IO INFO October 2011

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IO INFO October 2011

Postby Keith Wheeland » Oct 9, 2011 8:46 am

Introduction:
The IO INFO is published almost monthly or more often as necessary. It contains items of interest to IOs that have been submitted by others or included from my own list of things that I think IOs should be aware of. IO INFO is sent to all IO Contacts to be shared with the members of the IOs. If this is not happening notify your IO officers and request them to set up a mechanism to allow this to happen. A lot of IOs already do this by forwarding the publication to the electronic list of members.
The president, Wm Shrewsbury, told me that a number of IOs have not been sending the IO INFO to their members and suggested that I should post the issues on Cave Chat.
In this first issue to be posted on Cave Chat, I’ve included some basic information about the IO online record. You may find a lot of information on the IO website at www.caves.org/committee/i-o/
All IO officers should know what topics are on the IO website.
This issue contains the following items.
1)A note from the Membership Committee which pertains to Individual NSS memberships
2) About the online IO record
>>>1)A note from the Membership Committee which pertains to Individual NSS memberships:Something to remind your grotto members about, for a lot of times, cavers just get lost in the shuffle of moving, changing computer addys, telephone numbers, etc. So here are some thoughts to take care of in this first thought from the Membership Committee. :>)
1. Just a friendly reminder if you move, change your phone number, or your email addy, please let the NSS Office-- nss@caves.org --know of that change. You wonder why you're not getting your great NSS NEWS, but sometimes, it's because you've moved and forgot to let the NSS Office know about that change.
When it's renewing membership to the NSS, you wonder why we can't find you, and it's because you've changed your email addy, so just like your power and water bills, please let the NSS Office know of this switch.
And, last, but not least, let even the NSS Office know of your phone number changes, for sometimes, folks try and phone you and the number is disconnected or doesn't recognize the number, so...these three items are all very important. :>) When we use our Member’s Manual, this is where a lot of us try and get info from, so…’tis very important to be updated…even if not until the following time it comes out. (Yeah, I know, I know… the MM won’t be coming out this year, but…you get the point, right?
2. If you haven’t been to CaveChat sponsored by the NSS-- http://www.cavechat.org/ - there’s been some great discussions going on; and, one such discussion has been how the NSS grottos can be more accepting of new cavers into their grotto.
3. Going along with #2, above, one of the items that the NSS has been working with the Planning Committee, as well as the Membership Committee, is this read that you and other grotto members should be learning more about. http://www.caves.org/committee/planning ... treach.pdf We sometimes blame the BOG for things that go wrong, but when you read this document, you’ll see that the BOG has a great calendar of events lined up for several years, if it can be implemented. With our new BOG and new President, Wm Shrewsbury, I believe we’ll begin to see changes…but we’ve got to give them the time to work on the problems that a number of folks have been writing about in CaveChat, so…discuss it at your grotto meetings, like in November and December, for you’ll need the time to digest all sixteen pages. And, then write to the BOG members and/or the Planning Committee and let them know your grotto’s feelings.
You’ve got to remember, BOG members are volunteers like all of us in the grottos; thus, they only have so much time to devote to NSS issues and get things solved.
4. And, finally, for those of you who attended this past great convention, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, you know that the NSS Membership Committee had a survey going on about a few items on what was good and bad about the NSS. Nothing is going to be perfect, right? Any reactions to this or the surveys before the convention, can be mailed to us at membership@caves.org and it will get to the members on the committee.
~Ernie Coffman
>>>2) About the online IO record
An IO (Internal Organization) --which means internal to the NSS – may be a Grotto, a Region, a Section, or a Survey. These are the only IOs. There are other groups recognized by the NSS but they are not IOs.
Each IO has an online record that may be accessed and updated by using the IO Serial Number that was assigned at the time of chartering plus a password unique to the IO. The person in the IO responsible for keeping the record up to date may update the record at any time. When the record is updated during the month of January, it is considered as submitting the IO Annual Report for the previous calendar year to the IO Committee. That is a requirement of each IO in order to retain their charter. It generally takes less than 5 minutes to make this happen. Perhaps even less time if the record has been updated throughout the year. You can go online and see what is in the record for your grotto by going to the NSS website and clicking on Find a Local Caving Club, then select the state in which your IO is located. A list of grottos will be presented. Alternately you can click on NSS Organization in the left hand column, then scroll down until you find Internal Organizations. You may click on any of the IOs to see a list. Since the information is collected in real time from the online record, you can see the importance of keeping the online record up to date during the year. Be sure that you assign this task to someone in your IO who likes to do it, so that it gets done between cave trips. That means that the administrative work gets done and you can go caving without worrying about it.
Keith
NSS Internal Organizations (IO) Committee Chair
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Keith Wheeland
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Re: IO INFO October 2011

Postby Cheryl Jones » Oct 9, 2011 11:30 pm

Just a friendly reminder if you move, change your phone number, or your email addy, please let the NSS Office-- nss@caves.org --know of that change.


Actually, rather than emailing the information, it is much better to use the online change of information form. On the NSS home page, click "Member Change of Info," and zap! you're there.

By using the online form, you'll be sure all the information the staff requires to access and amend your data in the database is delivered, and in a format that lets them make the changes efficiently.

You can also use this form to:
**opt out of receiving paper copies of the Journal of Caves and Karst Studies, and
**change your primary grotto affiliation.
:wtg:

Cheryl
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