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For the record: improving iMembership

3 July 2009

Following consultation with activists, we are improving and extending the facilities for branches to directly amend centrally-held records.

PCS was the first union to provide facilities for elected officers to update information and we are now expanding the service we refer to as iMembership.

A booklet, included with this edition of Activate, outlines what we are doing and how to access records. Branch secretaries are also being issued with a detailed briefing on the changes.

That briefing is intended as a consultation exercise and activists are urged to contact their branch secretaries to feed in their views.

This is the latest stage of the development of our membership records system commix, introduced in 2003 to replace the outdated and divergent legacy systems of our predecessor unions.

This started a process to introduce a joined up IT system with the potential to integrate the full range of administrative tasks that are the heart of how a trade union operates.

Commix integrates the records of our members and their subscriptions with our organisational structure of workplaces, branches, and groups or occupational associations.

Good records, knowing who and where our members and activists are and how to contact them, are a prerequisite for successful organising and campaigning.

Department for Work and Pensions group organiser Fran Heathcote said: “Knowing our strong and weaker locations over the last three years has been vital during our campaigning and strike action.

“Directing additional support has been key to maximising our industrial impact and obtaining concessions at the negotiating table.”

These records also provide the data for our communications, balloting, financing, our trade union education programme, and potentially personal case workloads.

All systems like this place challenges on the organisations that use them. One challenge is ensuring we have up to date information. Some aspects, such as members’ ballot addresses, have always been very strong.

But, for a variety of reasons, other records such as workplaces and structures have needed an extensive overhaul.

Head of membership records, Theresa Busby, said: “We have made literally millions of data changes since I joined the department in 2005. Without the assistance and patience of activists this simply would not have been possible.”

Our records online

The growing availability of the internet has provided us with the opportunity to both display and exchange information directly in our records system.

Having commix online – usually referred to as iMembership – has meant all our members can view information that we hold about them. They can also edit information such as addresses and other contact details.

The four key branch officers – chair, secretary, treasurer and organiser – can additionally access web pages showing details about their branch and its workplaces.

They can download reports which contain the latest information about members in their branch and amend the composition of their branch executive committee.

While the background work of improving records has helped in addressing concerns many activists had, there is a desire and clear potential to make even better use of direct access.

We still, of course, provide more traditional methods of updating our central records – for example in writing or by phone – because not all branches have internet access or a preference to use it.

But having listened to activists’ views, we are now able to proceed with overhauling and relaunching iMembership.

Assistant general secretary Chris Baugh said: “The union is investing in a major upgrade to iMembership that allows us to introduce more and better functions, especially for our branches.

“This revamp is a platform for further improvements – in use and in features – that will make the site better and, we hope, be used more regularly by members and reps.

“More importantly, we hope it will help branch activists in their vital work to organise and campaign, to protect and to promote members interests.”

It is not too late to have your say by responding to the request for comments made in branch briefing 65/09.

More information about existing iMembership facilities and how to access them are available on the membership records pages.

 

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