[Chapter-delegates] Membership System

Mon Jan 30 21:21:38 PST 2006

Re attached:

Your defense of the ascii-only implementation in this day and age is out of
this world.

Nobody in his er her clear mind is asking for support of multiple character
sets, which would be equally outdated. The simple solution would be to
support UCS/Unicode as the one universal character set. That would not cause
problems to any reputable system of this century. Other i18n considerations
are also very important, but not necessarily essential. 

We should be looking for direction through the windshield and not at the
rear view mirror.

Sincerely, 

Erkki I. Kolehmainen
Tilkankatu 12 A 3, FI-00300 Helsinki, Finland
Puh. (09) 4368 2643, 0400 825 943; Tel. +358 9 4368 2643, +358 400 825 943  

-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] Puolesta David McAuley
Lähetetty: 31. tammikuuta 2006 0:04
Vastaanottaja: 'Franck Martin'; 'Rosa Delgado'
Kopio: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Aihe: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System

Dear Chapter Delegates:

Having seen the traffic now on the membership system not working, I would
like to remind our group that prior to embarking on the purchase of a
membership system ISOC conducted a number of surveys and outreach among
members and chapter delegates. Out of that process came an RFP that took the
comments into consideration and that was passed among the chapters and
members for comment. It was reviewed by chapters. 

Also importantly, the original goal was a phased implementation of a
membership system that could create a common tool to the benefit of all
members. The initial release was to be the common foundation for a system
and it would, in future, be built upon as the community developed a
consensus as to what was best to come next. That is not unusual when
choosing and offering a system such as this that will be experienced by so
many people from around the world. 

That process appears to be working albeit these latest complaints have
re-surfaced. With the exception of a recent issue in handing off from
Nelson, an issue that is now fixed, most of the complaints are ones that
have been made before. That does not make them invalid. But neither does it
make the system unworkable. The system does work and it is delivering value
to many chapters. It is imperfect - the goal is to improve it in the series
of phased implementation. 

This subject and phase two planning might be a good item for MMM meetings.

Here briefly are some of the recent comments and some thoughts on them:

The system is too complicated! To some the system seems pretty
straightforward but we will look at what screens, if any, can be eliminated.
This is a usability issue and those should be heeded and considered. We will
do a second phase this year; that process will kick off with a request to
chapters to help prioritize items to consider for upgrading. 

Too many clicks to join chapter! I believe we can eliminate a screen or two
here and we will 
endeavor to do so in this next phase. But many of these screens are quite
informative to a member 
who is new to ISOC. Nevertheless I think we can pare this back.

Non-ascii character set! We did of course ask for multi-lingualism when we
went to seek solutions and at the time there were none available. The GO
system, however, while only presenting in English is at least capable of
being adapted to other languages. Much of the system is driven by templates
that at least in theory can be extended for multiple language support.
Neither GO nor any other system has a deployed multi-lingual system but GO
does claim support for it. We could demand it in phase two. If we provided
that in the first release it would have delayed that release even further.
This is not perfect but it is a basis upon which we can do more. 

Chapters'membership data import/database synch ('we need a distributed
database instead of universal forms')! We never intended to release a
distributed database but rather have a centralized database. We wanted a
system like that which would, however, allow chapters to program against the
database as they now can – can set membership levels, levels of payment.
There are security and database consistency issues that need to be fully
explored before expanding the functionality available to Chapters.  

Possibility to integrate membership forms into chapters webpages! I believe
this relates to the last comment. But it is worth noting that at least in
theory we expect the GO system to be able to support Chapters having
membership forms on their web sites. Frankly, it is unclear how this will
work in practice, which is why it was not included in the initial release. 

Cumbersome shopping procedure with $0 value for chapter membership! I can
see how this is seen as cumbersome. The system we chose was chosen as it
best fit the RFP – certainly not a perfect fit but a better fit than others.
It is based on a shopping experience and the way it presents free chapter
membership with a 0 balance is not great. We will explore to see if that
might be changeable in the second phase. 

Membership renewal should be customizable for chapters! Now the chapters can
change money amounts, membership level and can run reports. Please make a
note that as we plan phase two, or conduct MMMs in that respect, we ask for
a more specific statement about this. 

Currency issue - dollars and Euros. This too was specifically in the RFP but
we found that this was not on offer in membership systems when we were
looking. It sounds easy but presents payment issues relating to fees on
sending and on receiving – fees that might diminish the overall payment to
the chapter. Again, time has moved on and this should be looked at again and
we will do that in the next phase.

This is, as Franck said, very important. As we start to plan for Phase two I
think we should explore ways to ascertain the list of items and the priority
they have – maybe an MMM, maybe a series of them or some other way. 

Best regards,
David

David McAuley
Membership Director
Internet Society
703-326-9880, ext 104
703-963-5887 (mobile)
mcauley at isoc.org

-----Original Message-----
From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Franck
Martin
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 6:51 PM
To: Rosa Delgado
Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System

Especially, ISOC has two offices, one in Washington and one in Geneva, 
so they must have one bank account at each location.

Thanks Rosa for taking care to raise the issues of the membership system

at the board.

Cheers

Rosa Delgado wrote:

>What about the membership fees to be paid in US dollars/euros/..
>
>As far, as I remember this was requested by some chapters in INET 2004
>- Barcelona. I suppose it is difficult to do it in every currency due 
>to the conversion charges but at least one should expect to pay 
>membership in dollar/euro (?).
>
>Regards/Rosa
>
>  
>
>

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Franck Martin
franck at sopac.org
"Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question"
G. Bachelard

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