By David W. Burns
July 14, 2008

Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran officially launched the new usmayors.org web site; the organization’s official home page to an audience of mayors gathering at the 76th Annual Meeting on June 20.

"Twelve years ago, we launched our home page into cyberspace and over the past 11 months, we have revised it and reworked it," said Cochran.

This re-launch of the usmayors.org web site brings a host of new features and easier access to much of the older content. Over 20,000 pages exist on the web site and now, most of it is accessible within a few clicks, thanks to our revamped navigation. Plus, finding information has never been easier now that usmayors.org features Google Search on every page.

Still on our web site is a complete archive of Best Practices and adopted resolutions from the last 12 years. The web site will continue to host back issues of U.S.MAYOR newspaper as well, plus, complete meeting highlights and videos from the past 12 years.

One of the important aspects of the new web site is sharing. Visitors are invited to share news articles, videos and more with a button on every page that will allow people to share important information with friends over email or on social networks like Facebook or MySpace.

The Conference of Mayors has also started integrating usmayors.org with YouTube, the social video web site. This allows for meeting highlights and other videos to be shared around the web with ease and also allows the Conference to reach a new audience who may not have seen the website before. Currently, there are clips from the 76th Annual Meeting along with defining moments from the 75th anniversary. YouTube will continue to be a focus of the new usmayors.org.

The premiere new feature is the "MayorsBlog with Tom Cochran," the CEO and Executive Director’s blog. Cochran will be writing blog entries from time to time, adding his fresh perspective to the activities of the Conference of Mayors and national politics.

The first version of usmayors.org launched with much fanfare at the 64th Annual Meeting in Cleveland in 1996. A few minor revisions were made over the years, but it had been largely unchanged since then. The focus this time was to make it more efficient and easier to use for the biggest audience — the nation’s mayors.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your new usmayors.org web site," concluded Cochran.

The new web site is available online now at usmayors.org.