CCAB members can log in to access the GCO extranet:

GCO extranet
The Executive Offices of the General Convention

Extranet Manual

GCO Extranet is an online communication tool for members of the Executive Council and CCABs. As a member, you can communicate with fellow members, get in touch with GCO staff, look up meetings, exchange files, and review meeting minutes.

Contacting support

If you are having problems with GCO Extranet, please check the manual below first. If that does not get you any further, use our support contact form to tell us what is wrong, and we will get back to you quickly (usually in a couple of hours).

Being specific helps us get back to you with a solution more quickly. For example, "I tried to retrieve my password 10 minutes ago and I still did not receive it" is better than "I can't log in". If a problem occurs on a specific page, please copy the URL from your browser's address bar and paste it into your message to Support.

Logging in for the first time

You have access to GCO Extranet if you are a member of the EC or any CCAB. The GCO will notify you by email as soon as your account is ready. The email address that you receive the notification on is also your login email address.

If you know your login email address, you just need a password, which you can get here. We will immediately send your password by email. If you are not receiving anything, see below.

Your browser can be configured to remember logins and passwords from any web site. Once you've done this, you never have to manually type a password again (except for the first time that you visit the site of course). If configuring your browser is not possible (for instance if you work on a corporate or shared computer), you can still change your password into something more memorable, so that you do not have to look it up every time you log in.

If you think you should have an account but you have not received any notification, please contact the GCO.

Logging in

As a member of the EC or any CCAB, you can log in with your email address and password. If you have multiple email addresses and you don't know which one the GCO has on file from you, you can them one by one on the "Get your password" page if there are not too many, or otherwise contact the GCO.

Retrieving a lost password

You can always retrieve a lost password by email.

Not receiving notifications or reminders?

  1. Please check your spam / junk mail folder. This is where the notification has most likely ended up.
  2. Wait for 10 minutes; the notification may simply have been delayed. Mail service providers often delay emails as a trick to verify if the mail transfer relay is a real mail transfer agent, or merely a bulk mailing script (a likely source of spam). This technique is called greylisting.
  3. Still not receiving any notification? Let us know and we will trace it for you. Usually all we can do is provide you with an excerpt from our log files that your mail service provider needs to trace the problem on their end.

If you are having consistent problems with receiving notifications from GCO Extranet, consider subscribing to a GMail account. In our experience, GMail never blocks legitimate email from a properly configured mail server. (This is not an endorsement, it is just our experience.)

Emailed password not working?

  • Use copy and paste rather than typing the password manually.
  • Using AOL? AOL apparently has an issue with displaying plain text emails; it chops off some characters from the beginning of some lines in an email. (We have notified AOL several times but they have not responded so far.) Try toggling between "View as HTML" and "View as plain text" to see if you can get a complete password on your screen.

Changing your password

If you want to change your password, log in, click on "Your Profile", and follow "Change your password". (Or, go there directly .)

A password must be at least 8 characters long and must contain at least 1 character in lower case (a-z), 1 in upper case (A-Z), and 1 decimal digit (0-9). You can also use special characters like exclamation marks, question marks and underscores. The order of the characters does not matter.

Saving your login and password

If you are using your own PC or Mac, you can have your browser remember any username and password. (This is not recommended if you work on a shared computer.) Some browsers do this by default, others do not.

Instructions for remembering passwords, per browser:

The Dashboard

The Dashboard is where you are taken after log-in. It shows you the latest activity across all groups that you are a member of, such as the latest messages and any upcoming meetings.

In the sidebar, you find a list of your group(s). To see what is going on in a particular group, click on its name.

Profile & Settings

Here you can view and update your contact record at GCO. As fellow members and the GCO need this information to contact you, it is important to keep it up to date.

You can also upload your picture ('avatar') here. Avatars are shown alongside messages.

You can also subscribe to or unsubscribe from email notifications. (More about (un)subscribing below)

The Group Overview window

Whereas the Dashboard shows activity across all your groups, the Group Overview window does the same thing for a specific group.

The Members window

Here you find a list of all members in the group. In the sidebar you can see who logged in (or didn't log in) in the past 2 weeks.

The Messages window

Here you find a chronological list of messages posted by you and/or fellow group members (latest message on top). You can post a new message by following the link "New message". When you are done writing, click "Review before posting" to preview it. If you are satisfied, post the message. (Otherwise, click "Go back".) All members will receive an email notification.

The Files window

All group members can upload and download files. When a file is uploaded, members are notified by email. You can delete any file you uploaded yourself. As a Chair, Co-Chair, Vice-Chair or Secretary you can delete any file, except files uploaded by staff.

A file can be assigned zero or more 'tags' (categories) for easier retrieval. To find a file by tag, follow the "Find File" link, select the tag and click "Search".

The Minutes window

Minutes can be created from the first day of a meeting. Minutes are processed in three steps: (1) Save as Draft, (2) Send to GCO for review, (3) Online.

Minutes consist of a heading, a list of attendees/absentees, and one or more issues. An issue contains a subject and a narrative.

When saved as draft, minutes are available to all group members for review. Once approved by the group, they can be transferred to the GCO for review.

The GCO reviews submitted minutes and subsequently either publishes them or returns them to the group (in case of typos or other problems).

The Budgets window

The budget window displays budget, expenditures, and balance. Sometimes it takes a while before expenses are processed, so the actual balance may be different than the amount displayed.

Email notifications

By default, we send you an email notification whenever anyone posts a new message or file in any of your groups. If you prefer to stay up-to-date by logging in regularly, you can turn those notifications off in "Profile & Settings".