Member Intake Procedure
By Jim Costa
Processing New Members
If you had prepared for the Announcement, you might have a Sign Up routine to capture prospective members' Name, Phone, and Email Address. If this is the case you will need to learn how to pull that data and place it into a spreadsheet to work with it.
If not, build a spreadsheet for call-ins or random emails received. To start, you only need the above information.
The Membership or Human Resource Focus Group then needs to contact them by phone. I know this is considered old fashioned, but these volunteers need the respect of a human call. The resulting conversation will not only set the hook into them but will also reveal their real history that we can work from. We need to understand their personality, work history, skills, and how they want to help.
Member Numbering System
All members get an assigned number starting from 1 going up to 9,999. They all have leading zeros so they all have 4 characters: 0015
Filing Systems
Spreadsheet File
Using one Database Spreadsheet, the first column is the Member Number. The spreadsheet can hold as many columns as needed for the information.
Computer Files
P0015F0015Note: If more than one picture or form is collected, use a decimal place — e.g., P0015.2
Focus Group Integration
As members join a Focus Group, all FG members will get a copy of the interview notes with a picture attached. After full funding and experience gained, the Assembly may wish to upgrade to sophisticated Human Resource software.