BIG QUESTION: Are we using the system to its full potential?
Dear Colleagues,
It has been 20 months since we launched the "system" ( Wild Apricot) in July of 2013. The key word is "system" because although we interact with its web interface, underneath is one of the top "membership management systems" in the world for small to midsize organizations where the main business process is membership management. It's not an ERP system ( enterprise resource planning) as some of us refer to it still. ERP systems are "not" membership management systems.
Our system does exactly what a membership driven organization wants to do:
Records members with very useful data about them and allows controlled access to update their profiles. It archives non active members automatically and allows rule based membership levels, fees, etc.
Manages subscription process, online or manual. It has an Accounts Receivable module to ensure active membership with a dash board giving real time updates to the Membership Department. Government of Sri Lanka exchange rules do not allow any leading online payment service such as Pay Pal to be used for remitting money to a Sri Lankan Bank Account. Therefore, until we get the ability to integrate a service like Pay Pal with Wild Apricot, we have created an interface to Sampath Bank online payment gateway where you could use credit/debit cards from any bank. The process is not as smooth as using Pay Pal but gets the job done.
Manages membership application process with work flow. However, we are not using this feature fully due to our non standardized and still ambiguous application processes which we all have experienced at times
Access is "secure" at user end. Other robust arrangements at the service provider end with backups / mirroring of databases to create world class disaster recoveries, etc. at a fraction of a cost to us with no admin efforts.
Manages and communicates all sorts of information through website and email with integration to Social Networking tools like Twitter, FaceBook with controls on what we release. This feature is already utilized through IESL Face Book Page to which you can become a "fan" with your FaceBook account and "follow" IESL Twitter accounts (@iesllanka and @iesl_mesc) if you have a Twitter account from www.Twitter.com
Manages events including registration, payments, meal planning and email alerts
Manages fund raising if we want to ( we have really not utilized this)
Promotes a collaborative environment with secure "Discussion Forums and Blogs" where members could discuss wide variety of topics
Maintains directories of members, certified professionals, etc. allowing publicity ( controlled access to public) to the world.
Allows rapid communication between members, The Secretariat and The Council through members' profiles without even divulging personal information
Promotes various Chapters and Committees with dedicated web pages, directories, news, events and forums
Has a "mobile app" that can be used on ones smartphone or tablet. To further enhance mobility, Wild Apricot has now released an Application Protocol Interface ( API) for third party developers to create new mobile applications. IESL ICT Committee has requested funds to develop it and members should clamor for it in Forums and through direct communication to Council Members.
Digital News Letter - digital SLEN that gets delivered to members email boxes
Releases "widgets" that can be embedded by administrators with little technical skills to create useful features on the web. A recent good one is the "search widget" that ICT Committee plans to implement, allowing members to find things easily on the website.
Very importantly it has excellent online training and user manuals that are of world class and so easy to understand already in place online and updated as changes occur so we as users don't miss anything:
Currently IESL pays an annual fee to use the 15,000 unique / active records plan at US$ 2,160
/ year. That's about Rs 19 per member / per year for the above services and much more. This cloud based, pay as you use system has gone from version 3.x during implementation to 5.x now, without any of us going through major system outages of significance. In software industry, first digit - 3 to 4 to 5 - version changes are big improvements, whether they are related to improved features or bug fixes to improve robustness. Imagine doing all of the above through an army of internal or external IT staff, hardware, security, etc. In fact, the annual R&D spending to keep improving this system is US$ 250,000 a year.
BIG QUESTION:Are we using the system to its full potential??? Any system, ICT driven or manual, will be as good as how users "adapts" and "adopt" the "system". Our "active" users are: current IESL members, The Council, The Secretariat, Chapters, and Committees.
Let's look at examples where we all could do better and make the best out of our system.
Question: Are you getting email updates on events, important announcements and/or receiving the Digital SLEN as an email? This is so critical given that IESL is heavily using digital medium for very good reasons - productivity, tracking, environmentally responsible behavior which is #8 in IESL Code of Ethics.
If the answer is NO, please watch the video and go to your profile ( MyIESL from home page) and check whether you are subscribing to email notifications ( profile menu: email subscriptions settings). Also check whether your email in the profile is the one you use regularly. If all looks ok, ensure that emails from the system is not marked as junk email by you or automatically ending up in your junk email folder. If you are not getting information from a certain Chapter or a Sectional Committee, please check your profile to see whether Provincial Chapter and Charter Discipline fields are accurately populated because you will not be included in "group" emails created by various chapters and committees. If you find the two fields empty, you can update the Provincial Chapter field but to update the Charter Discipline contact NIMESHA@IESL.LK from the Membership Dept.
Question: Are you struggling to find various information?
