[Chapter-delegates] Membership management Wordpress plugins?

[Evan Leibovitch]

It's not our preference to have redundant systems. But since the AMS can't
handle things we need such as online payments, multiple membership
categories and corporate members at the chapter level, we don't have much
of a choice. Some of the options being considered (ie, CiviCRM, thanks
Cesar!) also include volunteer skills management and
fundraising/sponsorship/grant tools.

Christian wrote:

*How do you propose to handle data protection issues around
> individuals signing up directly at the AMS and your membership service? Or
> is Canadian law not fussed?*


We intend to have a membership management system that will be compliant
with local laws and a privacy policy is under development. Beyond that I'm
not sure I understand your question.

Then Joly wrote:

*And, how do you anticipate reconciling with the Chapter portal?*


The link will be the ISOC membership number, the possession of which of
course is a mandatory element of Chapter membership. ISOC members'
requesting membership in the Canada chapter will be brought into our site
to complete the process. Yes, it will require periodic manual
synchronization that might be automated, if there is a better path I'm
certainly open to it.

It's unfortunate that the AMS comes close to what we need but misses a
number of critical components. There is a Sitefinity plugin for ecommerce,
but adding it -- and making it adaptable to international chapter needs as
indicated above -- would be non-trivial.

In my perfect world, there could be a global provider of hosting and
payment services (I'm thinking Amazon Web Services or something similar)
that could provide ISOC Global membership (both individual and
institutional) services while also offering to Chapters a couple of
templates for their own internal use. The templates could be offered to
allow for  different revenue models, to accommodate chapters that wish to
levy their own dues and those which don't. However, common facilities such
as fundraising and event-ticket management could be provided to all.

Heck, while I'm dreaming, such a service could be extended to give each
chapter its own private hosting area. Right now such hosting is an
out-of-pocket expense for us.

Should such a project be undertaken I would be happy to participate in its
development -- I dare suggest that Amazon would be a willing partner and
might even be persuaded to provide AWS at a discounted or free rate. This
could be a phenomenal tool for building and growing chapters.

-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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