Lost Souls By Sheldon Wolfe, RA, FCSI, CCS, CCCA Institute Director, North Central Region, CSI

For as long as I can remember, we have had difficulty with our membership rosters. Not everyone has problems, of course; members of smaller chapters sometimes know everyone in their chapters, while those in the large chapters may never see some of their CSI colleagues.

To most members, this is not all that important, but there are times when we need to know who is or is not in a chapter. For leaders, it is a very important matter, as they cannot address their chapter or region members if they don't know who they are. It's also hard to collect dues without an accurate roster.

In the good old days of paper records, chapter membership committees had no choice but to keep their own rosters. The normal delay in updating the Institute member records made the Institute roster useless for chapter needs, and there were countless discrepancies between Institute and chapter member records. Since then, Institute staff has moved to computer databases, and has gone through a series of hardware and software upgrades.

Unfortunately, we still have discrepancies, for a variety of reasons. As many computer owners know, it isn't unusual to see loss or change of data after upgrading hardware or software. In most cases, though, upgrading either works or it doesn't; the data is there and correct, or it's gone, leaving you wishing you had backed it up. Random, hard-to-find errors do occur, but they are unusual.

The advantages of electronic databases come at a price. Because computers are so good, we have come to rely on them, forgetting the old computer adage, "Garbage in, garbage out." It's easy to blame the computer for inaccurate data, but in the vast majority of cases, it is a result of human error. Here, too, it's easy to pass the buck and blame those who directly maintain the database, but it's often the members themselves who create problems or unknowingly allow them to exist.

As noted in "Santa's helpers" (January 2008 newsletter), our staff at Institute headquarters is doing a pretty good job for us. Yes, they do make mistakes, but instead of blaming them for everything, I believe each chapter should accept some responsibility and verify its members' information in the Institute database. I know some chapters do work at keeping accurate records, but I suspect the majority of chapters have not been so diligent.

I recently reviewed my region's member information and found numerous mistakes and anomalies; I expect other regions will find the same. Rather than complain about the problems, I would like to see a concerted effort to update and maintain the Institute database. To succeed, all chapters must be involved.

I ask chapter membership chairs to start by obtaining the Institute member information, not for their chapters, but for their regions. As noted, there are many errors in the database, and it would not be surprising to find that some members are listed as members of the wrong chapter, or even the wrong region. The only way to know is to match the Institute records with those of the chapters.

We talk a lot about communication, but we cannot communicate effectively with our own members if we don't know who they are. We also cannot communicate with them if they don't want to listen. Membership chairs, when you get your region information, look carefully at the "don't talk to me" options. I was surprised to see how many members apparently do not want to receive information from CSI. According to the member database, of the 2,300 North Central Region members, nearly half don't want bulk mail, 500 don't want e-mail, 200 don't want to be in the member directory, and 50 don't want to be called. Skimming through the records, I found two chapter presidents, as well as two of my own chapter's committee chairs, who apparently don't want to be contacted by any means!

I suspect many members don't know about those options; I do know they can be accidentally changed. A little over a year ago, after having received e-mail from Institute for many years, I got a few calls from members of my region, asking about a specific e-mail they had received from Institute. Being a member of CSI's board of directors, I was a little surprised that I had not seen the e-mail in question. After calling customer service, I was told that my member record indicated I did not want to receive e-mail from CSI. It's unlikely that the option changed on its own, more likely it was accidentally changed while something else was done to the record. I might have done it myself! Although they are intended to be user-friendly, interfaces with check boxes, drop-down menus, and pick lists are almost as easy to mess up as those that require text entry.

Now that our chapter membership chairs have accepted my challenge, and are working on their chapter's records (you are, aren't you?), I'll go one step further, and ask you to go to the Institute website to verify the information that is in your record. It takes just a couple of minutes, and you may be surprised at what you find.

And please - when you change jobs, move to a new location, or get a new e-mail address or phone number - please, please return to the database and update your records!