To get to the menu for adding content, you must first be logged in. Then on the left side, in the section with your user name, click "create content".

You'll be presented with a list of types of content you can create. What ones you see depends on whether your user is setup as a member, an officer, a prospect, or whatever.

Notice that in the main page space in the middle is a description of each type of content--a handy reference.

Click on "story" at the bottom of the "create content" menu. You'll get the "Submit story" form.

From here, it is just a matter of filling in the form and posting it.

Admin stuff

At the top of the form is some administrative stuff.  If you're not sure what to do, just look at the "Allow user comments" bit.  The website supports discussion/comments on postings--but such comments are not always appropriate.  If your article is one that could be usefully commented on, keep the default "Read/write".  Otherwise, choose "Disabled".

Title

The title is straightforward enough.  Try to be descriptive and catchy.

Topics

Next comes the "Topics" pull-down menu.  This is the section your article will go in--or in the technical language of the website ("taxonomy terms"). What you're seeing when you pull down the menu is all the sections available on the website, with their structure. So, choose the appropriate section for your story and continue down the form.

Body

The "body" field is where you put the main content of the page.  If you've typed this into a word processor or HTML editor, just copy and paste it into this field.  Alternately you can just type straight in.  For the most basic page, just type and include double line returns (hit "enter" twice) at the and of each paragraph.

You can optionally format your entry in friendly old HTML.  But hey, if you're a novice, don't worry--that's not as difficult as it sounds.  Here's a quick primer:

If you want something to be bold, just enclose it in "b" tags, like this:

<b>This text is bold</b>

Note that there is always an opening tag (no forward slash) and a closing tag (a forward slash before the tag name, indicating that you are turning it "off").

To make something italic, put it in "i" tags:

<i>This is in italics</i>

To put things nicely in paragraphs, enclose them in "p" tags.

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

To make bullets, first open a list with a "ul" tag (that stands for "unordered list"), then put each list item in "li" (yes, for "list") tags.  Don't forget at the end to close off your list with a closing "ul" tag. Here's how it looks:

<ul>
<li>This is the first bulleted item</li>
<li>This is the second bulleted item</li>
</ul>

And to make headlines, use "h" tags, using numbers as appropriate.  That is, for a first-level headline, use "h2" (we're starting at 2 because these are really sub-headlines and shouldn't be bigger than the original page title).  For a second-level headline, use "h3".  And so on!  Example, with a paragraph after it:

<h2>This is the Headline</h2>
<p>And here is the paragraph</p>

That wasn't too painful, was it?

Decide where you want the "teaser" (the part of the main text used in links to the article) to end.  If you do nothing, the software will choose a breaking point for you, like at a paragraph return--but it's better to decide yourself, to make sure the breaking point is appropriate.  You do this by typing in:

<!--break-->

The "teaser" will end at the point you put the  <!--break-->.

And you're set! You can preview the page you've prepared by hitting "Preview" (recommended, and sometimes required) or you can bravely or recklessly just go ahead and publish it by hitting "Submit".