GSW membership updates
Dear GSW Councilors and Officers,
After dozens of emails and meetings, I think I have finally figured out how our membership process works and who has the power to change it. I will spare you the details of the journey (you’d be happier reading the Odyssey) and provide the outcome so that future leaders will know how the sausage is made.
No one knows who owns or has rights to edit the Google Form accessed from the GSW Membership Page. The account holder is gsw.membership@gmail.commailto:gsw.membership@gmail.com. It could be that the account is no longer monitored. The information entered into this form populates a Google Sheet that Everett Johnson (MSA) and Erik Hankin access (view) to monitor member applications and payments. This form will be abandoned in our new process.
A contractor for the Mineralogical Society of American, named Gloria McFarland, created and maintains the payment webpage http://gsw.minsocam.org/. I was able to connect with her, Nick Geboy (who was involved with the creation of the form, but does not have edit rights), and Everett today over zoom.
Gloria will estimate the effort required to update our membership process to achieve these goals:
- add an option of gift membership
- add a field for new members (or gift members) to enter their affiliation
- update the form to remove unused fields and make it more user-friendly
When MSA tells us the cost of these updates, I will move that we pay MSA for the service.
Once the changes are executed, our web-masters (Mike P and Ryan H) will update gswweb.org such that when you click “membership” it takes you directly to the payment page.
With this, we will have achieved these two council-approved goals:
- Make membership a 1-step process (integrate payment into the membership application)
- Offer gift memberships
If you have questions, we can discuss tomorrow night between 7:30-8:00, prior to the meeting. See you all tomorrow!
Liz
Hi Liz,
Thank you very much for this- it will make it easier to manage new memberships and will prevent the loss of new members between the old 1st step (application) and the old 2nd step (payment).
See you all tomorrow,
Ester.
Ester Sztein, PhD
Assistant Director, Board on International Scientific Organizations
Deputy Director, Board on Research Data and Information
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
500 5th Street, NW K504
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-334-3049
Fax: 202-334-2231
Email: esztein@nas.edu
http://national-academies.org/biso
Past President, Geological Society of Washington
From: Cottrell, Elizabeth cottrelle@si.edu
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 12:11 PM
To: GSW Council
Subject: [Gsw-councilplus-l] GSW membership updates
Dear GSW Councilors and Officers,
After dozens of emails and meetings, I think I have finally figured out how our membership process works and who has the power to change it. I will spare you the details of the journey (you'd be happier reading the Odyssey) and provide the outcome so that future leaders will know how the sausage is made.
No one knows who owns or has rights to edit the Google Form accessed from the GSW Membership Page. The account holder is gsw.membership@gmail.commailto:gsw.membership@gmail.com. It could be that the account is no longer monitored. The information entered into this form populates a Google Sheet that Everett Johnson (MSA) and Erik Hankin access (view) to monitor member applications and payments. This form will be abandoned in our new process.
A contractor for the Mineralogical Society of American, named Gloria McFarland, created and maintains the payment webpage http://gsw.minsocam.org/. I was able to connect with her, Nick Geboy (who was involved with the creation of the form, but does not have edit rights), and Everett today over zoom.
Gloria will estimate the effort required to update our membership process to achieve these goals:
- add an option of gift membership
- add a field for new members (or gift members) to enter their affiliation
- update the form to remove unused fields and make it more user-friendly
When MSA tells us the cost of these updates, I will move that we pay MSA for the service.
Once the changes are executed, our web-masters (Mike P and Ryan H) will update gswweb.org such that when you click "membership" it takes you directly to the payment page.
With this, we will have achieved these two council-approved goals:
- Make membership a 1-step process (integrate payment into the membership application)
- Offer gift memberships
If you have questions, we can discuss tomorrow night between 7:30-8:00, prior to the meeting. See you all tomorrow!
Liz