.aarweb.org/. If that does not resolve the problem, let us know what error you received. Different browsers will report the same error in different ways, but a common presentation looks like this:

The page cannot be found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try the following: Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly. If you reached this page by clicking a link, contact the Web site administrator to alert them that the link is incorrectly formatted. Click the Back button to try another link. HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found. Internet Information Services (IIS) Technical Information (for support personnel) Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 404. Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Web Site Setup, Common Administrative Tasks, and About Custom Error Messages.

Login Problem: In some cases you will not be able to load a page because your membership status makes you ineligible to do so. This can happen if your membership has lapsed and you are trying to access a members-only page. And it can also happen if you are trying to access an administrative page for which you do not have privileges. In this circumstance, you will be directed to another page explaining the problem. If you feel that the page in question is one that you should have access to, please contact the AAR at 1-404-727-3049 to discuss the situation.

Nothing Happens: Sometimes, you may click a link and no error is displayed; rather, the target page simply fails to load and the old page remains on screen. This can occur on either your end (if your Internet connection is interrupted) or on our end (if there is some programming on our page that is executing too slowly or causing an infinite loop). The first thing to do is just wait a few minutes to see if the problem resolves; if not, let us know the URL of the page that the bad link appears on.

Other: If you do not understand how to distinguish the type of error that you are experiencing, please make a screen shot of the error and e-mail it to support@aarweb.org; you can do this by pressing "Print Screen" (may be labeled "Prt Scr" or something similar), opening Microsoft Word, pasting the image into a blank Word document (using the Edit > Paste command), saving the document, and attaching the document to an e-mail. You can see the location of the Print Screen button on the most common keyboard configuration in the graphic below (click the image for a larger version):

This is an area in which people misuse terminology extensively, thus complicating our ability to serve them promptly and properly. The most common problematic request we get is, "Please send us your logo at 300 dpi (dots per inch)."

The problem with this request is that without knowing the number of inches in the final display, we have no way of following the instructions regarding "300 dpi."

Most of our graphic requests are for bitmap (raster) images, so what we really need to know is the number of pixels that the image will use. But if we are simply told the output size, we can easily convert to figure out the number of pixels that we need. For example, if you need a logo at 300 dpi, which you will print on a page at 4" wide, then you need a logo that is 1,200 pixels wide:

[number of inches] × [dots per inch] = [pixels]
4" × 300 dpi = 1,200 pixels

Let's look at an example of the AAR logo:

Here is an example of the AAR logo that has been exported at 200 pixels wide. It could be displayed at 300 dpi in a 0.67"-wide space (0.67" × 300 dpi = 200 pixels) or at 200 dpi in a 1"-wide space (1" × 200 dpi = 200 pixels) or at 100 dpi in a 2"-wide space (2" × 100 dpi = 200 pixels).

As mentioned above, the example was prepared for 300 dpi in a 0.67"-wide space; if you tried to stretch it to accommodate a space double that width, you would end up with blurry lines, such as you see here.

Similarly, if you tried to compress it to fit in a space half its designed width, you might end up with jagged lines such as you see here. (But if you are familiar with graphics manipulation, you can probably fix this sort of problem on your own.)

Finally, here is an absurd example just to illustrate why it is meaningless to talk about dpi without providing output size. If you strain your eyes, you will see a tiny, tiny image in the box above, only three pixels wide by one pixel high. This is the same AAR logo. And if it is printed for output that is 1/100"-wide, it meets the requirement of being 300 dpi. But even under magnification, it's completely unreadable – just three reddish-gray squares side-by-side.

It is also important to know what type of file you need. The common types of graphic files are shown below. Assuming your Web browser can view them all, they should appear more or less identical, but they have different file sizes and different encoding mechanisms that may be important to your production team.

		GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) file extension:  *.gif sample size:  8,144 bytes features:  can make background transparent; can only have 256 discreet colors; common for websites (but some prefer PNG because of legal encumbrances that affect GIF, although these do not affect end-user display of GIF files)
		JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file extension:  *.jpg or *.jpeg sample size:  6,547 bytes features:  almost always the smallest file size because of "lossless" storage algorithm, which sacrifices resolution at a rate that is usually imperceptible to the human eye; allows interlaced loading, which is useful for large files viewed on a dial-up connection; common for websites
		PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file extension:  *.png sample size:  8,049 bytes features:  allows interlaced loading, which is useful for large files viewed on a dial-up connection; common for websites
		TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) file extension:  *.tif or *.tiff sample size:  15,175 bytes features:  commonly requested by publishers for print materials; not common for websites (and usually does not display properly, which is why you may see an error box instead of the image)
		BMP (Bitmap) file extension:  *.bmp sample size:  14,478 bytes features:  easy to use and edit in Windows applications without third-party software; common for attachments in Microsoft Word; not common for websitesf

Another important thing to remember is that dpi only relates to print publications. For images that are displayed online, dots per inch are irrelevant. An image that is 400 pixels across will take up two-thirds of the width of the screen if the viewer's monitor is set for 600×400 resolution. But it will take up less than a quarter of the screen if monitor resolution is set for 1280×1024. On a 19" monitor, the former will be about 10" across; the latter will be about 3" across (different monitor sizes and shapes change these measurements proportionately). There is nothing that can be done in the file export to change this fact: People are able to customize their computers' displays, and it is neither possible nor desirable to export a graphic file in such a way that it overrides their settings.

Finally it is important to understand the difference between raster/bitmap images and vector images: All of the information above is for bitmaps, which are arranged by organizing colors on a grid, like a giant chess board. By contrast, vector images store the shape of the graphic in formulas, and therefore the concepts of dpi and pixels are irrelevant to them. For example, the formula for a circle is x² + y² = r². If r² is presumed to be 1 µm, the circle will fit on the head of a pin; if it is presumed to be 1 Gm, the circle will encompass most states – but the important thing to understand is that its resolution will be perfect no matter its size, and no matter the dpi that the printing process requires.

Some publishers prefer raster images because they avoid the messiness of talking about dpi and output size. The most common file type they request is EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), although WMF (Windows Metafile) and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) are also commonly used. Examples are not shown because current Web browsers do not display raster files without add-in programs.

To summarize: Before requesting a graphic from us, discuss your needs with your production team. Let us know whether you need the image in color or black-and-white. And let us know what file format you want. If it is a vector format (e.g., EPS, WMF, SVG) we don't need any additional information. if it is a bitmat format (eg., GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP), we will need to know (1) the number of pixels across (or down) you need, or (2) the dpi and the output size.

N.B.: Contrary to most presentations on our website, we have used the English measurement "dpi" (dots per inch) in this area rather than metric (SI). This is because no widely accepted metric alternative to "dpi" has evolved, perhaps because most printer manufacturers are based in and/or market heavily in the United States, where the metric system is not widely used. Measurements such as "dpcm" (dots per centimeter) or an alternative approach describing inter-dot spacing in micrometers have been suggested, but are not in active use. If they rise in prominence, we will revise this page to reflect the change. For now we will happily accept metric requests from those organizations prepared to frame their requests in SI measurements, but we anticipate most image requests will be in English measurements for the foreseeable future. In case it is helpful, the following table illustrates conversion between the English and the two styles of metric measurements