Membership Records: Online Access to Membership Details

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LTB 1109/09 - Membership Records: Online Access to Membership Details


No.1109/09


Ref NO/Membership


Date: 22 December 2009

To: The Branch Secretary

Dear Colleague

Membership Records: Online Access to Membership Details

Branches are advised that the next issue of the Voice due to be posted on 4th January will include personal login details for each member so that they will be able to view and amend their membership details held on the HQ Membership Records system. Branch Secretaries will additionally have the facility to view, amend and export details for mail merging/label production by use of a csv file similar to that obtained via email at present.

The "go live" date for this service is expected to be in w/c 11th January. Members who attempt to log on immediately after receiving the Voice will be greeted with a "service temporarily unavailable" notice.

As advised in LTB 1108 issued earlier today, the Cover of the Voice will be opaque and clearly identify the contents. Branches are asked to ensure this is brought to the attention of members.

To access either their own record, or in the case of the Branch Secretary, the whole Branch's records, the member will need to log onto the CWU website using their Membership No and the unique password contained on the letter enclosed with the Voice magazine. Should a member have joined recently, they may not have been issued with a password, and will need to register on the website to be allocated one. All members will need to provide an email address following log on. Passwords can be changed once the member has logged on.

Members will be able to amend personal information, plus add additional personal information. They will additionally have visibility of some information which we do not want them to amend themselves (e.g. They will not be able to amend Workplace information directly, since we need to ensure consistency with information received from the employer). Should they see inaccuracies in this visible information, the facility exists to email membership records direct from the viewed record to ask for a change to be made.

When Branch Secretary's log in using their personal login details, they will have two choices, to view/amend their personal details, or to view the whole Branch membership details. If they choose the latter option, the site loads the Branch membership list in alphabetical order, with each member having a "edit" button next to their name. The members details can be edited, or Branch Secretary's can export the data to a csv file, by either ticking each name they want to export (a radio button to the right of the name), or by ticking "all records" at the bottom.

All amendments to records automatically show up the name of the person making the amendment, and the time it was done. Branch Secretaries need to understand that the Branch Secretary is responsible for any amendments made in their name. Should the Branch wish to nominate an additional official to be a "designated OLS user" responsible for Membership records, they should email Matt Edwards as below.

Currently it is our intention to "vet" and upload the previous days changes on a delayed basis each morning, but once we are clear that the system is running successfully, we will review the need for this delay/verification process.

Because of the sheer size of some Branches, it is possible that the webpage will "time out" before loading the entire Branch list of members. This will be dependent on the speed of internet connection being used by Branches, and of the "Browser" being used. Internet Explorer takes longer to load than either "Firefox" or Google "Chrome" for example. Until we go live we have no way of knowing how many Branches will be impacted by this - since we do not know what connections/browsers Branches use. Further developments in system access later in the year should bring firstly greater functionality to Branches and direct access via a dedicated server.

It is intended that the same web based process will finally enable on-line joining in the near future.

Enquiries re this LTB should be addressed to the National Organising Dept for the attention of Matt Edwards medwards@cwu.org Tel 020 8971 7260.

Yours sincerely

John East
National Organising Secretary