I've been thinking recently about the best way to support a prospective member when they walk in the door, and all the steps that are involved. I thought it might be a good idea for us all to share how we do this, so that we can all benefit from each others processes.
I'm also looking at how Groupanizer might be able to support a process (via workflow, or projects and tasks, or other things) and as such, I'm interested to see what steps you all take when a new prospective member walks in the door.
My chapters processes are horribly out of date, and as such we don't have a good view right now of who needs to do what to make the process as smooth as possible. We know we need to tkae soem details down, provide them some music, find them a buddy, and give them an audition at some stage. What we don't do well is supporting them through the period before they become a member (if they pass our audition). What else do you all do?
Care to share your processes, so that we all can benefit (and perhaps enhance our own processes)? I also would love to work through how this might be created as a Groupanizer 'Project' or 'Workflow' at some stage, to make sure we know exactly where each person is at in their process at any point in time.
What to do when a Prospective Member attends?
Thu, 02/02/2012 - 14:05
#1
What to do when a Prospective Member attends?
I would like to see some additional work on the Groupanizer recruiting module to support this. We don't use it at all in its current form because it doesn't provide that ability to store the information we need to track recruits through the processes. For example, one small change would be the abilty to give each recruit a status so that I can quickly see those that are active vs recruits that we haven't managed to keep. Assigning the chorus buddy would also be helpful as well as several reporting options.
I am currently the membership VP for my chorus and I'm going through the same process of trying to get organized. I've put together a few things, like a guest form and a new member checklist that I'm happy to share.
Tom Nisbet
Webmaster - Heart of Maryland Chorus
www.HeartOfMaryland.org
tom27@HeartOfMaryland.org
Tom,
I am in the same place as you. I would like to use the recruiting module if I can at least to record the information at this point so we don't loose them as a contact. I am not the membership VP but I take care of groupanizer and any electronic project we have going forward so the 2 big items I am pushing is data collection and oversight of tasks.
Would you be able to email me any forms or processes you have in place to help me to that end? I would like to sit down with our membership VP and work with him to implement some of these items.
Thanks.
JC
Keystone Capital Chorus
www.kccsing.com
john@cosgrovenet.com
John Cosgrove
VP Youth in Harmony
Keystone Capital Chorus
Harrisburg PA Chapter
http://www.keystonecapitalchorus.org
John, I'll email my forms to you. I'm using a spreadsheet right now to track guests because it lets me capture both the contact information and a low-resolution view of attendance. I've just started to use it, but am already seeing some missed opportunities from last year's data. It would be great to get the same views in Groupanizer, but it would require a bit of work to add it. Maybe we can convince Tom to tackle that when he finishes with the current rehearsal planning module.
Tom Nisbet
Webmaster - Heart of Maryland Chorus
www.HeartOfMaryland.org
tom27@HeartOfMaryland.org
Personally, I think the Recruit/Contact/Member modules need a bit of an overhaul to make them more connected. I want to be able to move people between all three at different times.
e.g. if I add a contact to a list, they might get interested in coming along, at which point I want to make them a recruit, and eventually they sign up, so they become a member. I should be able to do this by taking each one and just 'changing their status' or 'running a workflow' to make the changes for me...
But then, if I think about this a little more, if we had a content type called 'Person' that then had extra details added depending on what type of person they were (Recruit, Contact, Member, whatever), the basic details could stay the same and you could just change their 'type' (or select more than one) and be prompted to fill in the list of fields associated with that type. That would be the best option IMHO.
Antony Currington
Musical Director :: Harbour Capital Chorus
Email :: acurrington@paradise.net.nz
Wellington, New Zealand
It's all in the data. Basic personal contact information (email address, mailing/physical address, phone number, etc.) is present across all three entities to which you're referring (User, Recruit and Contact). Each entity has its own required fields. This is important because those required fields are not the same across the three entities. Users require email addresses while Recruits and Contacts do not. Recruits and Contacts are both simply different kinds of content while Users are actual accounts that can log into the system. The previous two sentences essentially explain how Users are quite different from Recruits and Contacts. Due to that fact, coding a module that has the ability to convert a Contact into a Recruit and/or vice versa would probably be relatively easy. It's the throwing of the User account into the mix that makes things difficult. Could it be done? Sure, as long all the caveats and required fields have a way to be satisfied while moving the data around. I'm not sure exactly what kind of database is used for each entity, but if they're not all stored in a similar format/fashion the process required for conversion from one to another becomes more complex. It's possible there's already a Drupal module that provides this kind of functionality, but if not we're basically asking Tom to create that from scratch. Everything in theory until the code is in the computer... :D
Phil Owen
Central Standard Webmaster & Marketing VP
This is very interesting. We don't have a need for such a formalized process, but we DO need to track new members from the time they join to the time they first sing at a bedside. I'm handling this now by tagging them as "new members" and keeping personal track of how many rehearsals they've attended and what songs they know. But it would be really useful to have a workflow of some sort that would trigger a change from "new member" to "member" when they'd attended a certain number of rehearsals and then when they'd learned a certain list of songs.
