[OSMF-membership] Managing OSMF membership using CiviCRM

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 01/08/2015 08:17 PM, Jonathan Harley wrote:
> I don't think it's a google spreadsheet, but if it is, we can fix that
> problem in five minutes by switching it to an openoffice spreadsheet,
> emailed (preferably encrypted) to whoever needs it (preferably with a
> version number that gets incremented every time a change is made). Or
> shared via dropbox or similar. Or perhaps there's already something set
> up for sharing files on the OSM servers?

I know you're not serious, and just offering this as a riposte to
Simon's "anything is better than what we have now".

Still, I have to comment: There are two sides to this whole thing, one
is the actual data set which can easily be copied, the other is
procedures (what happens when someone signs up, when a membership
expires, when a payment comes in). Not only are these procedures
currently manually executed (at the cost of a significant amount of
time), they're also undocumented which means that their proper execution
depends on one person alone.

There is a good chance that using software to handle this will improve
the situation, or saying it more harshly, a CiviCRM based solution that
is so arcane that only one person can operate it would probably *not* be
an improvement ;)

I can see how you, as a methodical person, have some reservations about
hitting the ground running in this case, but this is probably because
you lack the backstory of how Henk started looking into CiviCRM *years*
ago and how this went through different iterations and different hands
and I, for one, am quite happy to see that Jonathan Bennett has prepared
the ground for a successful introduction of CiviCRM. That doesn't mean
that this group is useless - it just means that an initial obstacle
which could otherwise be mulled about for years has already been
(mostly) cleared, and the group can go to work with the next bit.

Of course if this initial step - drawing up requirements and selecting
or creating a suitable software or service - was the *only* bit that
attracted your attention, I can see how you'd be a bit miffed, but I'm
sure there are schools of project management that can deal with "jfdi
and we can still fix stuff later" ;)

I'm also quite sure that within the framework of CiviCRM there will be
lots of (software) things that we can attack once we have the groundwork
in place. - It has already been mentioned that CiviCRM can be used to
run donation campaigns, sell tickes for conferences, run polls, or even
manage merchandise orders. All that certainly doesn't fall out of the
sky and there will be more work than just switching on a feature...

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"