[Chapter-delegates] Membership System

[Rosa Delgado]

The problem with our current membership system is that continues to
support a single language, a single currency and others problems which
do not reflect the international image of ISOC.

Regards/Rosa

-----Original Message-----
From: Erkki I. Kolehmainen [mailto:eik at iki.fi] 
Sent: Tuesday, 31 January 2006 06:22
To: 'David McAuley'; 'Franck Martin'; 'Rosa Delgado'
Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Subject: VS: [Chapter-delegates] Membership System


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character sets, which would be equally outdated.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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