THE URANTIA BOOK FELLOWSHIP
ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE

As faith-enlightened and spirit-liberated sons of the kingdom of heaven, you face a double responsibility ofduty to man and duty to God while you voluntarily assume a third and sacred obligation: service to the brotherhood of God-knowing believers. [178:1.5]

Issues for EC subcommittee meeting
Oklahoma City August 15, 2003

International Fellowship Committee
Website
Administrative Database

In terms of administrative functions there are two areas in which specific work flow procedures need to be reviewed and, in most cases, developed.  The first is the interaction between myself as committee chair and the Chicago office.  The second is the work flow within the committee itself.

The role of Secretary-General has never been quite clear to me in terms of an administrative position.  I'm never sure which requests for information should be directed to the Secretary-General and which should be directed to the office.  It seems to me that the scope of this administrative role should be reconsidered as a part of our present transition. 

I view the Chicago office as a storehouse of information and John as the person who knows where the information is.  He also collects and stores information.  For both the website and the International Fellowship Committee I have the following interactions with the Chicago office.

1. At present John provides me with information as I request it -- information about organizational procedures, information about past administrative decisions, or information about individuals who have contacted me with specific requests.

2. He forwards written letters from international readers which come to the office address and require a response. 

3. He files receipts for my committee expenses which are submitted for reimbursement. 

4. There are several monthly billings related to our Internet presence which are sent directly to the office for payment by the service provider.

Here are my suggestions for transitioning these functions:

1. An administrative procedures manual is a must, but creating this document will likely be a significant task.  An intermediate step would be the creation of a searchable archive containing all past Council and EC minutes.  I have been unsuccessful in getting the original documents I need to create such an archive.  I need EC action here to require that these documents be provided to me by a certain time.  They do not need to be scanned or anything else -- simply getting me the documents, be they in paper or electronic form, would be sufficient to get this going.  In addition to creating this archive the EC needs to insist on specific procedures being followed so that the archive can be maintained.  For example, the EC could mandate that electronic copies of approved minutes be sent to the website team within 2 weeks after their approval and that the website team is to have these included in the archive no later than 2 weeks after their receipt -- something like this to assure the integrity of an ongoing process.

2. Any letters from international readers should be forwarded directly to the chair of the International Fellowship Committee by the person sorting the mail.

3. We need to have a clear understanding about which documents we need to keep in paper form and which may be digitized and discarded.  I suggest that we create an electronic form for use by committee chairs (or other members) who are seeking reimbursement for Fellowship expenses.  This form would appear on a restricted access portion of the website and would provide input to the database.  A copy of the form and pdf versions of related receipts should be stored in an on-line archive for a specified period of time.  This form should evolve over time to the point where it breaks down expenditures into specific categories which can then be used by the Executive Committee to evaluate budget requests.  I suggest that the Executive Committee set and enforce specific guidelines for this to assure that entries into the database and scanning of related documents are completed within a prescribed period of time.

4.  Recurring billings by outside service providers should be sent to a destination determined by the Executive Committee.

The remainder of this document concerns itself with issues related to the implementation of the administrative database.

Needs Related to Internet operations

1. The Executive Committee needs to task someone with helping me get a means on the website for handling financial transactions.  I've been requesting this for a significant period of time -- it is a critical need.

2. I need a list of all of the organizational forms which should be available on the website.

Other matters are being managed internally within the group of individuals working on the website.

Needs Related to International Fellowship Committee

1. Reimbursement of related expenses incurred by committee members.

2. Timely forwarding of all international mail to chair of IFC.  (Please copy the Chair on any mail sent to committee members or others who may be working on international issues.)

All other matters are being handled internally.

Needs Related to the Administrative Database

1.  The administrative database must be put into full use.

The administrative database needs to be put into use.  It must evolve with usage.  Software is living and dynamic, not just a static, finished product. Without it being used in the real world it cannot be fine-tuned to better serve organizational purposes.  The Executive Committee needs to mandate that it be used and maintained.  Procedures for doing this will be outlined below.  At present John is maintaining his old database and other lists which are used for organizational reference.  This is good as a backup during this transition but the Executive Committee should mandate some point in time at which all organizational information is drawn from the administrative database.  For example, creating lists of Councilors, Society Officers, etc.

Likewise, the Executive Committee should mandate that electronic versions of publications be sent to those requesting them.  The fact that at present twenty five people have requested this form of communication is not insignificant.  It is sufficient to get processes in place in anticipation of greater future demand.  Again, the Executive Committee needs to mandate that this be implemented and provide time limits within which the implementation should be accomplished.

2. A formal procedure for requesting modifications to the database needs to be established -- version control.

One of the key elements of this process is a formalized procedure for requesting modifications and additions.  The overall architecture of the database and its direction of development must always be taken into consideration when making changes.  Spur-of-the-moment changes made to accommodate some suddenly appearing need are ultimately destructive and need to be avoided.  Having a formal procedure eliminates this problem. 

