The Marine Corps Association & Foundation’s (MCA&F) family of websites include the MCA&F main website (www.mca-marines.org), the MCA&F’s online store for gifts and uniforms (www.marineshop.net), Leatherneck Magazine (www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck) and the Marine Corps Gazette (www.mca-marines.org/gazette).
Because we have various web properties, and software to support them, we certainly understand that many of our members/visitors are going to have questions. We will try and answer to bulk of your questions in this document, and within our FAQs.
For this particular help page, we are going to concentrate on two important points: 1. Our log-ins; and 2. Our searches.
If you have any problems related to MCA&F website navigation, contact us using our Contact Form, or by calling Member Services at: 1-866-622-1775.
1. Our Various Logins:
We are working with several different systems and would like to sync them all in order to supply universal account usernames and passwords, but there are some security risks with that. However, if you want all of your log-ins to be uniform, after initial set-up, you can make them identical so the same username and password operates on each site. (Note, however, that your must use your email address for the username on our ecommerce system.)
There are three instances in which you will have an account, with a username and password for logging in:
a. MCA&F Membership
b. MCA&F Website Registered User
c. E-commerce Store
1.a MCA&F Membership:
When you join the Marine Corps Association & Foundation, you are automatically assigned an MCA&F Member username and password. This will come to you via email once you have joined.
(Note: you can change your MCA&F member information, including member password, at ANY time by visiting: http://mca.networkats.com/members_online/members/login.asp.)
Your MCA&F username and password are what we will ask for when verifying your membership with MCA&F to allow you access to your online member benefits (i.e. digital magazines and magazine archives) as well as your online membership record. Any time you encounter the MCA Member log-in page on our MCA&F websites, the MCA&F member log-in page will always look/act the same.
If you have any problems related to your MCA&F Member log-in, contact us using our Contact Form, or by calling Member Services at: 1-866-622-1775.
1.b MCA&F Site User:
In order to participate in the MCA&F website Community features – comments, forums, private messaging, etc. – you must register with our MCA&F websites. Registration is simple and easy!
(Note: after you register with our sites, you can change your MCA&F Website Registered User information, including password, at ANY time by visiting: http://mca-marines.org/user.)
Example confirmation email after Registering with the MCA&F sites:
If you have any problems related to your MCA&F Website Registered User log-in, contact us using our Contact Form, or by calling Member Services at: 1-866-622-1775.
1.c Ecommerce Customer:
Our online store – www.marineshop.net – has everything from Marine-focused gifts to high quality uniforms, and we welcome everyone to shop in our online store, whether you are a member or not!
Non-member E-commerce registration is easy, simply create a new account at https://www.marineshop.net/account.htm.
Example online store sign-up:
Existing MCA&F members can sign-up with our ecommerce system from the same page, by clicking the top button and entering your E-commerce log-in information. When you join MCA&F, your MCA&F Member information is automatically uploaded into the E-commerce system, which has been the case since our launch in March of 2009. Please allow 2 business days from joining MCA&F to receive an email from cpoorders(at)mca-marines.org with your e-commerce log-in information. If you have been an MCA&F Member for more than 2 business days and have not received your E-commerce log-in information, or if you have forgotten your E-commerce log-in information, click on the “Forgotten your password” link to have your E-commerce log-in information resent to you via email.
NOTE: If you are a Member of the MCA&F, it is important that you are able to sign into our ecommerce system as a ‘member’ so that you can take advantage of our Member Value Pricing (up to 10% on many items). We also have many special discounts and promotions, so be sure to sign up for our Marine Shop email list during the registration process!
If you have any problems related to your E-commerce log-in, contact us using our Contact Form, or by calling MCA&F Retail Customer Care at: 1-888-237-7683.
2. Our Searches
You can find our search field at the top of the right-hand navigation on EVERY site (and it works the same way on each site, as well):You can find our search field at the top of the right-hand navigation on EVERY site (and it works the same way on each site, as well):
2.a Search the Site:
This is the default search parameter. By typing into the search field with ‘Search the Site’ selected, you will be searching for content housed directly within the Marine Corps Association & Foundation’s website content management system. Results will display from the MCA&F, Leatherneck and Marine Corps Gazette websites (please note that if you are looking specifically for Leatherneck and/or Marine Corps Gazette digital magazine articles you will need to use either the Digital Magazines Search or the Archives Search option).
Example ‘Search the Site’ results for the term ‘Iwo Jima’ (the site where you begin your search is inconsequential … the results will appear in the MCA&F wrap):
Above, the search results display in the body of a new page. You will see the title of the content that contains the keyword or phrase in your search. The system also lists additional information under each result: the content type (video, blog, article, photo), source, the date it was posted, the number of user comments and how many ‘groups’ (Leatherneck or Gazette) it belongs to.
You can narrow your search by using the filter on the right-hand side by Author, or ‘Type’ of content (video, blog, article, etc.).
NOTE: You can change from ‘Search the Site’ to any other parameter by simply clicking on ‘Digital Magazines’ or ‘Archives’.
2.b Digital Magazine Search:
By typing into the search field with ‘Digital Magazines’ selected, you will be searching both Leatherneck and Gazette digital magazine editions, which go back to 2006, and are housed for MCA&F by Texterity.
Example ‘Digital Magazine’ Search Results for the term ‘Iwo Jima’:
Remember, these digital editions of our magazines are stored for MCA&F on a 3rd party website, so they will appear different as you will leave the MCA&F sites to view them.
The search results page you see here is also built and housed by Texterity, but we pull the information into our system for easier viewing for our site visitors and MCA&F Members. There are several filters here, which may help you focus the results.
Our digital editions are provided online primarily to our MCA&F Members. However, non-members can purchase one-time digital copies of individual monthly magazines. So, when a non-member clicks on any of those articles, you will be prompted to purchase that specific edition. Or you can Join the MCA&F, or log-in using your MCA&F Member Log-in to get your FREE access as a benefit of MCA&F Membership (see more information about MCA&F Member log-ins in Section 1 of this document).
2.c Archive Search
By typing into the search field with ‘Archives’ selected, you will be searching both Leatherneck and Gazette magazine archives, which range from 1916-2006, and are housed for MCA&F by Proquest.
Example ‘Archives’ Search Results for the term ‘Iwo Jima’:
Remember, our magazine archives are stored for MCA&F on a 3rd party website, so the information appears differently then items on the MCA&F website as you can see in the sample above.
MCA&F Members receive up to 30 FREE accesses to the Leatherneck and Marine Corps Gazette digital magazine archives each month as a benefit of MCA&F Membership. Non-members can purchase access to the archives, at various pricing/access options. Please visit Proquest Pricing for more information.