Post Member Chair FAQ

As the member chair of an ALA group, you have more privileges than regular members of the group. This FAQ will explain some issues you need to consider, as well as what you can do with those extra privileges.

Things you should consider doing in Connect

• Upload a picture to your profile (it can be a picture of anything).
• Add some details to your profile so that other ALA members can learn more about you.
• Turn on email notifications from Connect (either "all" in your profile or on a group-by-group basis). See http://connect.ala.org/email-help for more information about this.

Group properties

Note that you must be an admin for the group in order to “edit” its properties. If you are not an admin for a group in Connect but believe you should be, your group’s staff liaison must designate you as the chair or co-chair in ALA’s membership database. There is no way to make yourself or anyone else an admin via Connect for an official working group (eg, committees, task forces, etc.). All admin rights for committees synchronize directly from our member database.

You can tell you're an admin if you see the "edit" tab underneath the group's name on its home page or if it says "(admin)" after your name on the group's roster.

As an admin, you can edit the following group properties.

• You can edit the mission/charge for your group and change your group logo.
• You can add an external RSS feed that will display in the right-hand column (eg, your blog's headlines).

Special Admin Privileges

• Only admins can start new discussion forums or delete discussion topics. Any group member can start a new discussion topic.
• Only admins can delete comments.
• Only admins can make a piece of content "sticky" so that it stays at the top of a group's home page.
• Only admins can edit anyone else's content within the group.

FAQs

1. Which members of my group are admins?
   Anyone designated as the "member chair" or "member co-chair" in our member database (called "iMIS") is automatically a member admin for the group by default. Your staff liaison will also be listed as an admin.
2. Someone who is on my committee is not appearing on the roster in Connect. How do I add them there?
   You can't add them to the committee in Connect, because the site synchronizes directly with ALA's membership database, so they have to be added there first. Once your group's staff liaison does that, they'll begin appearing as part of the group the next day, after the overnight synchronization.

   The exception to this is if the person has chosen to exclude themselves from appearing in Connect, in which case they won’t appear anywhere on the site and won’t be able to log in. The member needs to change that option on their ALA website profile in order to begin appearing in Connect, gain access to it, and appear on a roster.

3. How do I add a non-ALA member to an official ALA group?
   The non-ALA member needs to have an account in Connect, so you can either have them create the account and send you their username or you can create the account for them by pretending to be them. Once their account has been approved, send their username to the ALAConnect Helpdesk so that we can add them to your roster.
    
4. Can I make a non-ALA member an admin for an official ALA group?
   Yes, you can send a message to the ALAConnect Helpdesk or use the Contact Us form to submit a request for us to add a non-member to your group. Start with question #3 if the person is not yet a member of the group.
     
5. How do I create subject headings for my group's content?
   To do this, click on the "Categories" tab underneath the group's name on its home page and follow the directions in this help document. Once you start categorizing content in these subject headings, they'll begin appearing in the right-hand column (see the Help community for an example of what they look like and how they work).
6. How secure is my group's content in Connect?
   By default, content added to your group is "protected" so that only the group's members can see it. When adding content, you must manually check the "public" box to make it viewable by anyone outside of the group. Once content is made "public," anyone can comment on it but only the group's members can modify it. See http://connect.ala.org/node/72947 for more information about this.

 Please consider making non-confidential content "public" so that ALA members can see all of the good work your group is doing. This will also make your content appear on the Connect home page, which will help promote future participation in your group. It also lets anyone "following" your group receive email notifications of the public content only. This is especially important for boards and other governance groups.

We also encourage you to publicly list your meetings on your group calendar as one way to align with ALA’s meeting notice policy.