EC Manual

TABLE OF CONTENTS

003b-Oversight: for Admins

Admins are the Chair, Dataset Manager (DM), and our programmer. The DM is responsible for the day to day maintenance and updating of the Membership Records in Oversight; but the Chair can also make and approve changes as desired or necessary. Our programmer is a Super Admin and has to do a couple of things that we can not. They are noted below.

Our new software allows Admins to do many tasks that used to have to be done by the programmer: specifying open Advisory Board positions for nominations, assigning EC member nominator and nominee handlers, and setting up the actual ballot for the annual election. And EC Members can now access Membership Reports (spreadsheets) for Project Coordinators in their region, or the Project Coordinator can access and submit edits to Membership Reports themselves.

Admins have access to a wide assortment of tools. Click a button to see instructions for that tool.

 

See by State, Region, or Role (Membership Reports)

• Admins have access to all Reports, by State, Region/Project, or Role.
• Greyed out records on reports have not been approved by an Admin. Use the Compare Records tool to review/approve updates submitted to the dataset by a member, a project coordinator, or an EC Member.
• The "See" and "Edit" links on Membership Reports work the same way for Admins as they do for project coordinators and EC Members (see 003A-Oversight: Editing Member Records). But for Admins, the "Del" link is instantaneous and can not be reversed. Use it only to remove NULL entries, explained under Add a Record below.

See/Update/Add (or remove) a Record

• Directions for editing or adding Member Records is the same as it is for project coordinators (003A-Oversight: Editing Member Records).
• Record changes submitted by anyone other than an Admin appear on the Compare list at Oversight.cfm# and must be reviewed and approved by an Admin.
• When you as Admin are asked to create a record for an individual who is new to The USGWP, first verify that s/he is actually a new member by doing a name search. If a PC has created a new record for an existing USGWP member, go to UpdateRecord.cfm and make the requested additions or removals there, then delete the entry in Compare so a duplicate record is not created for that member.
• When creating a record for a new member, the personal data (Main Record) must be saved BEFORE their position(s) can be added. Leave the Compare screen and go to the record in the main database (UpdateRecord.cfm) and Submit Return to the Compare screen, make a note of the positions in the Admin Notes box, then delete all except the personal data section and Submit/Delete to clear the Compare list. Return to UpdateRecord.cfm and manually add the position(s).
• In the past, if certain steps were not followed, the program would sometimes create a NULL (blank) position record. The position would appear on Reports, but the "Name" column would be blank except for the comma used between last and first names. If you enounter this, click the "Edit" link on the Report to go to the member record (UpdateRecord.cfm) and Submit the record if it has not been done. Then review the position records. They may be blank and you will have to re-enter them. Once the position list is complete, be sure to verify the "Approved for" regions in the Main Record.
• To remove a NULL entry from the dataset, click the "Del" link next to the name on the Report. Important! When the "Del" link is clicked by an Admin, removal from the dataset is immediate and is not reversible.
• If a member has left the project entirely (has no positions in ANY State or Special Project, or is deceased) click the "Dropped" selector, and add a note to the "Why Dropped?" box, e.g. "Removed from XXGenWeb per SC John Doe 2Q2016 update -- NOP" or "Deceased per [who supplied the information, how or where did you get it, and when]. All positions in all projects are removed automatically when a member is dropped. Be sure they actually have resigned all positions in all projects before dropping. If you want to keep additional notes, enter them in the "Admin Notes" box. These notes are not visible to PCs.

Compare Records

• Changes submitted by EC Members, Project Coordinators, and Member updates to their own record must be reviewed and approved by an Admin.
• The Compare screen displays the proposed update(s) in two columns. The right/grey column shows the change(s) that have been submitted. The left column contains the record that will be kept.
• Review personal data for changes to name, email address, password, etc. Follow the on screen instructions for transferring info from the right column to the left column.
• A change to the "Primary Email" submitted by a PC should be verified with the member.
• To save changes to a Main Record only, click Submit
• To add a new position, transfer/copy the position data from the right to the left column. Check the website to see if the site can be Approved. If the site has the required elements, change "Approved" from "No" to "Yes" and double click in the "Approved By" box to show it was you who approved the site. Click Update in the left column, to save and remove that position entry from the Compare screen.
• To remove a position, click Delete this record in the left column. This will remove that position from the member record and the entry from the Compare Screen.
• If all of the member's positions have been removed, the program will "Drop" the member, and enter "No Active Positions" in the "Why Dropped" box. The DM should add the member name, email, and the removed positions on the "removals" spreadsheet for use in creating the quarterly report to the AB.
• When you have processed all changes, uncheck the "Pending" button at the top of the main record and click Submit to save. Then click Done in the right column. With Larry's recent changes to the software (June, 2023), this will return you to the main screen and the member's name will reappear on the Compare list. Delete the positions again, this time using the Delete button in the right hand column. This should clear the entry from the Compare list.
• To return to the main/index page without processing changes, click Done at the bottom of the Main Record.
• If the update is from a project coordinator, be sure to update their last-updated-date on status.html.
• Do not use the Delete button on the Compare index page unless you are not going to process that particular submission.

Deleting Duplicate Records

Duplicate records are much less likely to occur with the new software as it searches the membership list for existing members with similar names. If a SC/PC has inadvertently created a duplicate record for an existing member,

• Go to a Report for the State or Region containing the duplicate member record.
• Make a note of the "Registration ID" number that appears at the far right of the Report.
• Now go to See/Update/Add a Record and search by name to find both the original and the duplicate entry.
• Carefully review both records. Make sure the main record (name, email(s) and password) match and copy additional position(s) from the duplicate record to the one you will keep.
• While viewing the duplicate member record - click the Delete This Duplicate Record button near the top of the Main Record. The duplicate will be removed from the database.
• Important! DO NOT use the "Del" link on the Membership Report to delete a Duplicate Record.