Cindy
Director, Pittsburgh Threshold Choir
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
http://ptc.groupanizer.com
Wow - just found this forum topic for the first time - great ideas guys! We actually were wondering where you all wanted us to go with that module, so I've added this topic to our system, so that it gets looked at for the Recruiting Module rewrite (expected to come with the major Drupal 7 release sometime next year). Thanks for your ideas!!
Kari Metzger
EVP Business Development
Groupanizer
(d) 604-451-7454
kari@groupanizer.com
Just to add my two cents, I'm really looking forward to upgrading the recruiting module. :)
I would like to be able to check off which rehearsals they attend, when they have received different documents, like financial info, and audition info, when they are ready for a practice audition, and actual audition, then once they have passed, a check list to include things like been approved by the management team, paid money, got a riser buddy, had paperwork sent to international...etc....
Philippa Gelinas
webmaster - Rhythm of the Rockies
www.rhythmoftherockies.org
We're using the Prospective Member process outlined some where on these forum and have set up a group email address for that role so we can communicate with them. There are things that need to be better in that process. Currenty I have locked down most of our content so they can't access it, including the standard member dashboard and format, That way once they login they can only see the menu item called Guest Resources where I have put a few links to learning materials I want them to access and they see only the same format of webpages that any casual visitor to our site can see.
Ian Harrop
Western Hospitality Singers www.sing4fun.ca
Alberta Sport Parachuting Association www.aspa.ca
ian.harrop@live.com
An updated Recruiting module would be killer. For now we give clearly interested guests access to our Calendar and Music only via a Guest role, so they can start learning the music (esp. the quartet audition piece) and so they know what's happening. But as for tracking our MVP does it (well) by hand. It would be awesome to have a workflow for this.
Steve Nester
One of 3 GN Admins
Sounds of Concord
+1 on the workflow...
I'd like to be able to have an online "checklist" to know where they were at with a bunch of stuff that happens (not necessarily sequentially) such as
- Measured for uniform
- Uniform presented
- Invoiced for fees
- Music issued
- Membership form filled in
Some of this would be good to do online.
Antony Currington
Musical Director :: Harbour Capital Chorus
Email :: acurrington@paradise.net.nz
Wellington, New Zealand
Hey, WE can create such workflows, you know! Why not give it a try and let us know how it works out?
Cindy
Director, Pittsburgh Threshold Choir
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
http://ptc.groupanizer.com
I know... if only I had time to work it out :)
The problem for me actually is that I don't want a sequential workflow ... I want some sort of checklist that can go from any state to any state, and each one is checked off. I need to look into Workflow further to see if it'll allow me to do this easily.
Antony Currington
Musical Director :: Harbour Capital Chorus
Email :: acurrington@paradise.net.nz
Wellington, New Zealand
I fear I am entering this conversation late in the game. However…I’m going to weigh in.
At first I did not understand the usefulness of having the Recruiting Module information separate from the User Module – looked like duplicate data entry to me - but now I am interpreting the purposes to be different and both necessary. The User Module supports Member activity tracking and member access to the system and the information in it. The Recruiting Module supports activity tracking related to prospective members. So I am in favour of the Recruiting Module. That said, I am outlining extensions to existing functionality that I think would work for us. And perhaps a module name change is in order. Somewhere someone suggested Person Module. That is more what I have in mind.
The Recruiting Module
In this Module, I would like to have the ability to record information about the Prospective, from first contact, to decision to audit, or, heaven forbid, deciding not to join, and potentially until the person/member leaves the chorus. So the information I would collect, and related functionality (possibly tabbed), is:
New prospective information would comprise the information as collected now using the Recruiting module. The Recruiting Sources could be a list that can be modified by the Chorus.
It would be nice to be able to have functionality something like the Event Program Module, which would be accessed under a separate tab or menu item, displaying a table to build with rows for each activity, selected from a list that can be developed/modified by the Chorus, along with the assignee, when assigned and when completed, and a notes field for that activity. Like the Event Program, the Program could be stored as template and activities reordered. Unlike a workflow, completion of one activity does not necessarily require the completion of former tasks.
There could possibly be attendance information, functionality similar to current member attendance functionality, indicating which rehearsals or even events the prospective attended.
When the Prospective has decided to audit, we then create a user account for them, as a Candidate, with limited access to functionality, e.g., only the audit tapes and sheet music. They then fill in their own profile information – and no duplicate data entry by our Membership Coordinator!
We can continue using the Recruiting Module for member management activities so that we make a smooth entry into the chorus for our members. The Recruiting module might also be a place where information could be stored about why any chorus member decided to leave.
Maureen Thompson
Bytown Beat Chorus