PGCA Member Titles...
 

Later today or tomorrow, I am removing all the “PGCA Member Titles” from our SIGS/Status. I really apologize for this, but – honestly, I thought I’d have the tools to know who is an active Member or not, but I don’t. So, for example - I don’t know who is active, who hasn’t renewed, who has renewed, when their membership lapses, etc. and it’s not fair to have some with that status showing when they have chosen not to continue to support the organization – and vice-versa – those new members who don’t have that title.

Anyway – as I feel about most things, either we do it “right” or don’t do it at all. Feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions or comments, OK?

Best to all for a terrific day!

John

my 2 cents on dropping member status
 

In his announcement today about removing the “PGCA Member Titles” (PGCA Life Member, PGCA Annual Member, Forum Member) from the forum, John Dunkle asked for PMs concerning his intention to do so. I have made my thoughts known to him and also felt I should post them publicly in this thread as well:

John, Just want to say that I think removing the “PGCA Member Titles” status identification line represents a diminishment in value to the forum. At minimum this bit of information lets us know something about the person speaking, offering information or expounding an opinion. On the other hand I understand that to be valuable it needs to be accurate, and that that comes at the price of your careful regular attention to this matter. It would not be difficult to continue to tag life members since once life, through good and bad, it means you’re a member until the end. And it is important to note that this is one of the ways for regular annual dues paying PGCA members to know to whom they might direct concerns about association matters as they, the Life Members, are the ones in the association with the vote.

In this day and age of electronic communications and data bases it is difficult to understand why this information cannot be simply and easily provide to you by the association membership person on a periodic basis by email. Four times a year a mailing list is somehow prepared to generate the labels to ship Parker Pages, it must certainly be done by computer. If you are not a paid up member, you should not be on the list. Why you can not be provided with a flat file of active members each quarter is beyond my understanding - unless it is somehow either a political issue or thought to be impractical because membership name might not match forum name exactly. It is a point of some pride that the PGCA forum sticks closely to the rule and goes to great lengths to cause forum members to use proper names; and in my opinion we derive great benefit for doing so. My gut feeling is that active participants on the forum do like to be identified as an Annual or Life Member - it says "I'm really addicted! Won't you share my Pain!". So if a membership name does not resolve to a forum name the status value will default to Forum Member, and if so the individual will most likely take steps to fix the mismatch so their status will be properly displayed.

Personally, I will be rather disappointed if the BOD cannot find a way to see that your good efforts are supported in preserving this forum feature. A match list provided to you only needs to be tagged as to member status and does not need addresses or any other information; if that is the fear or concern. I’m Annual Member #810; them's my 2 cents worth...

Another point to ponder in addition to the points made by Bob is that Jennifer must certainly have the most up-to-date membership roster or the person she forwards membership information to would certainly have it.
I'll always be a Life Member and I'm proud to be associated as such and those who are annual members, I'm sure feel pretty much the same way and we all like to be identified by our membership status.... so how about simply dropping membership titles entirely from anyone who is not a member "in good standing" (paid up)?

We don't want to make your work any harder, John, or time-consuming but it's sort of like some of the new laws that are proposed which, however unintentionally, hurt us all while only trying to weed out the few....

Respectfully submitted... :smiley7:

I could just kick myself...

... this shouldn't have been an afterthought but unfortunately it was...

John, How can I help you??

Bob and Dean - my thanks.. Obviously - I am deeply embarrassed and more than a little humiliated, but Dean - you hit the nail on the head. In fact, I have no idea who is a "member" in good standing?

In starting this site over a year ago, I had a pretty current roster, so help the folks get squared away as they registered - it was easy - and something I myself took a lot of pride in doing..

I thought it should be a pretty straight forward exercise to get new member updates every month or so, but it appears to be more difficult than we anticipated, apparently.

For that - and while I have a HUGE aversion to posting Private Messages, I'll edit one I received about a month ago. I was (and am) embarrassed, but perhaps we can collectively come up with an answer..??

I'm willing to take any suggestions, but I will tell you, this fellow turned out to be a wonderful older gentleman who is a wonderful PGCA Member. And yes, he is squared away on the forum (EVEN THOUGH HE DIDn"T tell me the names of his buddies who are no longer members??! (HINT HINT if you are reading this!! ;) )

John

John,

Thanks for this post. It reminded me that July is quickly approaching and it's time to send my dues.

Harry

John, I can vouch for ya ! I'm pretty confident you know "what you are doing" and if I can be of any help you know how to contact me...

Hey Harry!! Well - there is one member so far that I know the renewal date for... :) Which....

Hang on a minute...

Be right back... I need to play with some code on my server, OK?? It will be a while.. If it works, then I may have an idea which doesn't depend on getting monthly membership updates which never appear...

Harry - you are a genius (I think, maybe???!!!)..

John

Hey guys!

