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<font size=3>OK folks let me start by saying I take umbrage with what Cdr
Daybell is saying.<br><br>
Let me put this in some background. After telling the Information
Technology Committee and specifically me what bad guys we are he is
turning to the PSML to find some sympathy.<br><br>
I personally spend at least 1000 hours a year in support of ITC projects
not to mention the work I do for my home squadron as SEO and active
member. So I really feel strongly about USPS and personally feel
badly about the loss of any members. As a minimum I spend half an
hour each morning checking nightly audits of USPS information.
Therefore I know that in the last three days we have lost over 6,000
members as a result of dues nonpayment. This included at least 5
Commanders. I know the latter because of the audits. Some of
these are because they just forgot. Some because they were not
happy with what we offered them. Some because they felt an economic
pinch. I feel badly about all these losses and I hope and know that
we will get a number of them back if the squadrons do their job and
contact those who have dropped out and encourage them to stay
in.<br><br>
Since I have been following these audits we have dropped from a high of
about 52,000 to the current 38,000 members in about 14 years.
Actually don't despair, last year we were even lower and we will come
back up with the fall recruiting efforts. I personally think we may
have turned a corner.<br><br>
Let me get back to Cdr Daybell's complaint. <br><br>
I am not completely up on my facts so you can pick holes in the following
but I think I am close to correct. <br><br>
I believe there is at least three months between when dues billing is
sent out and members are removed from active status. During that
time reports on who has sent in their dues are available online through
the membership page (software courtesy of the ITC) and are updated every
day. I personally am not the membership chair of my squadron so I
haven't used this but I know that the reports show when payment is
overdue. Once overdue I believe it takes close to a month and a
half to make a member inactive. Using these tools is something the
squadron membership chairpersons would know if it is passed on by
squadron chairs, the chair attends district conferences, or the chair
looks at the membership pages on the national site and learns what is
available for them to use. If they use the tools they will be on
top of the situation.<br><br>
I will also point out that the dues and inactivation is spelled out in
our bylaws and is not a arbitrary decision on the part of the ITC.
Actually the decision is made by the headquarters computer which is
programmed by the HQ staff and ITC support to enforce national and
squadron bylaws.<br><br>
Now probably more about the databases on the USPS web server than you
ever wanted to know.<br><br>
Each squadron/district has a profile on a database which contains
information about the squadron/district including who their information
technology contact, public contact and roster contact are. The
database uses their certificate number to indicate who that person
is.<br><br>
Why these three? Because they are closely connected with
information technology functions. The ITC contact is the webmaster
and should be able to be contacted by the ITC concerning ITC
issues. The public contact is referenced by "locate a squadron
near you" or other online functions which provide a person to
contact for a squadron. The roster contact, who is responsible for
updating roster information, receives update requests from online forms
which allow you to indicate personal information update
requests.<br><br>
Each member has an entry in a membership database. That contain
names, nicknames, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers plus lots
more.<br><br>
Jobs held by members are contained in a jobs database which has national,
district and squadron jobs. The jobs database refers to the members
by their certificate numbers.<br><br>
So when a member is no longer an active member, they disappear from the
members database. That means that the member referenced by the
squadron/district profile database and the jobs database by certificate
number no longer exist. This is the heart of the issue. In
order to keep members around after they are no longer active we would
have to keep a 3 month old copy of the membership database around to
reference. Add to this that we don't know why they were removed
from the current copy and we could be sending emails to someone who has
died. This used to happen and rather than the two unhappy Cdrs with
the complaint I am addressing in the last two years you have to deal with
the spouse of a member who has gone over the bar. This is a no win
situation. I am not personally willing to put in 3000 hours rather
than 1000 to try to make this work. Any of you folks want to