Update Admin Table

This Table contains the URLs and contact email addresses displayed on the election website (usgwelections.org) on Member Registration pages, the nomination form, and on the annual ballot. It should be updated any time the EC Chair, Dataset Manager, or National Coordinator change.

Update Access Table

The Access Table is the database of individuals who may access and edit project membership records directly in Oversight, i.e. EC Members, the National Coordinator, and Project Coordinators. Access level varies according to position. The National Coordinator may send Announcement emails to the membership, but does not have access to membership records. Only EC Admins have access to the entire dataset.

• User Name is just that, their name.
• The User ID is shorthand (up to 20 characters) that is used when notes are updated and is the link to the table that holds the data on what states or projects are assigned to them. Once set, it should never be changed!
• When you add a new User Name to the Access Table, the program will assign a User ID that is unique. You can edit that, and when you leave the field, the program will again check to make sure the User ID is unique.
• You can manually assign a PW and the program will verify it is unique, or you can use the Generate Password button and that PW will be unique.
• User IDs and passwords are unique to an individual and their access level. Any time one person has multiple levels of access, e.g. they are both a SC/PC and a member of the EC, they must have a unique User ID and password for each access level.
• Users are not removed from the table, they are Inactivated. Click the "Inactivate" link on an entry that should no longer have access. Click the Show Inactive Too button to find and reactivate someone who was in the Active Table and became inactive, but is active once again at the same access level. Once activated, you can edit their "Role" as necessary.
• Copy an existing entry to add additional, same-level access for an individual already in the table. The program checks and will not allow duplicates. When a member needs access to an additional project or region, the "Copy" link brings up a screen with their data and you can select and save the new position or region to assign it to that member.
• Click the Add button to add a new individual to the table, or to create a different User ID and access level for User Name that is already in the table. Always check the Show Inactive Too list to be sure the entry really is a new one, and not just inactive.
• Enter the new User Name and a valid email address.
• Click the Generate Password button to generate a random password. The password is not sent automatically and must be sent manually to the member.
• Choose the admin (access) level, the role, and the region, project, or state as applicable.

Nominations: Update Handler Names

This is where you tell the software where to send copies of nominations for processing for the Annual Election. Enter the email addresses of the EC Members assigned to handle nominators and nominees for each region. The address designated as "Coordinator" will be sent a copy of all nominations.

Nominations: Define Available Positions

List the open positions for the current year's election.

Setup Election

There are several steps to set up an election. Setup Election allows you to access all of them.

• Setup Election Table - the election number, beginning and ending dates, whether it is in the setup phase and whether it's active or not. Setup should be turned on (YES button) when the election is Active but you don't want people to vote yet. It does not automatically reset on the start of the election. Once happy with the forms, and before the start of the election, turn off Setup (set it to NO)
• Setup Data Page - Edit the headers that will be shown on the nomination and election pages and indicate which races have candidates. Since these edits are to the HTML inserted on the page by the software, you can double check your edits by copying and pasting into the source of any HTML page on your computer, then viewing in your browser.
• The beginning and ending dates for the nomination period are entered on /nationalNominationsSetup2.cfm
• Setup Candidates - Names are entered as "FirstName LastName". If there is more than one candidate for the same position, they are entered in alphabetical order by Last Name.
• Load Voting Table - This adds people to the eligible voters table from the registered voter list and sets their passwords. The Voting Table should not be loaded until after setting the election number, and after processing all member updates submitted before Jun 1st. But it must be done before the start of the voting period. Turn off the Setup phase so the voting booth will open and close on the web page automatically per the scheduled dates for the election. If the program does not want to load the voting table, you may have to turn off Setup before doing so.

Edit Voting Table Info

Use this tool to assist a member who is having problems obtaining his voting password. Instructions appear with the tool.

Do Email

This is the National Membership Mailing List. Only the NC and EC Chair are authorized to send mails using this tool. Emails originated with this tool are sent to every Active Member of The USGenWeb Project. Bounces are returned to the DM for processing per the EC Procedures.

The National Coordinator does not have access to the entire dataset, only those projects s/he coordinates and the Do Email tool. The User ID and password for the "Do Email" tool must be different from a User ID and password s/he uses to access member records as a SC/PC. The same is true for the EC Chair.

• Compose the mail in the online tool, or copy and paste from your computer.
• When pasting, in the top row of buttons, there is a group of 3 buttons shown as "page" icons.
  • The first is a standard paste, like using Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V.
  • The middle button pastes formatted text as plain text.
  • The third and last button is for pasting formatted text from a word processor.
• Enter a message subject in the Subject box.
• Click "Test Email" to send a test copy ONLY to the NC, EC Chair, EC DM, and the programmer, so you can preview the appearance and content of your message before sending it to the membership-at-large.
• When you are satisfied with the email, click "Send Email" to send it to the membership.

In the year 2025

After the conclusion of the 2025 election, remind our programmer (which may or may not be Larry) that s/he needs to update SetVPassword.cfm

 

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The Election Committee of the USGenWeb Project is a non-partisan standing committee charged with managing national polls and elections for the Project; providing a secure voting system; maintaining an up-to-date and accurate list of all members; and providing Volunteers with information about elections and candidates. It is not affiliated with any other election, voting, or campaign project or committee. Contact , EC Chair, or your regional EC Representative with questions and concerns.

 

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