Since the article "Building the Virtual Association: An Ongoing Strategy" in the May issue of Information Outlook, membership, vendors, and staff have been partnering to implement our 2000 Virtual Association initiatives. In April, a virtual association timeline, http://www.sla.org/assoc/leader/va2000.html, was created and disseminated via SLA unit bulletins to increase membership's awareness of these initiatives. In this article, updates on some previous initiatives and the 2000 initiatives outlined in the timeline since July will be reviewed.
The Annual Conference online program/session planner located at http://www.slaconference2000.org which is a useful tool for Annual Conference attendees to plan conference their experience is now in it's second year of use. The session planner tools, allows registrants to search for and select conference events by name, time, presenters, tracks, keywords, continuous learning (Strategic Learning), and by SLA-UNIT (chapter, division, section, caucus) events. The personal itinerary feature of the on-line program enables registrants to add their conference events in addition to any personal events or meetings they wish to conduct at conference to their secure personal itinerary. This year the planner was revised to eliminate the problems that plagued it during the first year of use. The revisions include increased response time, enhanced keyword search, and integration with our new Virtual Exhibit service. This service continues to improve and is on its way to becoming a valuable tool to conference registrants.
The association's Exhibit Hall went virtual this year with the creation of the Virtual Exhibit Hall (http://www.slavirtualexhibits.com/). This new interactive service is designed to provide annual conference participants with a year of twenty-four by seven access to vendor information in addition to saving them valuable time during their conference experience. Visitors can find information on companies that will be exhibiting at the annual conference, create lists of exhibitors to visit, pre-plan schedules and map routes through the exhibit hall--all of this right from their desktop. The virtual exhibit hall is comprised of four different types of virtual booths. These virtual booths feature product listings and descriptions, access to company news releases, articles, and corporate information; access to software and documents, customer feedback and information requests; links to corporate web sites and updated information on products and services throughout the year. This virtual tool is also integrated with the on-line conference program/session planner to further enhance a visitor's online and conference experience.
One of our major initiatives for 2000 is the redesign of the association's web site. At our ninety-first annual conference in Philadelphia, SLA staff provided demonstrations of the new web site prototype to solicit comments and feedback from membership. The information obtained from these demonstrations and our constant exchange with membership is instrumental in assisting the association in designing a virtual community site and tool for membership that they'll want to utilize daily. This project was originally scheduled for completion in May but due to the scope of the project and needed feedback from membership project implementation for this will be delayed.
Unit (Chapter/Division/Section/Caucus) standard reports via the web were also demonstrated to unit leadership to enable them to obtain unit information at any time using a secure interface. The standard reports that are available are Unit Rosters, Statistics, Allotments, Deactivation Roster, New Member report, and Address/Unit change notification reports. These reports can be produced in various formats such as Adobe Acrobat's PDF, comma ASCII delimited, MS Excel XLS, Word Processing and ASCII text. This anywhere at anytime access to useful unit information will put unit leaders directly in control of managing their unit information.
Online registration for SLA events such as Annual Conference and Strategic Learning opportunities for example is now a reality. Our new online SLA event registration system was also demonstrated to conference participants. This new system allows members and non members to register for all events sponsored by the international office of the association. Registrants will view a listing of events that are available and sold out. Using our industry standard secure SSL payment feature, registrants will be able to pay for the items selected with a VISA, Master Card, American Express, or Discover credit card. Upon successfully registering on-line, a registrant will receive an email confirmation to confirm the selections made. The registrations are then sent to a holding area that staff review and edit according to our data entry standards. Staff then approve the registration which updates the event system and issues an event confirmation which is sent via mail. This new system will assist registrants and staff. Registrants will be able to quickly register for an event from any web browser at any time. Our data entry volume will also decrease allowing staff to assist membership with other requests.
A prototype of SLA's Strategic Learning and Development Center's new Career Services Online (CSO) site was also demonstrated at the annual conference. The CSO will replace the current "Jobline" and will offer both job seekers and employers a site with similar capabilities offered by the major job sites found on the web, such as Monster and Hot Jobs. The site is scheduled for release in mid-July.
Integration of chat and messages boards into the members only area will provide membership with a single sign for all member only services. This will eliminate the need for members to remember multiple passwords for the various online products and services available in our online community.
The implementation of the 2000 virtual association initiatives are well underway. We continue to utilize technology to remove barriers to access the association's services and programs while creating new membership services that are anticipative of and responsive to member needs. To provide your comments and/or suggestions regarding these initiatives or future ones please contact me at maurice@sla.org or by phone at 1-202-939-3620.
By Maurice Harris, managing director, technology at the Special Libraries Association.
SLA Home Page | Join SLA Now | Feedback | Search
RSS
Feedback form