volunteer for the ITC? Remember any changes to this software will
require a lot of HQ staff and ITC staff hours; neither of which we have
available.<br><br>
So when the three job positions on the squadron/district profile
disappear we give the squadron/district a courtesy message telling them
of the change rather than having the job position softly and silently
pass away as is the case of all other positions. If you were to
look for the Cdr of those squadrons where they did not pay their dues you
will get a "NOT FOUND" message.<br><br>
So to rap this very long email up. Cdr Daybell just what do you
expect from us? And don't tell me make the dues period 45 days longer
which means 4.5 months which pushes half a year. If you want to
carry a member after their dues expires, I think that is a squadron
financial responsibility not a national issue.<br><br>
I open this to you folks for discussion.<br><br>
Regards,<br>
Dan<br>
At 01:28 PM 7/10/2009, rdaybell@earthlink.net wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">We object to taking a persons
name off the list as a "nonmember" who is in fact a member
having financial difficulty while arrangements are being made to get his
dues paid. This person is a valuable member of our squadron and
shouldn't be classified as a nonmember by an inpersonnal
automatic computer system. <br><br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
>From: psml-request@usps.org<br>
>Sent: Jul 10, 2009 9:00 AM<br>
>To: "R.Daybell" <rdaybell@earthlink.net><br>
>Subject: PSML Digest, Vol 34, Issue 10<br>
><br>
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>Today's Topics:<br>
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> 1. Re: Automated changes in our roster information
(Harleigh Ewell)<br>
><br>
><br>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
><br>
>Message: 1<br>
>Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 21:14:29 -0400<br>
>From: "Harleigh Ewell" <hewell@comcast.net><br>
>Subject: Re: [Psml] Automated changes in our roster information<br>
>To: <rdaybell@earthlink.net><br>
>Cc: 'United States Power Squadrons Mailing List'
<psml@usps.org><br>
>Message-ID:
<AD0C99C9C2074DD7B4A61E8FFF577C74@85wpjmbt8kk67tb><br>
>Content-Type:
text/plain;<x-tab> </x-tab>
charset="US-ASCII"<br>
><br>
>It's hard to believe that someone could object to national taking
a<br>
>nonmember off the roster. If the squadron wants someone who
can't pay<br>
>the dues to still be a member, it should pay the dues itself
and,<br>
>hopefully, get reimbursed when the situation improves.<br>
><br>
>P/C Harleigh Ewell, JN<br>
>Rockville Sail and Power Squadron<br>
><br>
>-----Original Message-----<br>
>From: psml-bounces@usps.org
[<a href="mailto:psml-bounces@usps.org" eudora="autourl">
mailto:psml-bounces@usps.org</a>] On Behalf Of<br>
>rdaybell@earthlink.net<br>
>Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 5:59 PM<br>
>To: hewell@comcast.net<br>
>Cc: United States Power Squadrons Mailing List<br>
>Subject: [Psml] Automated changes in our roster information<br>
><br>
>For the second time this year the information Technology
committee<br>
>system has automatically taken a name off our OD -2 roster form
without<br>
>our squadron's consent and without prior notice. In this
case it is<br>
>our member who handles the DB 2000 reporting and management for
the<br>
>squadron.<br>
>Our member is having financial difficulties at this time and will
be<br>
>late in renewing his dues. We intend to keep him as a member
and for<br>
>him to continue managing DB 2000 for the squadron. Therefore
Alamitos<br>
>Sail and Power Squadron, Squadron number 075 will have no
individual<br>
>handling DB 2000. We will not be submitting a new roster since
we have<br>
>elected to keep the roster which we set up and assign members to
handle.<br>
>It is our place to make changes rather then the national IT
committee<br>
>and their automated nonsense.<br>
><br>
>If the IT committee is going to continue dictating to squadrons
in this<br>
>manner you may soon find a vacancy in the Commander position for<br>
>Alamitos and possible loss of other Alamitos members as well.
We run<br>
>the squadron not the IT committee or National.<br>
><br>
>Cdr R.D. Daybell, SN<br>
><br>
><br>
>R.D. Daybell<br>
>________________________________________<br>
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>------------------------------<br>
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>End of PSML Digest, Vol 34, Issue 10<br>
>************************************<br><br>
<br>
R.D. Daybell<br>
________________________________________<br>
Need to subscribe, unsubscribe or change your email address? See
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<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
P/C Dan Bartell, SN <br>
SEO - Shallotte River Sail & Power Squadron - D27 (NC)<br>
Member USPS National Information Technology Committee
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