Technology and The Collectors Club..

 

Over the past several months, through the generosity of NY 2016 and other donors, The Collectors Club has upgraded its web site and commenced work on enhancing the membership experience.

While these enhancements are progressing, their pace is slower than initially anticipated. It is almost a given that major projects come with a learning curve, unanticipated conditions, and timeline slippage. The results are worth the wait: Our regular meeting videos are already being posted to the upgraded website within 24-48 hours of the event. Work on and error-checking of the searchable digitalized version of the Collectors Club Philatelist are approaching completion as this is being written, with a planned midsummer 2018 ‘go live’ date.

We are proud to be able to provide meeting and other Club information to all members whether they reside locally or farther from our midtown New York Clubhouse through this upgraded technology. Indeed, some out of town members have been able to attend meetings in New York as part of related travel thanks to our proactive outreach with email meeting notices.

Work continues on the ‘membership only’ area of the website which will allow access to recent issues of the CCP, ability to complete membership transactions and other membership-related functions in a secure environment.

This naturally brings up the twin issues of security and privacy. While our technology team can better state the exact process, we will use a secure interface for financial transactions. We will require an email address for registration/access to the member functions area of the website. However, for those who do not want to share addresses, one suggestion is to create a unique address for Collectors Club functions.

We strive to keep membership information solely for legitimate Collectors Club activities. This includes, but is not limited to, meeting notices and other notifications, membership activities such as special events, dues/financial activity, and website membership area access.

As an example, The Collectors Club was recently approached by another major philatelic organization to share our membership information for recruitment purposes. Though there would have been a slight financial benefit to our Club, we respectfully declined because we feel that members’ privacy overrides any potential benefit.

Technology seems to advance at a greater pace than the social mores which define appropriate behaviors. Our goal is to balance the two to achieve enhanced benefits while maintaining a socially acceptable environment.

Respectfully submitted,

–Mark Banchik