Frederick Membership Process

Subscribe and Follow Membership Forum

It is the Membership Coordinator's responsiblity to respond to discussions in the 'Membership Coordinator' forum. Click here for instructions for subscribing to the forums. Receiving a daily digest is the easiest way to stay informed.

Responding To New inquiries

Potential new members will contact you from one of two avenues. Either they will be referred by a current food club member from either of our chapters (Frederick, Gaithersburg, or Silver Spring). Or, they will have found us while searching online for local food clubs in the area. Below is the process for handling both scenarios.

Referral Process

A current member of the Frederick, Gaithersburg, or Silver Spring chapter refers a potential new member by emailing the membership coordinator and copying the potential new member;

Referred Prospective Member Sample Response Email

Prospective members who are referred by existing members should receive the following email in response.

Copy the referring member and chapter leads.
Attach the NCFC Goals and Policies and Membership Contract documents

Hi, [INSERT NAME]-
Thank you for your interest in the Frederick chapter of the Nourishing Connections Food Club. We are committed to helping our members obtain nutrient-dense foods and healthier personal care products and household supplies directly from independent farms, small businesses, and cottage industries. Please visit our Web site, which provides a lot of helpful information, including details on our suppliers: http://ncfc.foodclub.org/index.php. The attached document, NCFC Goals and Policies, provides an overview of how our club operates. Also attached is our Membership Contract that you can look over to better understand our membership expectations.

Attending a drop is the best way to decide whether the club is a good fit for you. Our bi-monthly drops are where we receive our food and goods from our suppliers, and they occur every other Tuesday at one of our member's homes in Frederick (1301 Motter Avenue). Our next drop is [INSERT DATE]. I can give you a tour at [INSERT TIME]. I will have a copy of the membership contract on hand at your tour so that if you like what you see you can join right away and get started ordering our wonderful products. Please let me know whether this time and date work for you and provide me with a contact number should I need to reach you the day of.

Best,
[YOUR NAME]
Membership Coordinator
NCFC-Frederick

Google search Process

If an individual Googles food clubs in Frederick and comes across ours. They will likely request membership from our database login page. The database will notify the membership coordinator of the request (make sure you are set up in the database to receive those notifications) or the request may go to Susanne Wiggins in the Gaithersburg chapter, who will reply and copy the Frederick membership coordinator if the person is interested in the Frederick chapter.

Currently, we have a policy to only accept new members who are known to us (that is, a personal referral from an existing member).

The Membership Coordinator responds to them with the following email:

Google Search Sample Response Email

Hi, [INSERT NAME]-
Thank you for your interest in the Frederick chapter of the food club. Unfortunately, at this time we only accept members through referral by an existing member. We have made that our policy to protect the members of our club. Not only do we meet at a member's home, but since members of our club front personal funds to cover the initial costs of purchases, knowing everyone in the club is very important.

I can put you on a list of people who have found us through a Google search as we have talked about potentially having a meet-and-greet at our annual picnic in the fall so we could get to know you.

I'm sorry that it's not going to work out at this time but perhaps it will in the future.

Best,
[YOUR NAME]
Membership Coordinator
NCFC-Frederick

Obviously, well in advance of the 2013 picnic there needs to be a discussion about whether people on the waiting list will be invited to attend so the group can get to know them.

Managing the Waitlist

As of July 2013, Frederick has a waiting list. We have decided to add new members at a rate of two per month. We need to work through that list before we can add any other new members. Please ensure that your initial contact with any potential new members advises them of the waiting list and that you will be in touch when their name comes up. Update the actual waitlist spreadsheet with notes (including dates) so you have a record of first contact and how you followed up with that person.

Below is a sample email to send to prospective members on the waitlist.

Waitlist Letter to Prospective Members

Attach Goals and Policies and Membership Handbook

Dear (NAME)

Thank you for your interest in the Frederick chapter of the Nourishing Connections Food Club. We are committed to helping our members obtain nutrient-dense foods and healthier personal care products and household supplies directly from independent farms, small businesses, and cottage industries. Please visit our Web site, which provides a lot of helpful information, including details on our suppliers: http://ncfc.foodclub.org/index.php. The attached documents provide an overview of how our club operates (NCFC Goals and Policies) and expectations for members (Member Contract).

