Below you will find all kinds of useful information and tips to help you keep your WI's Membership Communication System details up-to-date. If you have any queries or require further information or help with any aspect of MCS input, then please do not hesitate to contact Sue Lobb who will be happy to assist and advise you.
WI LIFE MAGAZINE
If you have elected not to receive WI Life magazine which is included with your yearly subscription, then a better alternative to having your name removed from the MCS is to ask your MCS Rep to record your address as WI House instead of your home address. This way, you will be properly recorded as a fully paid up member of WI, and your copy of the magazine can be used by the WIAs for promotional purposes and when opening new WIs within the Federation.
DATA PROTECTION
To ensure you do not receive unwanted and unsolicited mailings from NFWI or other companies, members should be reminded to make sure they have ticked the data protection box when filling in their details for the MCS Reps to enter on to the system. As long as you do this, you will receive no unwanted mail from these sources because they are obliged by law to obey your instruction. The only exceptions, of course, will be the twice yearly NFWI mailings to Officers within your WI, and the occasional promotional leaflets usually sent to your Secretary for distribution to members.
In recent months, some WI Treasurers may have received an unsolicited mailshot letter, personally addressed to them, from a company called D H Business Support. Please be assured that your contact details have NOT been garnered from the MCS. Rather, this company has picked the details up from the Charities Commission listings where (if your WI has hitherto been registered individually as a Charity) your contact details may be available. Of course, you may also ignore the letter if you’ve had one, since it is just a mailshot looking for new business, unless you wish to contact them to request that they take you off their mailing
list.
THE WI MOODLE
The WI Moodle is the NFWI's learning platform. NEWS! Have you registered for the WI Moodle yet? The automatic member registration is now available. To become registered as a WI Moodle user, please contact your local Membership Communication Services Representative (MCS rep) – if you do not know who this is in your WI, please contact your WI Secretary. Your MCS rep will need to add your email address to your basic details if it’s not already there and assign you as an ‘online learner’ using the drop-down menu in the positions area. Please note that it can take 24 hours from registration to access the WI Moodle. Once you are assigned and you have received your login information from NFWI, then click on WI Moodle in the Related Sites box to the right-hand side of this page - and away you go!!
The site contains useful resources and information on competitions, crafts and links to other websites. There are forums and links to WI blogs, Facebook and Twitter. So join up – there is something for everyone!
UPDATING OFFICERS FOLLOWING ANNUAL MEETINGS
Following your Annual Meeting you may have to change some or all of your officers on the MCS database. PLEASE NOTE that you will have to identify your new President and/or Secretary on the system before deleting (revoking) the office against the old President's/Secretary's name. If you try to delete the old one first, you will get a message stating:
President - - You cannot revoke this position from this member, as this would leave the institute without an active president. To do so, you must first assign another member as President of this institute.
OR
Secretary - You cannot revoke this position from this member, as this would leave the institute without an active secretary. To do so, you must first assign another member as secretary of this institute.
VENUE INFORMATION
You should make sure that all your venue information is kept up to date by entering the appropriate details on to the MCS system. This will ensure that your meeting details appear correctly on the WI list page on the WI website - click on “WIs” on the left-hand menu to select individual WI names.
VENUE ACCESSIBILITY
If you haven't already done so, please make sure you amend the "Disability Access Options" box on your main WI information page which you select by clicking on "WI Membership" along the top bar, then select "click here to view information about [your WI name]" in the first paragraph.
POST CODES
At the beginning of April 2009, NFWI made an adjustment to the way details are input to the MCS. This means that, from now on, you MUST enter a new member's address by putting in the postcode and then selecting a house number from the selection shown on the ensuing drop-down menu. Failure to enter data this way, could mean that errors will be made when sending out WI Life magazines and/or NFWI mailings to Presidents/Secretaries. Similarly, if a member notifies you of a change of address, you must enter the new address in the manner outline above.
KEEPING UP-TO-DATE
If you are not your WI's Secretary or Treasurer, then make sure that you are kept up-to-date with current membership details - and this includes those members who have decided not to rejoin; they should be removed from the MCS list.
JOINING DATE
Please remember when you enter a new member on to the MCS, you must enter the date they joined - if this is not shown on the membership form, then please ask the member for the information.
This date ensures they are picked up by NFWI as a new member, and they should then receive their welcome pack, as well as WI Life from the next available issue.