The Online Membership Directory: Use it to Your Benefit
With the printed version of the membership directory discontinued and an updated version now available on the Web, we wanted to answer your most frequently asked questions about the online Who's Who.
In this age of having up-to-date information instantly available, SLA felt compelled to switch to an online directory. While the information in the print version was four or five months out of date at the time of publication and up to 17 months old before the next year's version was published, the online version allows you to have updated information as soon as it reaches the database at headquarters.
Here are some of the features of the new system:
· Within the individual member's online profile, you can view his or her chapter, division and caucus affiliation (and that person's leadership positions). Although only limited address information is given on the search results page, the full address information, telephone, fax and e-mail is provided in the profile.
· You can search for a member by leadership position and chapter, division, caucus or section (unit) membership. You can also find the leadership of a particular chapter, division, caucus, section or committee through the committee leadership field or search for a particular leadership position through the committee position field. If you wish, you can narrow your search to do such queries as finding all of the members of a division within a certain area, such country, state or province, city and telephone prefix.
· The search results will display the most commonly used information: the name of the member, company, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address. SLA's sustaining members (corporate members) are always displayed first with a "," in the name field. The primary contact, if provided, for the sustaining member is listed in the "attention line" in the address field.
Once the search results appear, you can locate more detailed information about a member by clicking on his or her name. The member's fax number, the date he/she joined SLA, chapter/division/caucus affiliations and leadership positions held throughout their membership are also displayed in the search results. If you want to send an e-mail, simply click on the member's e-mail address
· There are four options for printing or exporting results. Whether you want to keep a print copy of your chapter, your division or any of the various search option results handy at your desk or whether you want to have it available on your PDA, there are options to meet your needs. The "printer friendly" option is a simple word table; the "Export to PDF" opens into a printable PDF file (but make sure you select the "fit the page" option). This format resembles the style of the former print edition. You may also "export to Excel," but remember to add ".xls" to the file name or chose "export to comma delimited file." These various options are available to use as a reference tool. Also remember, the information displayed is a member's directory address not their preferred address.
For any relevant marketing purposes, SLA makes our membership mailing list available. This list, which includes a member's preferred mailing address, excludes those members who do not want to participate and produces a non-dues revenue stream to the association for the one-time lease. Those interested in marketing products and services should contact Candy Brecht at Marketing General by telephone at (703) 706-0383 or visit virtual SLA at http://www.sla.org/content/shop/mailing.cfm to place an order. Before accessing the Who's Who Online, the user must accept a licensing agreement explaining the appropriate use of the information.
· Other information that had previously been in the Who's Who printed directory, such as the Buyer's Guide, is now available on the SLA website.
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