We have recently begun accepting new members again at a rate of two per month. I will put your name on our waiting list and I will be in contact when your name comes up so that you can do a drop tour to decide whether the club is a good fit for you. Our bi-monthly drops are where we receive our food and goods from our suppliers, and they occur every other Tuesday at one of our member's homes in Frederick. There will be a contract on hand at your tour so that if you like what you see you can join right away and get started ordering our wonderful products.

Best,

(YOUR NAME)
Membership Coordinator
NCFC-Frederick

Conducting A Tour

At the tour of our drop site, make sure to cover the following topics:

General overview of food club processes: Product coordinators, ordering cycles, sorting and pickup
Database navigation (*be sure to let them know that they have to wait 24 hours for access to the Wiki)
Email communication (Frederick@foodclub.org and ncfc@foodclub.org) and forum communication
Volunteer commitment
Expectations surrounding making it to a drop on time and making payments
Dues (currently $12 annually prorated for members who join mid-year)
Drop site etiquette (children, parking, etc.)
Review Goals and Policies Contract with the Prospective Member
Review Membership Contract with the Prospecitive Member

If Prospective Member Is Interested In Joining
- Have them sign a contract and return it to you
- Do not collect dues at this time. The Treasurer will be contacting them regarding their dues payment.

Response Email To Interested Member

Once you have a signed contract in hand, send the following email. Make sure to copy Chapter Leads and Treasurer.

Hi, [INSERT NAME]-

Now that I've got your contract in hand, you can head over to the login page for our database at http://www.foodclub.org/frederick/login and click on "Register as a new user." The system will notify me that you have registered, I'll approve you, and then you'll have access. I've also added you to our email listserv so you should start seeing emails in your inbox from frederick@foodclub.org and ncfc@foodclub.org. Our Food Club Chapter Leaders Ashley Campbell and Sarah Frost send out our weekly email updates on Fridays. Finally, I have copied [INSERT TREASURER], our Treasurer, who will provide you with information regarding dues collection.

Let me know if you have any questions. Again, welcome!
Best,
[YOUR NAME]
Membership Coordinator
NCFC-Frederick

Next Step: Activate Member

There are 3 steps to activating a member.

Looking for membership request.
Approving their membership request.
Adding them to our mailman email list.

All 3 steps must be done in order to successfully activate a member and get them ready to using our food club.

Look For New users waiting for approval

Look for an email notification indicating that a new member is awaiting approval. OR,
Watch the food club site at the top left-hand corner of the main page, under your 'Welcome, [YOUR NAME] for a banner that 'NEW USERS WAITING FOR APPROVAL'. When you see this, the new member has requested access to our food club system. To accept their memberhsip request, do the folllowing

Accept Their Membership Request

Go to the 'User Maintenance' page. Click on 'User Maintenance' from the green box on the left-hand side of the food club page. At the top of the User Maintenance Page, you will see the new member's request, and you can either Reject or Confirm the request. If you reject the request, send a follow-up email informing the person of the reason.

Make sure the Welcome Letter is accurate before accepting their request. To update the Welcome Letter click here.

Click on the 'Global Settings' link in the green section on the left-hand side of the food club pages.
Click on the 'new user registration email content' link.
Update the Welcome Letter as needed. Click 'Save New User Email Content' button to save changes.

Add Them To the Mailman Email List

Once you have accepted their membership request, add them to our Mailman Email List. This will ensure that they will receive emails from the frederick@foodclub.org and ncfc@foodclub.org email lists. This is our main communication to them, so please don't forget this step. :)

To add one or multiple new members at once, do the following:

Go to http://mail.foodclub.org/mailman/admin/frederick/logout.
Type in the case-sensitive password “nCFc.” *For some reason, you have to do this twice before it works!
Click on “Membership Management,” then “Mass Subscription.”
Type the new member’s email address in the first blank box and enter “Submit your changes.”
Click on “Membership List” and find the new member’s email (it will alphabetize it by the first letter or number in the person’s email. You can then write the person’s full name in the box shown and click “Submit your changes.”
Logout

Follow-Up!

This is a very important step. I suggest giving the member a week or two to poke around in the food club system so that they start getting acclimated. Then send a followup email to see how it is going and ask if they have any questions. This is also the time to start seeing what volunteer role(s) they are interested in taking on.

