<div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div dir="auto">Klaus,</div></div><div dir="auto">Your message, and the offer of option 2, make sense to me.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Best regards,</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Alessandro Berni</div><div dir="auto">ISOC Italy Chapter</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 at 20:17, Klaus.Birkenbihl--- via Chapter-delegates <<a href="mailto:chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org" target="_blank">chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Dear fellow delegates,<br>
</p>
<p>now that the dust has settled an covers the floor half a meter
high a few thoughts on the AMS ...</p>
<p>I wonder what the design goals for the new system were wrt
support of groups within ISOC like e.g. chapters. Especially for
groups that have a lot of volunteers doing the work the system
should work for them and not require that they work for the
system. In general there might be two main approaches one could
take:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Approach 1:</b><br>
</p>
<p>AMS is able to support most of the admin work of a chapter. If
the support is at least nearly as good as an eventually existing
local chapter admin system, it can substitute it.</p>
<p><b>Approach 2:</b></p>
<p>AMS is mainly tailored for <a href="http://ISOC.ORG" target="_blank">ISOC.ORG</a> requirements and AMS offers
chapters and groups an interface to feed required membership
data into AMS (while respecting their local privacy
legislation).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be fair: <b>approach 1</b> is hard to implement. Too many
different needs around. E.g. a few of features I'm using today:
four membership classes, automatic members fee invoicing, payment
tracking, automatic fee reminder system, online fee account
information for every member, semi-automatic processing of direct
debits, automatic processing of New Chapter Membership
Applications (sending an information mail about chapter work,
chapter charter and fee requirements to the applicant, provide her
with a form where she can apply - if she still thinks she should),
WEB based archive for meeting notes, selective members mailings,
..., Other chapters may have other requirements and other
features in their admin systems. So a one size fits all would
rather not be feasible. <br>
</p>
<p>I would agree that some chapters, who don't have an admin system
in place, might welcome AMS as kind of a "better than nothing"
solution. But even for those AMS should respect at least a few
usability principles.</p>
<p>So what about <b>approach 2</b>? Here my very easy and simple
solution (KISS design) - which should work at least for those many
chapters who have a working local admin system in place.
Assertion: every chapter keeps record of their members' ISOC-IDs:
<br>
</p>
<ol>
<li>the chapter sends a list of all ISOC-IDs of its members to AMS
twice to four times a year. <br>
</li>
<li>AMS reads the list and tags every ID on the list as "is member
of chapter ...". <br>
</li>
<li>Every ID that has a "is member of chapter ..." tag but is not
on the list will have the tag removed.</li>
<li>AMS and local systems are in sync.<br>
</li>
</ol>
Advantages:
<ul>
<li>it is dumb simple to implement (takes 15min max for an average
DB system) - well, may be 2hrs with a web upload interface.<br>
</li>
<li>can be automated on both sides (ISOC and chapter) - preventing
errors</li>
<li>a list of possible errors (e.g. invalid ISOC ID) can easily be
generated and can be treated manually <br>
</li>
<li>only chapters can tell who is their member and this is an easy
way to let ISOC know</li>
<li>will probably comply with all local privacy regulations -
since no private data is exchanged<br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There might be cases were chapters don't have the ISOC-ID of a
member. In this case they are trapped - even today. Since AMS
wouldn't allow them to figure out if Alice is a ISOC member and
what's her ISOC-ID. If this isn't changed it would require some
manual work on side of ISOC anyhow. (Not being an AMS aficionado,
I wonder if my assumption wrt to this case is right.)<br>
</p>
<p>Did I miss something? If so I'd be happy to learn. But let me be
clear: as long as things are as they are today I'll stay "hands
off AMS". I'm not insane enough to invest hours and hours of
manual work over and over again - threatened by poorly designed
interfaces and lame response times - to do things that the
computer could do easily, better and faster without much
implementation effort. If anybody would direct me to do so I would
rather quit my job. <br>
</p>
<p>Best regards</p>
<p>Klaus<br>
[who once thought that ISOC was about making people's live better
by providing guidance for sensible use of technology]<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="m_-5801687271750914926m_-4927942852897974806moz-cite-prefix">Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond schrieb am
12.02.19 um 18:09:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
Hello all,<br>
<br>
I'd be interested in your comments, as I have realised (from the
feedback received on today's Chapter Advisory Council Steering
Committee) that the UK Chapter is not the only Chapter with
Membership software problems. Throughout the week, I have been
grappling with various problems brought forward by the new
Internet Society membership system. </blockquote>
<pre class="m_-5801687271750914926m_-4927942852897974806moz-signature" cols="0">--
Klaus Birkenbihl
Treasurer and Board Member
Internet Society German Chapter (<a href="http://ISOC.DE" target="_blank">ISOC.DE</a>) e.V.
c/o ict-Media GmbH
<a class="m_-5801687271750914926m_-4927942852897974806moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.isoc.de" target="_blank">https://www.isoc.de</a></pre>
</div>
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</blockquote></div></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="m_-5801687271750914926gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">-- Alessandro Berni, <<a href="mailto:alessandro.berni@gmail.com" target="_blank">alessandro.berni@gmail.com</a>></div>
</blockquote></div></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">-- Alessandro Berni, <<a href="mailto:alessandro.berni@gmail.com" target="_blank">alessandro.berni@gmail.com</a>></div>