IPIU receives inquiries from new members who need phone help navigating the Private Investigator Forums. Although the office and PI Forums offers support, there is also a need for Volunteer PI Forum Guides who would be available by phone to help guide new members through the forum site.
Most of the help is related to new members who may not be able to perform some of the twenty (20) listed items below. A Volunteer PI Forum Guide is NOT REQUIRED to help a new member in ALL twenty areas listed. Many Volunteer PI Forum Guides have selected experience from the 20 areas listed below, and is still a valuable and needed peer-to-peer resource.
Volunteer PI Forum Guides are encouraged to limit their phone calls to 10-15 minutes, long enough for the new member to use the newly learned advice and tools to work on their own for a day. If they wish to receive additional help, they are encouraged to resubmit their additional question or request the following day for another 15 minute session on a different day, which will permit other Volunteer PI Forum Guides to participate.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Please review the List below, and if you wish to make yourself available as a Volunteer PI Forum Guide, privately email ipiu@live.com with the Subject titled "Volunteer PI Forum Guide Openings".
Although most new members only need help in basic navigation of the forums, below is a composite list of what has been asked in recent years:
PICK & CHOOSE your level of experience:
- Confirm what type of internet web browser is being used.
- Confirm if the browser is up-to-date
- To be able to see how many web browsers or tabs are running
- To be able to alt-tab or mouse-click to each of the open windows or tabs
- Save a Favorite or Bookmark
- Understand that the personal Introduction Topic/Thread is the member's Home Base
- How to always use the Go-Advance and Preview selection when Replying to a topic/thread.
- How to make sure their Replies are tagged for Instant Email Notification, and what a Subscribed Topic/Thread is.
- How to use the Preview Option of a Reply to check for typos, grammar, and paragraph breaks to separate key points before Submitting
- Understand that by clicking on a forum link, it opens a new internet window or tab.
- Understand the separate Special User Name & Password needed to retrieve private documents or PDF's
- How to create a sub-drive folder on the c-drive titled Download and/or Data
- How to save a document or pdf to the local computer drive to view it offline
- How to recognize the Instant Email Notifications in the email box.
- How to check the spam or junk folder for important emails, and tag them as not-spam to ensure they are delivered in the Inbox.
- How to add an incoming email as a Contact and how to setup an automatic sort for specific emails to land in designated sub-folders to help keep the Inbox clutter free.
- How to accurately click on the email link to go to the subscribed topic/thread without Unsubscribing to "all" topics/threads.
- How to access Level 3 and 4 topics/threads which contain important documents with specific instructions.
- How to apply to the national agencies in Level 4, following the specific instructions.
- How to apply to the daily individual case openings in Level 4
- How to prepare for anti-piracy cases in advance of the assignment date.