It is good to have the ICT Corner back in digital SLEN after a lapse of one year. The intention is to publish (any format: text, audio, video) primarily topics on real life applications of ICT to "enable" ourselves, our professions, our organizations, our society, etc. Please send your stories of ICT-fication to : sleniesl@gmail.com
This article will focus on making the best use of IESL Membership Management System. Let us explore what do we need to do as individual members and what the newly elected Council should do.
IESL ICT Interventions:
In his first video address to us through digital SLEN, President 2014/2015 - Eng. S B Wijekoon - states that one of his top three goals is to increase the use ICT as an enabler to bring further productivity to the Secretariat increasing customer service, to give transparency to the affairs of IESL, to seek input directly from individual members, etc. He goes on to state how useful ICT has been as an agent of much needed transformations at IESL since we embarked on a major ICT-fication effort during 2012/2013 session. That was under the activist leadership of Past President Eng. Tilak De Silva. Similar sentiments were expressed on numerous occasions / mediums during 2013/2014 session by the Immediate Past President, Eng. Shavindranath Fernando. In fact, ICT has become so integral to IESL operations ( like finance and procurement), during the first Council Meeting of the 2014/2015, IESL President mandated that the ICT Committee Chair to be a Council Member from this year onwards (a recommendation the writer made to the Immediate Past President and The a Council a year ago)
IESL Membership Management System:
While many ICT tools have been introduced and are being used at IESL, the cornerstone is our Membership Management System. A cloud based, software as a service ( SaaS ) application called Wild Apricot. By now, if not all of us, many of us are making use of its features to our benefit. Through past digital SLENs, we have given details of its features and how to use them. An active member (current with membership dues as per by-laws) can register to access the system by having a valid email address in the system. If you forget the password, reset at the login screen as you access MyIESL portal from http://www.iesl.lk. Once you login, use Member Self Services to update your digital profile. Most of the fields can be updated by a member. While there you can see whether you have any pending payments and use the online payment feature to pay using credit/debit card. Being registered with system is great to get updates to your email inbox, such as membership dues, event announcements / reminders, digital SLEN to your inbox, etc. If you have any issues, contact Membership Department by emailing nimesha@iesl.lk
Complete Your Digital Profile:
It is important for the members to remind themselves that in order for the benefits to come, our individual digital profiles in the system must be up to date with some critical data. Let me give few examples in play since go live:
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Have you been receiving emails that are not relevant to your field of engineering or the charter discipline? I have. Why is this? Because, out of 12,400 members only 3,200 have their profile field called "Charter Discipline" populated. This prevents IESL secretariat's ability to send target communiques, so IESL has no choice but to send to all. If this field is not populated, it prevents your record being automatically included in critical professional directories, etc.
NOTE: This field currently can be updated only by the authorized Membership Department personnel - send email to nimesha@iesl.lk with your Memberhip ID and Sri Lanka National ID / Pass Port numbers. By the way, don't forget to update / check fields related to those ID numbers.
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Provincial Chapter Chair / Secretary wants to advise the Secretariat to send a targeted communique to relevant members but cannot because large number of us have not updated the field "Affiliated IESL Provincial / Overseas Chapter". Along the same lines, a gathering to be organized and informed to engineers who live in a specific City can only be done by having fully complete Postal addresses of those members. |
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You are searching for an engineer by the last name Perera and find so many of them in our digital directories but you don't know all the initials and the first name is not to be seen. Why we should update the field "First Name / Initials" to show the way you are known. Even better, if you update the "Profile Picture" field with a recent photograph of yours. |
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You are a Council Member and we can go to the system Directories section to find out your name etc. However, we want to recognize you when we meet you by seen your photograph in the Council Directory. For that you have to update your profile Photo. As members we should be able to write to you directly and to do that your profile field "Email" must be updated with your current one ( system allows a registered member to login and go to another member's profile and send email ). In fact, without a valid email, one cannot use the system. If you forget the password, it can can be reset at the login if you have an up to date email address in your profile. |
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IESL is increasingly relying on digital means ( emails) to communicate but at times uses postal service as well, occasionally for legal reasons. For letters to reach you, where ever you are, it is your responsibility to update all "postal address" related fields. This also helps IESL to gather data on member concentration by location to plan future initiatives in regions outside Colombo ( example where to setup regional centers). |
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IESL by-laws grant discounted membership fees based on age and/or tenure with IESL. It's an automated process driven by system settings. Two key fields used in this process are "Member Since" and "Birth Date". Login and make sure the dates are correct.
NOTE: "Member Since" field can be updated only by the authorized Membership Department personnel - any issues, send email to nimesha@iesl.lk with your Memberhip ID and Sri Lanka National ID / Your Pass Port number.
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As a member, you have the right to communicate directly with the President and the Council. You can do this via email by going to the Council Directory and going to a specific members profile. However, if you want to communicate to all of the elected members and want other members' voices to be heard, go to our Forums and specifically to the forum "Meet IESL President and the Council". Forum access is exclusive to registered members. |
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While inside a Forum or a Topic within a Forum, you can subscribe to get auto updates to your email inbox; a great feature to keep you informed.
Go to various Forums: News, Events, Announcements, web pages of Sectional Committees, Chapters, and Standing Committees to subscribe for updates. Also go to Job Postings forum on MyIESL menu and subscribe to get updates on available opportunities and advertise yourself. Above activities can be done only if you are registered with the system.
NOTE: many of auto updates are RSS feeds. For example follow @iesl_mesc from your Twitter account to get Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee (MESC) news, events, and forum updates straight to Twitter App on your smart phone or tablet! We have used RSS feeds from the system to be broadcasted via micro blogging tool - Twitter. Don't miss a beat!
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Understand the history of IESL as it evolves and know the By- Laws, Governance Structure, and your rights as a member. Click About IESL from IESL web home page. |
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Last but not least, request your President and Council Members to give timely updates on Council decisions and other important activities in professional and public sphere through the forum: Meet IESL President and the Council. Make the same request to the Chairs of Sectional Committees, Standing Committees, and Chapters: each of them have dedicated pages in which their Committee Directory, News, Events, and Discussion Forum are maintained. By keeping you up to date, you can support those committees. Don't complain, participate! |
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