Managing Semi-Active Members

We often get an interesting question that’s not strictly database related and it goes like this: “I have some members that don’t want to participate unless there’s an emergency. How do I enter them?”

These ‘semi-active’ members present a unique problem for administrators as they try to accommodate their request not to be contacted until or unless they’re actually needed in an emergency. The REAL question is this: In an emergency, will those ‘semi-active’ members know what to do? Will they know how the rest of the organization works? Will they know protocol? Will they be of any practical use? Unless they’re emergency management personnel (such as the Fire Chief or Police Chief), members need to participate with the rest of the team so that they know how the MRC unit works. Perhaps they can be excused from membership drives and administrative notices, but “Bat Signal” members may be a liability to the rest of the unit in an actual deployment.

For many members, it’s understandable that they don’t want to be deluged with e-mail about organizational issues, or about executive committee meetings. Some members just want to be available to help when needed, and very likely, they don’t object to drills or practical exercises.

To facilitate communications with members, assign members to groups that best suit your unit’s needs. For example, most units create an “Executive Committee” group, which makes it easy to create mailing (e-mail and snail-mail) lists for just the ExCom rather than ‘blasting’ the whole membership with messages intended for a few. You can create a “Practical Exercise” group and put these ‘semi-active’ members in that group.

How do I create preference groups?

1. From the member screen, select any member.
2. Click on the “Edit Master List” button in the Preferences tab.
3. In the empty box at the bottom, enter the name of the group you’d like to create, such as Exec Comm. Enter a description of the group, particularly if the name of the group is unclear.

Now that you have the preference group, to assign a member to the group just select t he member’s record  and drop-down the preference list and select the group.

How do I use the preference groups?

1. Go to Member Reports
2. Select the By Interest report.
3. Select the group
4. Run the report.

To see the enrollment in all your groups, skip selecting a group. Remember that members can (and do) sign up for different interests, so the total number of names on a full listing will be much higher than your actual membership since names will be duplicated on different groups.

As a Best Practice, however, all members should be notified of all relevant events. They’re free to hit the delete button if they’re not interested, but that may be preferable to missing an opportunity.