3. There needs to be a clear understanding of which documents need to be preserved in paper form and which may be discarded after digitizing and electronic filing. 

An important part of this item is having a clear understanding of which electronic documents should be periodically preserved in paper form as an ultimate backup -- such as our accounting database, perhaps the reader database, and perhaps an archive containing at least one paper copy of every periodical and publication (such as President's letters).

4. Procedures for creating and storing backups need to be formalized.  Backups need to be kept for the accounting database as well.

The Executive Committee should mandate specific backup procedures for all digital data.  Storage procedures should also be mandated.  Someone should be tasked with checking to make sure that these procedures are being followed -- perhaps the Secretary General.  In addition to procedures for backing up data the Executive Committee should insist that tests be conducted periodically to assure that Fellowship information systems can be successfully reconstructed from the backups.  These tests should be conducted according to a schedule set by the Executive Committee and reports should be sent to the Secretary General who would then archive them or inform the Executive Committee of any problems.

            5. Criteria for database maintenance need to be established.

The database is a dynamic collection of data.  It should have new records being added frequently and old records should be deleted or archived on a regular basis.  Criteria need to be established for the deletion/archiving process -- which records get saved and which ones get deleted.  For example, if someone dies who has a record of organizational service, we would likely want to retain their information.  If someone sent an email from the website requesting information and was added to the database and we didn't hear from this individual again for ten years we might want to eliminate that person's record.

We should be looking at the database as our primary tool for managing membership and our contribution stream.  We should be adding people from as many sources as we can find, sending those people a sequence of mailings designed to foster interest in the book and in our organization.  If there is no response at the end of the mailing sequence, the name should be dropped.  For example, if someone adds their name to our mailing list at an expo, there should be an automated sequence of mailings which go to that person at some pre-determined interval, perhaps quarterly for a year.  These mailings should be designed to foster interest and elicit a response which would lead to involvement by the individual. 

Procedures need to be established for removing or archiving names when printed matter is returned from the post office indicating a bad address.  This needs to be done in a timely manner so that any subsequent mailing does not have repeat returns.

            6. Criteria for access to the database need to be established.

There are two primary issues here; who can have access to organizational information, and, who can edit organizational information.  These two elements are further broken down into heirarchies -- levels of responsibility within the organization and the range of information available. 

Another consideration are the several modes of access to the database.  There are three primary modes of access.

a. Data may be published in the form of web pages available over the Internet with a password.

b. The database itself may be directly accessed using a software product such as pcAnywhere or Windows Remote Terminal.  This software allows the user to log onto the web server and work on the database as if it were an application residing on the user's own computer.

c. A network connection may be used over the Internet which replicates the functionality of a local area network in an office.  In this mode the user has a copy of the FileMaker software residing on his or her own computer and the database is accessed over the Internet just the same as if it resided in a directory on the user's computer or a file server in the user's office.

A fourth mode would be the ability to download a copy of the database for doing extensive manipulations of the data on a local workstation.

These factors need to be considered as part of the process of establishing a robust security environment.  There is a balancing which needs to be done here between maintaining the integrity of the database while allowing as much use of its information as possible.  (See item 7 below.)

7. A plan for segmentation of the readership needs to be implemented. 

As outlined in my April 2003 report, a segmentation model should be implemented which would control access to the database as well as access to information on the website.  Here is an example of a segmentation model:

            a. Organizational officers
            b. Executive Committee members
            c. General Councilors

            d. Society officers

            e. Contributors (categorized by contributions during some specified period of time)

                        1. Over $5,000

                        2. $1,000 to $5,000

                        3. $500 to $1,000

                        4. Under $500

            f. Conference registrants

            g. Requests to be added to mailing list received by email or office

            h. Names gathered at Expo's or other public presentations

These categories can be used for a variety of purposes including specialized solicitations, focused educational efforts, etc.

8. The Executive Committee should mandate that I be provided with specific organizational information and be provided with that information within a specified time frame.  This information includes:

            a. All available registration databases used at past conferences

            b. Copies of Executive Committee minutes from all past meetings.

            c. Copies of any secondary lists which are used by the Chicago office for administrative purposes.

9.  Specific database issues currently needing implementation:

            a. One record per person

            b. We need to collect language information for each individual

            c. We should have information about each individual's interest in being active on committees, etc. as well as information about each individuals' skills.

            d. A small database committee should make and have responsibility for implementing procedures.  I suggest myself, Robert Burns, Steve Dreier, and John Hales.

            e. Mailing label procedures -- why aren't we simply sending an electronic file to the mailing house rather than printing and shipping our own labels? 

10. Somewhere a list of filing dates we need to observe for various administrative functions needs to be maintained with automated email notification to appropriate Executive Committee members.

Additional issues:

1. Archiving of source copy of text of The Urantia Book

2. Organization-wide file naming conventions (include date?)