Why You Can't Get Access To The Whole Site
One of our LTM's posted that even though he's a LTM, he can't get into the site.
Bear with me here.
If you're an Annual or LTM who can't get on the site to view the Master Roster (MR), I thought I’d explain how the website works.
It can be a little convoluted from an Admin point of view, but should be easy for members if they understand the process.
To get on the site, one must first register and then ‘buy’ a membership at the store- either a Lifetime (LTM) or Annual.
NOTE: If you're a LTM or you 'just know' that you're a paid-up Annual Member do not, repeat 'not' buy another membership from the store. If you're having trouble it's probably because your data entry staff failed to input your membership status OR you haven't registered on the site.
Remember, Lifetime Members are members for, well..."life" and don't ever need to pay anything else, barring a catastrophic fiscal emergency that is.
When we switched to the new website (ver 2.0), registered LTM’s and current Annuals should have carried over from ver 1.0. If they didn’t, we manually issued them a current membership if they contacted us and bitched about it, that is. Obviously, my vast and highly-compensated Membership Liaison Team needs retraining….
Now that the transition is (mostly) complete:
1. When a LTM registers I get an email notice. I then manually check membership status from the Master Roster (MR) and administratively credit him. VIOLA! (sic) he has access to the whole site-- but that process may take a day or so since the Data Entry Team is sometimes swamped;
2. When an Annual registers and if his dues aren’t current, and if I don’t get a follow-up email from the website confirming a dues purchase, I pimp him to buy a membership. Either way, when he does buy a membership, the site will automatically let him in very shortly thereafter.
Since an email address is required to initiate and track the registration process, I simply couldn't register 8-900 folks since I may not have had their current email address. And if I can’t register them, I can’t credit them with a membership even if they are an LTM.
As of today, and out of a nominal 889 members, I have 265 members (214 are LTM’s) for whom I have no valid email address. That leaves about 624 people for whom we have valid email addresses. Of that 624, 315 are registered on the site. That leaves 309 people who can, but have not, registered. Hence, they do not have full access.
There can be three reasons for that:
1. Their Annual dues are not current (143 people);
2. They don’t know or understand the process which is quite simple, really. The whole registration/dues buying process takes about 5 minutes;
3. They don’t care to participate either because they don’t want to mess with the registration process or they don’t want to participate in the Association any longer.
Last year , I started sending out little yellow postcards to verify LTM snail mail addresses, remind the Annual members that dues are due (look for one, this month), and/or ask for email addresses and/or that they register on the site.
Last year I had mixed results.
Most of our older (well… older than I am…) members don’t do computers, so they don’t need full site access (I'd guess that's about 120-150 folks). For them, I still mail out 107 printed newsletters each quarter if they ask to be put on the list.
When all else fails, drop me a line: HH01@80fsheadhunters.org or simply click on Contact Us
Clear as mud, now?