[Chapter-delegates] Welcome Peter! and thanks....

[Alan Levin]

Hi all,

I noticed this in the member newsletter,

Begin forwarded message:

> Peter Godwin appointed as ISOC's IT Director

and I see the presentation Peter gave to the board earlier in the month:
http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/docs/Feb2006/ISOC-IT- 
BoT-20060210.pdf

It mentions "Planned activities" including:
- Survey of future system requirements (chapters, AC, org members,  
staff)
- Evaluation of open source membership system update
- Open source membership system prototype
+ 15 others....

Fabulous news. :)
I hope the board agreed to all these and priorities. I look forward  
to seeing the minutes.

Peter, A very warm Welcome! I realise that you have big shoes to fill  
and wanted to say that ISOC-ZA remains committed to help ISOC HQ out  
in any way we can.

Unfortunately I have to report that based on the previous discussions  
around the current membership system we have had to make drastic  
interim decisions.

On 25 Jan 2006, at 4:58 PM, I wrote:

> Lastly and most importantly, please could you advise when will this
> problem be fixed? (if need be we can put up our own membership
> application form in the interim, so please send us a date asap).
>

The problem I was referring to in that email is the fact that we were  
not receiving new membership applications. David has reported that  
"the critical errors have been fixed" and others "queued for later".   
We are still not receiving new member applications and as an outcome,  
ISOC-ZA had to decide to stop referring new members to the global  
membership form (from our web site http://isoc.org.za/ 
membership.html) in favour of our own application form.

I hope that it is acceptable if we regularly send authorized member  
lists to ISOC, and that they will be included as global members.

Looking towards the future I thank Wladek for taking the time to  
document much of the history as well as this list:

On 08 Feb 2006, at 1:03 AM, W. Majewski wrote:
List of basic shortcomings is much longer that you mention:
- no database interface for local repositories and front-ends
- no record of individual activity and membership history
- no support for local events and meetings
- no support for chapter's membership fees collected locally
- no support for local special interest groups and their projects
- no support for local newsletters
- no single-sign-on functionality for local or global content and  
services
- no support for local org members
- no triggers to remind members about renowal of their membership
... and much more.

I noticed that mailing list integration hasn't been discussed and I  
wanted to mention that for ISOC-ZA this is paramount (i.e. ISOC-ZA  
prefer to have a fully functional mailing list integration rather  
than "support for local newsletters", i.e. in addition to our  
announce list, we have numerous sub-committees as well as discussion  
lists).

warm regards to you all,

Alan




---------------------------------------------
Alan Levin
Tel: +27 21 409-7997