[Chapter-delegates] Membership System

[Gene Gaines]

Thank you, Rosa.

And of course thanks to Nelson, Jim and David.

My thought. At this point, attempting to "fix" the present
system will be a serious mistake. It is a mess. What is
important is to gain the trust/confidence of the chapters with a
simple application that will permit members to join, maintain
their information, permit chapters to access that information
and download it easily for their own purposes.

With that running, then take the time to rethink system
objectives and implement what serves both ISOC Hq and chapters.
This is not complicated. I do not see it as expensive.

Gene
gene.gaines at gainesgroup.com

On Friday, February 3, 2006, 1:42:56 AM, Rosa wrote:

> Genes,

> I will summary the main points discussed in this list and suggest that
> ISOC and chapters should work together in the remaining issues

>>Emails in the past week show the frustration of chapter
>>officers with the membership system. That is very harmful 
>>to ISOC as a membership organization. To say that this needs 
>>to be addressed at a Board meeting seems a bit silly to me.

> Lest do it anyway and see if some of the pending issues could be solved
> asap .. I think we want to channel chapters complaints.

> We have to recognize the extensive dedication of Nelson, Jim and David
> to work with chapters in this area that sometimes is diffiult   

> Regards/Rosa

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
> [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Gene
> Gaines
> Sent: Tuesday, 31 January 2006 12:06
> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System


> On Tuesday, January 31, 2006, 4:12:06 AM, Vansnick wrote:

>> Dear Rosa,

>> Perhaps it would be good to ask the previous list of chapters who
>> participated in the testing phase. We made alrready different remarks,

>> comments and suggestions. I'm willing to elaborate, as I did with 
>> Nelson before, some extentions which could be used at chapters level. 
>> Just let me know.

>> Best regards,

>> Rudi Vansnick

> Rudi, all,

> I was one of the chapter people who volunteered to participate in
> testing the new membership system.

> I'm afraid that I spent some time with the system and judged the program
> to be fatally flawed. I then was embarrassed to see that the company
> developing the system already was advertising ISOC as a satisfied
> customer, before the system was accepted by ISOC. That is not the kind
> of company I wish to deal with, and I withdrew from participating in the
> testing.

> This is a simple application, as we say in America, not rocket science.
> The kind of application that students can write for beer money.

> The failures of the new system are harming ISOC and harming its chapters
> and membership.  (I could add that I believe the ISOC Board to be
> largely blind to such issues, but that would be
> unkind.)

> I do not see why a basic system could not have specs circulated 2 weeks,
> agreed to in 4 weeks, then written, tested, and placed in beta operation
> within 3 months. I would not care it the work was done in Iceland,
> Norway, Moldavia, France, India, Japan, or SOPAC, etc., for example,
> perhaps even the U.S. or England if they could be shaken away from their
> language blind spot.

> Emails in the past week show the frustration of chapter officers with
> the membership system. That is very harmful to ISOC as a membership
> organization. To say that this needs to be addressed at a Board meeting
> seems a bit silly to me.

> Just fix the problem.

> Gene Gaines
> gene.gaines at gainesgroup.com
> Sterling, Virginia, USA




>> |-----Original Message-----
>> |From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
>> |[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf
>> |Of Rosa Delgado 
>> |Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 9:15 AM
>> |To: 'W. Majewski'
>> |Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org; 'Luc Faubert'; 'Vint Cerf'
>> |Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System
>> |
>> |
>> |Thanks for your input.
>> |
>> |We have already a good issues list to transmit to the board. One
>> |thing is sure we cannot continue complaining about the same points 
>> |for ever so, I wonder if to form a WG (ISOC, chapters) to discuss 
>> |each of the points at once will be effective. This WG could perhaps 
>> |seek to these and other issues.
>> |
>> |Regards/Rosa
>> |
>> |-----Original Message-----
>> |From: W. Majewski [mailto:wladek at isoc.org.pl]
>> |Sent: Sunday, 29 January 2006 23:02
>> |To: Rosa Delgado
>> |Cc: 'Franck Martin'; 'Luc Faubert';
>> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org;
>> |'Vint Cerf'
>> |Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System
>> |
>> |
>> |Rosa,
>> |
|>>> I think Wladek had this sort of list in the past, if so can
>> |we have an
|>>> updated list we will try to coordinate the problem at once
>> |
>> |Let me start with "Carthago delenda ext!"
>> |
>> |Current membership system is broken beyond repair options. No basic
>> |functionality works up to reasonable expectations. It would be 
>> |cheaper and faster to specify and implement a new one.
>> |
>> |Specific problems:
>> |
>> |(showstopper) Non-ASCII scripts (including right-to-left ones) 
>> |inputable
>> |
>> |into ALL fields. This is a fundamental reason for necessity to dump
>> |current system.
>> |
>> |**** chapter's membership data import / database synchronisation.
>> |Chapters have own membership systems, usually much better than ISOC's

>> |one. We need a distributed database instead of universal forms.
>> |
>> |**** Possibility to integrate membership forms into chapter's webpage
>> |
>> |**** Get rid of cumbersome "shopping procedure" with $0 value for
>> |"chapter membership".
>> |
>> |**** Membership reneval policy should be customizable for chapters
>> |
>> |
>> |Rgds
>> |
>> |Wladek
>> |
>> |
>> |_______________________________________________
>> |Chapter-delegates mailing list Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org 
>> |http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>> |



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