Page 5 - Spring Sojourner Newsletter-Spring 2024 Final

Volume 101, Issue 2 5

FROM THE WEBMASTER

There are TWO very important topics I need to address in this issue.

1. SECRETARIES: you are our primary focal point for communications with your members.
NEW members coming into your chapter need to understand how their new memberships
will be processed so they don’t have unreasonable expectations. I see all too many newly
initiated members coming to me and asking for “member only” access to the website. I
simply can’t (and won’t) grant “member” access to the website UNTIL and UNLESS they are
shown in the member database (MMS: Member Management System). The process for this goes something
like this: Your chapter initiates the new member. Ostensibly, this means your secretary has a petition with
all the appropriate qualifying information about the member AND he has collected the appropriate fees
(either annual dues or an MIP fee). The secretary MUST translate a written petition form into digital form
(.pdf) and forward ELECTRONICALLY to the national office for processing. That’s the FIRST part of the
puzzle. But, he must also forward the funds to the office as well. Now, technically speaking, he may have
a check from the new initiate, so that means using the USPS if the check was made out to the National
Sojourners Trust Fund (MIP), but maybe the new member made the check out to the chapter. If that’s the
case, the chapter must forward the per capita portion to the national office or the MIP on behalf of the
member, whichever is appropriate. I haven’t had to do it yet, but technically one could forward the funds
electronically … BUT … there is usually a processing fee associated with EBT’s, so check with the office
before you decide to try that to make SURE that you are processing everything correctly. Remember, there
is a processing fee associated with just about anything electronically anymore…so stay on top of things.
OK, you’ve sent in the petition electronically, and now you’ve either mailed or electronically paid the fees.
Someone in the office must now take the information from the electronic sheet and create a database record
(in the MMS). If the membership is for an MIP, there is yet another process to get them entered into the
trust fund database – and everything has to marry up. SO, the upshot of all this is … it takes TIME to make
all this happen.

Now, as most everyone knows, the office has had a number of setbacks in the last year or two – illness,
personnel shortages, and so on. When you have only 3 people working in the office and one of them
suddenly is not available for any length of time, it presents some pretty serious challenges. SO, if your
membership information doesn’t get entered right away, please understand that everything in the office
MUST be prioritized. Some things just have to be done before others. EVENTUALLY, your information
will be entered into the database and I will see it. I maintain a pending queue for people who have asked for
access to the site but who are not yet in the database. I check it periodically and update the rolls
accordingly. Right now, I have approximately 2500 user accounts on the website. Give me a break too, as I
have other responsibilities just like everyone else.

2. The Rise of AI: If you are on the internet, you probably have noticed an uptick in spam/malware
emails into your inbox. Aside from a run-up in these incidents associated with our national elections later
this year and the war in Ukraine (which is normal, by the way), I am seeing a significant increase in the use
of AI (Artificial Intelligence) platforms such as ChatGPT and others being used to create VERY REAL
LOOKING imitations of legitimate websites and emails. The old “telltales” of grammar, syntax,
punctuation are no longer a giveaway in a phishing message. Just the other day, I got an email ostensibly
from Chase Bank. It LOOKED absolutely legitimate (logo, pristine language, even had some information
that identified me personally). I hovered over the “from” signature and it APPEARED legitimate. As I
examined the email further, I noticed a peculiar thing. Despite how legitimate it LOOKED, the message
expected me to put in a PIN and some other unique information that was associated with my account. Now,
we all know when an email or website asks for that kind of information, it SHOULD send up a big red
flag…AND, it did. I examined the source code of the email (headers) and buried inside the multitude of
header lines was an indicator of who the REAL sender was … and it wasn’t Chase. But, if all I had done
was hover over the “from” line in the email itself, it would have told me that the sender was legitimate and I
could have compromised my financial account if I didn’t pay attention. The upshot of all this is … you will
need to be MUCH MUCH MORE CAREFUL with emails and websites, most especially if it involves either
Personal Private Information (PPI) or financial information. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

– Bill Hickey, National Webmaster (webmaster@usncva.org)