For you annual members ONLY - do you folks know about when your Membership is up for renewal? Is there an easy way to get that information (like off of Parker Pages label, for example??)??

John

Fellas...

I need to take the server down for a while as I drop in some code to address the PGCA Membership thing.... If this works - please thank Harry Collins for coming up with a terrific idea...

As well - I'll take the server down in a while. When I do - you will see a notice from me that I'm working on some code changes and to check back in a while, OK?

Thanks!

John

John,

To my knowledge, everyone reniews July 1st.

Harry

Hi Harry!

I think was that way - but then we moved to the month folks joined (well, not "we" - it's only "we" in so far as "PGCA", not "we" like I'm a on the Board, for that would mean "we" I'm on the Board - which again I'm not.. If it was "we" like I'm on the Board - I wouldn't be on the Board, because I'd never be a Member of any Board that would elect someone like "me"..??

Or something.... I dun'no... :)

Anyway - there are folks whose renewal dates are throughout the months..??

Hell if I know.. I'm going back to programming.. :)

Best to ya'!

JD

OK.. Here we go...

I just finished the upgrade from hell to do this - and I'm typing this as the forum is closed and the database refreshes.. I'll open the forum in a bit..

But....

If you are an ANNUAL MEMBER - please update your "user profile" when you have a few minutes.. There is a new field there called "..PGCA Membership Renewal Date..." It is located here:

http://parkerguns.org/forums/profile.php?do=editprofile and scroll down that page a bit and you should see it under the text block: Additional Information


For NEW MEMBERS who have NOT Registered and considering joining - it's part of the REGISTRATION PROFILE, so please give me a hand, OK?? If you are a PGCA Member and just registering - just fill that area out - and I'll get you set.

Larry, Harry, Bob and Dean - thank you... You are the guys who posted and called me to help me come up with this solution....

You folks came up with the answers for a solution...

My thanks to Larry, Harry, Bob and Dean for being constructive - more than you know....

John D.
(Just a PGCA volunteer - what do I know...)

A simple solution to a complex problem. Thanks for keeping the ship going straight.

From just another member somewhere out west.

We can take care of that part of you not being on the board.....:corn::rotf:

Oh no no no.....!! ;) I was chatting the other day with someone on PGCA, and they asked how much effort it takes to host the site - and after walking them through the daily effort - their reply was "and you sleep when.. "..

Seriously in a nutshell, in the AM (every AM, unless I'm in Haiti): back up the databases, reply to PMs (there are 5 to 10 a day), manually approve new registrations and manually check each any "questionable" registrations (by IP), install any server updates, do a quick scan of the newest threads posted by folks, answer any "help me e-mails" that come into my ADMIN account for folks who are *stuck* in the registration process (and other issues, there are quite a range!), attempt to check new registrations against an outdated roster, and pop them on as a Member, etc.. I do the same thing late afternoon (except the DB backup) and late evening each night... If I'm traveling, I do the same thing - again except the DB backup.. (Yes - a number of your registrations were actually approved from an iPhone in Haiti - or walking a corn field in KS during pheasant season with Bruce.. ;) )

Now - that's 7 days a week - and you'd want to to "assist me with more work"???

Yer' a buddy.... ;) :eek:

Your ex-friend.... :)

JD

contribution
 

John,

Your dedicated attention to the forum should not go unrewarded,
please find attached a new emoticom for the smiley collection:

Attachment 4355

Bob,

As always - your comments are noted.... Sometimes - heck, I even appreciate them.. :) HAH!!!

Seriously - all set! You can embed it as ": whistle :" (no spaces, tho'...)

:cheers:

John

So I guess disscussions on the D grade 20 damacscus are on hold :whistle: I just wanted to fill your day, seems like the mornings are taken care of and the evenings but what about the rest of the day....:rotf:

Hey Eric..!!

The discussions are now definitely on hold ;) Especially when you posted this....

:) Even better, maybe you should have posted it this way:

:rotf:

Your buddy,

John

Just trying to help.....:) You know keeping you out of Jen's hair and all that stuff....:corn:

Heck, she'd probably pay you for that...?? Waitaminute - what am I saying??? ;)

I need to talk to her about the D grade 20:) I am sure we can come up with a price...:rotf: Can't believe I didn't think about that before.......:D

When you warned me you'd be ruthless and relentless - I thought you were ONLY KIDDING!!!!! :shock:

HAH!!!

John

John,
Thanks for all your work on the forum. It's hard to imagine that one would spend so much time for the better of all the enjoyers. I enjoy the benefits of the forum and appreciate the opportunity to have it.
Mike

Mike, between your post and the other thread in the General forum - I'm a little humbled.. And rather - right back at you..

Thank YOU Sir, and all the Members and site supporters, for having the confidence in me to just "get it done".. I'll keep trying as best I can - for as long as folks like you want me to continue to just "do it"...

My thanks Mike,

John