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What's in a name?

MFRC.ca has evolved to become Familyforce.ca

A new website especially for Canadian Forces (CF) families has been in the works at Director Military Family Services (DMFS) for some time. Over the course of 2 years, we’ve held discussions both formal and informal, consulted with a dynamic Marketing Advisory Committee of field staff, and slowly developed a concrete vision for what name would draw families to this new website and what they should find when they get there. 

On the recommendation of the Marketing Advisory Committee, DMFS originally planned to name the new family website mfrc.ca. This domain name had a lot going for it: the vision for the website was to connect families with their local Military Family Resource Centres (MFRCs) in Canada, and mfrc.ca provided a logical, intuitive way to do that.

Since those initial discussions took place in 2007, the world of military family services has changed. The operational tempo of the CF has increased, DMFS’ projects and programs have continued to evolve, and the options for family support have broadened. DMFS has shifted from focusing squarely on enhancing the Military Family Services Program at Canadian/MFRCs to considering all things family.

At the Chief Military Personnel (CMP)’s direction, DMFS began taking the new family website from vision to reality in 2009. CMP requested a common look and feel for all C/MFRC websites, with a single point of entry connecting families to whichever location they chose. As we lay the groundwork for this newly evolved project, DMFS realized that mfrc.ca may no longer be the perfect name for this expanded project.

We began to revaluate our choice of domain name against the new realities of our organization, and the broadened population of families the website will be serving. The new family website will be a single point of entry for all centres around the world, yet none of the out-of-country centres are called MFRCs. Some are not even called C/MFRCs, but rather “Canadian Military Family Outreach Services”. Would it be fair to choose a domain name that excluded these groups?

We also wondered about the recognisability of the term “MFRC” to all CF families, even those in Canada. When people are searching online, they tend to know who they are and what services they need, but not where to get them – they’re searching for answers by describing themselves and their query. We didn’t want to keep families from finding the website because they simply hadn’t heard of MFRCs.

DMFS also felt the need to acknowledge that military family services are now available from a broad selection of service providers, including national DMFS programs and other CF and civilian organizations. By calling the website mfrc.ca, we would be failing to recognize that not all military family services are MFRC-centric. Didn’t it make more sense to name the website after the people we serve, the families, rather than the main service providers?

With these questions ringing in our ears, DMFS went back to the drawing board to consider other domain names for the website. We chose familyforce.ca because it’s family-focused, yet remains true to the unique nature of the military lifestyle. It also connects families to the CF’s communications, as the military has chosen the term “forces” to unite its websites and email addresses. The name even fits in nicely with the Military Families: Strength Behind the Uniform campaign, especially the French slogan of La Famille: La Force Conjointe.

Though we have decided not to call the website mfrc.ca, DMFS continues to recognize this domain name’s usefulness as an identifier for MFRCs and their services. We recognize that mfrc.ca has appeared on our publications and promotional materials in anticipation of the new family website’s launch. Therefore, when the new website launches 1 September 2009, all mfrc.ca visitors will be redirected automatically to familyforce.ca. This domain forwarding will remain in place for several years.

DMFS is pleased with the new direction this project has taken, and looks forward to sharing our work with you in the fall.