PGCA Member Titles...

[John D.]

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

[Captain Bob]

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...

[Dean Romig]

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...

[Dean Romig]

I could just kick myself...

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

John, How can I help you??

[John D.]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

...so how about simply dropping membership titles entirely from anyone who is not a member "in good standing" (paid up)? ..

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..??

Mr. Dunkle,

I recently joined your forum and I am a Member of the Parker Gun Association.. (snip) ..I wonder why others who I know are no longer members of the organization.(snip).still have PGCA under their names?.. And yet, supporters as myself are shown otherwise.(snip). If there some secret handshake, or is it that rather, you have no idea what you are doing?.. (snip) You can check that I am current with however you do membership..(snip)

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

[Harry Collins]

John,

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

Harry

[Dean Romig]

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...

[John D.]

Originally Posted by Harry Collins

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

Harry

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

[John D.]

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

[John D.]

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