ACDS Membership Renewal Process 2018
About a week ago, you or the person identified as your accounting contact should have received an email with your invoice for the 2018/19 ACDS membership fee and a link to the Membership Renewal form on Survey Monkey.
I understand that the Membership Renewal form is causing some consternation. Thank you to those of you who contacted me with your concerns. I sincerely appreciate your time and feedback, and assure you that you have been heard. Please allow me to identify some of the key issues raised, and to provide some background, via the FAQ below:
Why does the renewal form ask for information already on file
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I know, it makes me mad too when that happens. However, what's happening is that, to help us serve you better, we are implementing a new membership information management system to replace our old database which has outdated and incomplete records. Some of the information we have on members goes back to when they first applied for membership (for some of you, that was over four decades ago!). We want to ensure that our new records are accurate and complete. The good news is that when you renew your membership next year, the information you provide this year will be pre-populated on your renewal form. All you will have to do is skim over it to make sure nothing substantial has changed.
Why are you asking about services, financial, and HR information?
I get it, you may feel that it's a bit much. However, to be effective advocates for our members, we need to have an accurate handle on the profile of our members. Collectively, our members represent a very large portion of PDD-funded agencies. If we can pull data that says we represent organizations that serve X-thousand individuals, employ X-thousand people, and contribute X-millions of dollars to the Alberta economy, then politicians really begin paying attention to us, and to the concerns or solutions we bring to the table. Strange as it may seem, we as a sector do not have a single data source that we can readily access for this information. Part of our advocacy work this year, in fact, is about getting access to better data about the sector from the government.
I would also like to assure you that most of the information requested in the form is not mandatory (you don't have to provide it if you don't want to)
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and also that what you do provide will be respected as confidential, to be aggregated to create an overall profile of the sector.
We feel like we're surveyed to death in this sector, and nothing results from all that effort.
I hear your frustration! The PDD system is particularly crazy about wanting feedback. It's a huge drain on people's time, and the ACDS membership renewal form is yet one more thing on the pile. In part, the information gathered in our renewal form will help us to reduce the number of surveys we do this year. I also want to assure you that when we at ACDS do any information
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gathering activities going forward, you will get a timely summary of what we learned
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shared either via our regular bi-weekly member updates, or a separate publication. Of course, I can't speak for what government will do or not do....
Why can't I print or save the renewal form from Survey Monkey?
We use Survey Monkey because, well, it's cheap, and we want to use your membership dollars and our funding as prudently as we can. When our new information management system is implemented, hopefully we'll be able to send our forms and surveys out from our own system for free, and allow users to print/save if needed.
If you want to preview the questions before filling out the online renewal form, please see the attached copy. Please don't use this copy to submit your information; use it to gather the information you need, and complete your Member Renewal in Survey Monkey.
Why is membership fee tied to the organization's payroll amount?
This is how the fee structure was voted into place by the ACDS Board many many years ago. We recognize that payroll amounts do not always equate to overall revenues. We will bring this to the attention of the Board to review for the 2019 membership year.
Thank you!
I would like to reiterate that I truly appreciate hearing from you. Your feedback helps us immensely in our ongoing activities to improve our membership benefits and services. Your membership support is essential to these efforts.
Nilima Sonpal-Valias
