If you are a bona fide MCDOA member, you can apply to be a user of the Members Only Section by filling out and submitting this form. Only registered users are allowed into the Members Only Section. Choose a username for yourself (such as your last name) and make sure this username contains no spaces. Also create a private password. After verification by the Webmaster, these will be your "key" into the Members Only Section from now on. This information will be kept in a registration database that is accessible only to the webmaster, not to ordinary users.
One of the main benefits of having a protected web like the Members Only Section is that authorized users don't have to keep typing their names into form fields, such as when submitting an article to a discussion group, because the web server already knows who they are. Similarly, other users can be reasonably sure that you really sent the articles and postings attributed to you, and that someone else didn't pretend to be you when posting.
When you are successfully registered, your web browser will ask you to type in your username and password the first time you try to access the Members Only Section. The browser will remember this information for as long as it continues to run, so you can access any document in the Members Only Section without being asked for it again.