Go to IESL Homepage (www.iesl.lk) and look at the following main menus along the top horizontal bar:
About IESL
History of IESL, Bi-Laws which you must know and even consider changing to meet todays and future needs, IESL Act of Incorporation, Code of Ethics, Governing Structure so you know how your membership dues, interests, etc. are managed
Committees and Provincial Chapters
Do you know that there are so many Council Appointed Committees to take care of your interests other than Sectional Committees? Do you know members who cover your interests at these very important committees? Don't you want to suggest to them directly via their profiles and / or Forums what you expect from IESL? Do you want to directly participate in them to get things done and do you know how to? Do you want to know what's going on with your field of engineering and provinces? Well this is the section you aught to go to.
Member
This will give you all the information, forms, access to your profile to update, training institutions, procedures, etc.
Public
Mostly for those who want basic information about various memberships, policies, procedures, forms, process with cycle time, etc. Very useful even for a member of any category. No need to second guess about IESL procedures and policies.A request has been made by the writer to further improve this page and its content. The request has gone in writing to DES of Membership, Executive Secretary, and the President.
Resources
Archived SLEN copies, Engineer Journal, Archived public lectures that are of great benefit to the members who are sitting for the B Paper.
News and Events
Among many things, to see the most recent recorded public lecture and next live streamed event and link to it at the time of live streaming.
Education and Careers
You want to access IESL Library online with login credentials, links on ENGLISH language training, etc.
Question: How do you "directly" communicate with a Council Member, a friend that you have lost contacts with, find an Arbitrator, find a qualified Structural Engineer, find whether a certain person is actually a current member of IESL?
To do all this and more, go to the Directories Page from IESL HomePage. If you really wanted to do a complicated search (eg. mechanical engineers from Sri Lanka who are Fellows), go to the mother of all directories, MEMBER DIRECTORY and do an advance search. However, you will quickly realize that it is up to the members to update their profiles fully to get the maximum benefit of these directories. You can even market your skills in your profile by going to MyIESL ( see video). Once you find a person or persons you are looking for, you can directly communicate with them via email from their profile by pressing " send message" button or if that person has allowed ( through privacy settings in the person's profile - see video on how to) to view phone and other means of communications, you could use that. This is the way to go direct to Council Members too! A POWERFUL TOOL FOR DEMOCRACY.
QUESTION: How do you communicate with "many including Council Members" on a topic that matters to you and many others, no matter where you are? ( suggested changes to IESL bi-laws / policies / procedures, rights of members, Council decisions, questions about Charter process / help, engineering challenges / answers, benefits to members and how funds are utilized, support for a social initiative, questions about IESL subsidiaries such as College of Engineering, need for more ICT tools, future enhancements, more IESL benefits to Provinces, Engineering Council Act status, complete a project with many, etc.).
This is where you use the FORUMS. You access Forums through the Home Page. Don't forget to "subscribe" to your favorite Forum or specific topics including the one you created to get updates straight to your email. Another way to do this is to write to the digital SLEN. To find out how, go to SLEN BLOG on forum page or go to an archived version of digital SLEN. ( see video on how to). A suggestion has gone from the ICT Committee at the request of the President to use The Forum -" Meet The President and the Council" to communicate monthly Council decisions. We currently don't have a process of knowing what the elected Council Members are doing regularly!
QUESTION: How to find out job opportunities or advertise your skills?
Go to the Forum page as mentioned above ( see video too) and go to JOB POSTINGS blog
QUESTION: You are doing research about engineering technologies, methods, etc. How to find high quality research papers?
Treasure trove of information ( engineering transactions) is available through the PUBLICATIONS on homepage.
QUESTION: How do you promote news, events, etc. happening at your chapter, committee?
Send your message content to IESL Director Publicity ( dir.pub@iesl.lk ) indicating exactly where you like it to appear on our website ( Homepage, other pages). If you want to send a message to a larger group, again send the content to Director Publicity.
By no means we have the perfect system as such things don't exist! You live long enough and work hands on with ICT or any system, you know it. But, when we look back, for us to get our system implemented quickly (under four months) in 2013 and utilize it so far to clean up 1000s of member records, connect all the members around the world, create a platform for collaboration / transparency eliminating geographical / time barriers is a huge achievement. The journey continues.
AS MEMBERS AND TRUE STAKEHOLDERS OF IESL, WE NEED TO DO OUR PART. THERE ARE NO DISTANCE AND TIME BARRIERS ANY MORE. "THERE ARE ONLY MIND BLOCKS". USE THE SYSTEM EFFECTIVELY. YOU CAN USE ANY LANGUAGE OR VOICE CLIPS TO COMMUNICATE. TAKE 1-2 HRS OF YOUR WEEK TO CONTRIBUTE, LEARN, HELP, & CREATE FUTURE - WHAT ENGINEERS DO!!
