Page 5 - Sojourner Newsletter-Fall 2025v2

Volume 102, Issue 3 5

FROM THE WEBMASTER

Many of you out there seem to think that there’s really only
one website for National Sojourners. NOPE! There are
THREE – count ‘em – THREE. And, the login process for
each one is completely different as well. SO … when you
come in to me (and don’t ask HQ for help – they can’t help
you) and say simply “I can’t login to the website” or “I
need help logging in” you haven’t really helped me figure
out what your problem really is.

There is our MAIN member website – https://nationalsojourners.org. If you
point your browser there it will take you to the publicly viewable page on
our site, so you are NOT yet logged in as a member. Up at the top of that
page is a black ribbon with various links on it. Go all the way over to the
right and click on “Members Area” which will take you to another page
asking you to login with your username and password. While I can retrieve your username for you, I can
NOT retrieve your password (it’s encrypted for your privacy and protection). I can CHANGE your
password, but so can you. Trouble is, if you try to change it, the system SAYS it will send you an email
with instructions. Some of you don’t realize that the email comes from wordpress@nationalsojourners.org –
which 99.44% of the time will NOT be in your ISP or email client’s “white” or “safe” list until you
designate it so. Thus, the email will end up in your junk/spam folder. If you don’t routinely review that
folder, it can be quite large – as most automatic deletion algorithms range anywhere from a week to a month
before they automatically delete those emails. Caveat Emptor! Oh, by the way, some folks try to change
their “profile” on this system … you CAN’T, so stop trying.

Now, there is also the MMS (Member Management System) which is the database that has all your contact
and important membership information in it. This one you can inspect your profile and submit SOME
changes. If you end up not being able to submit a change, email hq with the information as they can change
those blocked fields for you. If you’ve never used MMS before, you must register for an account first. The
registration process is pretty easy BUT … the one thing that trips almost everyone up is your membership
number. If you have an MIP, then your MIP membership card has a number on it … BUT … that’s NOT
the number they want. You need to get your membership number from your chapter secretary. Then you
also need to answer a few questions and when you’ve done all that, hit “Register” – and you should get a
notice that registration was successful if you answered all the questions correctly (they are trying to make
sure you are really you). https://mms.nationalsojourners.org

Lastly, there is the FILE CABINETS – each chapter has one, each committee has one, and there are some
archival cabinets as well. This one is a bit harder to explain, and generally we would want the
SECRETARY to be the one interacting with the file cabinet system. https://files.nationalsojourners.org

Now, from the above discussion, you would THINK that all three of these sites reside on the same
computer in the same location … NOPE! THREE SEPARATE systems, different locations (for technical
reasons). They all are part of our main DOMAIN NAME, but that does NOT mean they reside on the same
machine…or that you can log into each one with the same username and password sequence.

Sincerely and Fraternally,
Bill Hickey
NSI Webmaster