Absolute Beginners Guide To Updating Your Members-Only Contact Details
From Monaro Folk Society
Contents |
Introduction
MFS organisers are encouraged to show all contact details on the members-only contacts page, with contact details for public use repeated on the public contacts page. You are the one with the best knowledge of your volunteers, and your contact details, and therefore you are in the best position to keep your information up-to-date on the web site. This page provides a step-by-step guide. It may look long, but in fact it is easier done than said and with practice takes very little time.
You will need to start by surfing along to the MFS members' site. You may be able to arrange this page and the members' site side-by-side by opening a new browser window at:
http://www.mfs.org.au/members/
Depending on your browser, you may be able to "right-click" on the link above in order to open the page in a new window.
Your screen may look something like this, with this guide on the left and the MFS Members' Site Main Page on the right:
By the way, you can click on any picture to see it enlarged, then use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.
Logging In
Before you can make changes to an MFS site, you need to be "Logged In".
If you see your user name and "log out" at the top of your screen, you are logged in and can skip down to Navigating To The Page:
Otherwise, you will see "log in / create account" at the top of your screen and you need to log in by clicking on "log in / create account":
Enter your user name and password, and click "Log In":
If you know your user name but not your password, click on "E-mail Password" and your password will be emailed to you. Please note in passing that you can change your email address and password in "my preferences":
If you have forgotten your user name, you can click on Special Pages:
then "User List", and look for your user name in the list.
Creating Accounts
If you are an MFS Organiser, and have not yet created an account, please follow these simple steps now:
1) Think of a user code. Most users have used their Given Name, followed by the first letter of their Surname, eg LanceC. Capitalisation is important, so don't request lancec if you want your user code to be LanceC.
2) Email the MFS membership secretary team <membership(at)mfs(dot)org(dot)au> and advise them of your chosen code(s) and your full name(s)
3) You will receive an email back from the membership team when your account is created.
Navigating To The Page
Now that you are logged in, you can navigate to the page that you wish to edit. Perhaps the easiest way to find the page is to click "Index":
then click the "Contact Details - Members Only List" index entry.
Note that the Members-Only Contact Details page and its linked pages contain all the "roles" (positions, committees, teams, sub-committees, etc) and names of organisers and volunteers that are part of the Monaro Folk Society.
Each of the roles can be a link to a page for that role - extra contact information, links to information on the public site, names of volunteers that report to that role, etc.
In addition, each of the names can be a link to the MFS member's user page giving members-only contact details.
You may wish to take a few minutes to become familiar with the page, maybe click on some links and then use your browser's "back" button to return to the contact details page.
The indenting indicates the society's structure. It is a very flat structure, with all the "first-level" roles reporting directly to MFS Committee:
We call this "reporting to" for want of a better term, but really we the committee are better described as "the grateful recipients of these organisers' help", and indeed all volunteers and other members' help and support, rather than managers in a business sense. The MFS is closer to a loose collection of co-operating individuals than it is a formal bureacracy, but some formality is needed for legal and insurance purposes, and a successful organisation.
Making Changes
Now that you have navigated to the page, you can make changes to it.
Click the "Edit" tab:
The best way to make changes is to follow the existing layout. As an example, let us take the following Wiki Text:
**[[Secretary]]
***[[Membership Secretary Team]] - [[User:Keithw|Keith & Kate Ward]]
The two stars indicate a "first-level" role, reporting directly to MFS Committee.
The three stars indicate that the Membership Secretary Team role is placed organisationally under the Secretary role. This is because the Membership Secretary Team are carrying out duties specified as Secretary duties in the Rules of Association, on behalf of the Secretary.
The double square brackets enclose a link to another page, either a page that contains further information about a role, or a user page containing members-only contact details. The page name can be displayed, or else the link can be in the format [[PageName|DisplayName]]
Saving Your Work
When you have made your change(s), you can click "Save Page" at the very bottom of the Edit page, or "Show Preview" and then if necessary make corrections in the Edit panel below the preview.
Please note that there are two scroll bars when previewing, an inner scroll bar to move in the Edit panel to make further changes to your previewed page, and an outer scroll bar to move through the page as a whole.
If you click "Preview" then notice further changes needed, DO NOT click the Edit tab. Rather, make the changes in the Edit panel on your open page.
You may need to use the outer scroll bar to move from your preview down to the "Save Page" button at the bottom of the page.
Make sure that you click "Save Page" before you leave the page, or your changes will be lost without warning. This includes saving your changes before clicking on any link on the page, or clicking a different tab on the page.
When your changes are saved, the page will be re-displayed. If any of your links are shown in red, you can click on the link to create your new page. Simply type your information into the blank Edit box and click "Save" when complete.
You may now wish to use your browser's "Back" button on this page, to return to the page that you were previously reading.