Maintaining Welcome Letter

When the membership coordinator accepts the new users, the new user automatically gets the Welcome Letter which is under "Global settings" in the 'New user registration e-mail content' section.
The membership coordinator is responsible for updating the Welcome Letter on an as-needed basis as process or policies change.

Click on the 'Global Settings' link in the green section on the left-hand side of the food club pages.
Click on the 'new user registration email content' link.
Update the Welcome Letter as needed. Click 'Save New User Email Content' button to save changes.

Handling Members That Want To Stop Food Club

There are 3 scenarios of a user: deleted, suspended, or disabled. Please see my post on this to the Club Coordinator’s forum. I’m actually confused on how each of the statuses work. http://www.foodclub.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=407&t=3027.

Determine Membership Status of Member

There are several reasons that a member would want to stop using the club. Some are temporary, while others are permanent. Some reasons are intiated by the member, while some may be the club's decision.

The system can handle 3 types of inactive users.

Suspended Member

'Suspended' State details:

Suspended users show up everywhere still, but they are just not allowed to log in.
The 'Suspended' state should really be called the inactive state.
Put members in the 'Suspended' state, when a member wants to leave the club temporarily, but has intentions of coming back.

Disabled Member

'Disabled' state details:

Suspended users that are 'disabled' do not show up in the "Edit order" dropdown or the Member directory
Disabled users are one step away from being deleted: they don't show up anywhere except for User maintenance, which is a full-admin-only page.
Put users in the 'Disabled' state, when they no longer wish to be a part of the club. They can still come back though, b/c they have not broken the contract and/or policies.

Delete Member

'Delete' state details:

Delete the member when they are removed from the club for not abiding by the club contract and polices.

Instructions for Changing Membership Status For A Member

Go to the foodclub main page.
Click on 'User Maintenance' in the green box on the left-hand side of the page.
Select the checkbox next to the user's name that you want to change.
- The checkbox will be found on the left-hand side of the member's row.
Scroll down to the very bottom of the list, you will find options.
Click the appropriate button, 'Suspend Selected Users', 'Disable Selected Users', or 'Delete Selected Users'.
Verify that the status was changed by checking each member's 'Status' Column.

If A Member Wants to Leave Temporarily

See if the member wants to still receive emails from the food club to stay up on happenings.
If they do:

No need to do anything with mailman
Change their membership status to 'Suspended'.

If they do not want to receive emails:

Remove them from mailman. Go to http://mail.foodclub.org/mailman/admin/. No changes inside Foodclub User maintenance will affect Mailman subscriptions- you have to do it yourself.
Change their membership status to 'Suspended'.

If A Member Wants to Leave And Not Sure If They Will Be Returning

Confirm that the member will be removed from Mailman (no longer receive emails).

Remove them from mailman. Go to http://mail.foodclub.org/mailman/admin/. No changes inside Foodclub User maintenance will affect Mailman subscriptions- you have to do it yourself.

Change their membership status to 'Disabled'.

If the Food Club Removes the Member

If a member is not abiding by the contract and club goals/polocies,

Remove them from mailman. Go to http://mail.foodclub.org/mailman/admin/. No changes inside Foodclub User maintenance will affect Mailman subscriptions- you have to do it yourself.

Change their membership status to 'Disabled'.

Ensure Member Closes Up Loose Ties

Ensure member closes out all orders. If orders are still awaiting payment/pickup, the member needs to pickup those final orders and pay PCs before officially going inactive.
If the member holds a role, the member will have to make sure that all info is transferred to the next member taking over their role.

'Scrub' The Membership List

Twice a year, go through the membership directory and contact members that have not been ordering and are not participating in the club to see wether or not they would like to continue. Update their membership status accordingly based on the 3 membership states (delete, disabled, and suspended). Click here for help in determining which state to use for a given situation. By doing this, members that are disabled and suspended will not be asked for annual dues, nor asked to sort.

Update Member Contact Information in the Member Directory

To update a members address, phone number, cell, email that is listed in the Membership Directory, do the following:

From the foodclub main page, click on the 'User Maintenance' link in the green box on the left-hand side of the page.
On the 'User Maintenance' page, find the member that you wish to update.
In the far right column, select the 'User Settings' link.
Update the user settings accordingly, and click 'Update User Settings'.

NCFC:Frederick Membership Process

Contents