A comparison of membership between 1996 and 1997 shows that there has been an increase of four memberships. However, such a summary doesn't reveal the degree of change in membership. For example, the UK and Norwegian Chapters both have a policy that provides international membership for each of their members. The UK Chapter membership has fallen from 232 members in 1996 to 183 members in 1997, but the Norwegian Chapter membership has increased from 47 to 140. In 1997, ISUG also received new subscriptions from Israel, Mauritius and Spain. We anticipate a number of shifts to occur over the next year as the impact of the new chapter membership level is adopted by various chapters.
The installation of the new ISUG database has assisted in a "clean-up" of the data. Non-payers have now been deleted and renewal notices are sent out on the anniversary of the joining date. Reminder invoices are sent 30 days after the original invoice and after a further 30 days a list is generated for the administrator to call members and delete from the system if membership is no longer required.
The ISUG database application has built-in administration and validation procedures that enables anomalies to be flagged (i.e., inconsistencies in addresses; overdue payments; incorrect currency, such as dollars versus sterling). The database application ensures that there is uniformity across company, invoicing, and member information. It also supports queries to access member information quickly. Welcome letters and receipt invoices are automatically generated based on trigger events. The application also generates a number of management reports.
It is anticipated that the new database will save considerable time in the administration of the ISUG membership list and assist us in providing better service to our members.
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
