[Chapter-delegates] Problems with new membership system - lets remove the dust

[Alessandro Berni]

> Klaus,
> Your message, and the offer of option 2, make sense to me.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Alessandro Berni
> ISOC Italy Chapter
>
> On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 at 20:17, Klaus.Birkenbihl--- via Chapter-delegates <
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear fellow delegates,
>>
>> now that the dust has settled an covers the floor half a meter high a few
>> thoughts on the AMS ...
>>
>> I wonder what the design goals for the new system were wrt support of
>> groups within ISOC like e.g. chapters. Especially for groups that have a
>> lot of volunteers doing the work the system should work for them and not
>> require that they work for the system. In general there might be two main
>> approaches one could take:
>>
>> *Approach 1:*
>>
>> AMS is able to support most of the admin work of a chapter. If the
>> support is at least nearly as good as an eventually existing local chapter
>> admin system, it can substitute it.
>>
>> *Approach 2:*
>>
>> AMS is mainly tailored for ISOC.ORG requirements and AMS offers chapters
>> and groups an interface to feed required membership data into AMS (while
>> respecting their local privacy legislation).
>>
>> To be fair: *approach 1* is hard to implement. Too many different needs
>> around. E.g. a few of features I'm using today: four membership classes,
>> automatic members fee invoicing, payment tracking, automatic fee reminder
>> system, online fee account information for every member, semi-automatic
>> processing of direct debits, automatic processing of New Chapter Membership
>> Applications (sending an information mail about chapter work, chapter
>> charter and fee requirements to the applicant, provide her with a form
>> where she can apply - if she still thinks she should), WEB based archive
>> for meeting notes, selective members mailings, ...,  Other chapters may
>> have other requirements and other features in their admin systems. So a one
>> size fits all would rather not be feasible.
>>
>> I would agree that some chapters, who don't have an admin system in
>> place, might welcome AMS as kind of a "better than nothing" solution. But
>> even for those AMS should respect at least a few usability principles.
>>
>> So what about *approach 2*? Here my very easy and simple solution (KISS
>> design) - which should work at least for those many chapters who have a
>> working local admin system in place. Assertion: every chapter keeps record
>> of their members' ISOC-IDs:
>>
>>    1. the chapter sends a list of all ISOC-IDs of its members to AMS
>>    twice to four times a year.
>>    2. AMS reads the list and tags every ID on the list as "is member of
>>    chapter ...".
>>    3. Every ID that has a "is member of chapter ..." tag but is not on
>>    the list will have the tag removed.
>>    4. AMS and local systems are in sync.
>>
>> Advantages:
>>
>>    - it is dumb simple to implement (takes 15min max for an average DB
>>    system) - well, may be 2hrs with a web upload interface.
>>    - can be automated on both sides (ISOC and chapter) - preventing
>>    errors
>>    - a list of possible errors (e.g. invalid ISOC ID) can easily be
>>    generated and can be treated manually
>>    - only chapters can tell who is their member and this is an easy way
>>    to let ISOC know
>>    - will probably comply with all local privacy regulations - since no
>>    private data is exchanged
>>
>> There might be cases were chapters don't have the ISOC-ID of a member. In
>> this case they are trapped - even today. Since AMS wouldn't allow them to
>> figure out if Alice is a ISOC member and what's her ISOC-ID. If this isn't
>> changed it would require some manual work on side of ISOC anyhow. (Not
>> being an AMS aficionado, I wonder if my assumption wrt to this case is
>> right.)
>>
>> Did I miss something? If so I'd be happy to learn. But let me be clear:
>> as long as things are as they are today I'll stay "hands off AMS". I'm not
>> insane enough to invest hours and hours of manual work over and over again
>> - threatened by poorly designed interfaces and lame response times - to do
>> things that the computer could do easily, better and faster without much
>> implementation effort. If anybody would direct me to do so I would rather
>> quit my job.
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Klaus
>> [who once thought that ISOC was about making people's live better by
>> providing guidance for sensible use of technology]
>>
>>
>> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond schrieb am 12.02.19 um 18:09:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I'd be interested in your comments, as I have realised (from the feedback
>> received on today's Chapter Advisory Council Steering Committee) that the
>> UK Chapter is not the only Chapter with Membership software problems.
>> Throughout the week, I have been grappling with various problems brought
>> forward by the new Internet Society membership system.
>>
>> --
>> Klaus Birkenbihl
>> Treasurer and Board Member
>> Internet Society German Chapter (ISOC.DE) e.V.
>> c/o ict-Media GmbHhttps://www.isoc.de
>>
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>>
> --
> -- Alessandro Berni, <alessandro.berni at gmail.com>
>
-- 
-- Alessandro Berni, <alessandro.berni at gmail.com>
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