Month Was Sent out Incorrectly for October 2011 Issue

(Month was sent out incorrectly for October 2011 issue)

NAMI Membership Manager Insider is sent on the third Monday of each month to membership staff, all NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates, executive directors, state presidents and the NAMI board. If you know anyone who should be receiving this communication, please email their name, email address, position and affiliate.

Proof of Concept (POC) Field Testing to Begin NAMI staff have been engaged in a Proof of Concept (POC) phase to validate that netForum can truly meet our business requirements. The POC is a basic configuration of netForum developed to enable us to test a number of predefined critical functions. It is not representative of the final product that will be delivered in February 2012, however it allows us to verify that netForum can meet our most essential needs. Staff tested various functions of netForum to ensure that our membership processing model fits the system's capabilities. During the last two weeks of October, a team of testers recruited amongst various NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates will test the POC in order to help us further validate that the field's needs are met. This is also an opportunity to gather feedback for the next phase. The team of testers will be given login accounts, a set of test cases to execute and basic instructions to accomplish their tasks. There will be other opportunities throughout the lifetime of the project for field users to test the system and provide feedback. If you would like to become a tester for one of these future opportunities, please email [email protected].

netForum and You Questions and Answers Concerning the Recent Request for Bank Account Information The criteria for a NAMI State Organization or NAMI Affiliate to use the netForum system for membership are: 1. A valid business bank account to receive membership payments 2. A valid credit card or bank debit card to make payments for renewals or new members An email from the Information Services team recently went out requesting your NAMI State Organization or NAMI Affiliate's business bank account information for use in netForum. Providing this information will ensure that your NAMI office can receive applicable membership payments on a monthly basis instead of quarterly as it does currently. If you currently do not meet these criteria, the only option for membership processing is manual processing with any applicable membership payments being mailed to you quarterly by paper check. Q: My affiliate has a bank account but does not have a credit card or bank debit card—can we still use netForum? A: When using netForum, any credit or bank debit card can be used to pay online for your affiliate's membership dues. The credit card owner can then be reimbursed from your affiliate's bank account. (Month was sent out incorrectly for October 2011 issue)

Q: I'm not comfortable submitting our bank account information online—is there another way I can send it to you? A: Yes, we understand the sensitivity of this information so we have posted a form online here that you can print, fill out, and then mail, fax or email back to our office. Q: My affiliate submits memberships directly to our NAMI State Organization—do we still need to give NAMI our affiliate bank account information? A: It will still benefit your affiliate to supply your bank account information so you can receive applicable membership payments directly to your affiliate's bank account on a monthly basis instead of waiting until after the end of the quarter in which a member paid. You can continue submitting the NAMI and NAMI State Organization portions of members' dues to your state office for them to process in the netForum system. Q: The form you sent asked for our bank account information but not our credit or debit card information—where do I enter that? A: You do not need to submit your credit or debit card information for the purposes of this data collection effort. You will need to enter the card information when you are paying for memberships in netForum. Q: Some of our members don't have a credit or debit card, so how will they use netForum to pay for their dues? A: Individual members who do not have a credit or debit card will not be able to use the netForum system to renew their memberships but will still be able to create an online account and log in to the NAMI.org website for informational purposes. If new members wish to join your affiliate but do not have a credit or debit card, you should continue to accept their dues via cash, check, or some other method as you have been doing. You will then deposit their dues in your affiliate's bank account and submit their information and a portion of their dues through netForum.

Interested in using netForum? The benefits of using netForum to process your membership updates include:  members will have access to their online benefits immediately after their dues are paid in netForum;  NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates will receive their share of dues monthly;  netForum updates happen in real-time, and updated data is immediately accessible; and  up-to-the-minute online accessible membership reports that you can generate at your convenience.

Preparing for the netForum Implementation As with any new database implementation, data will be frozen in the old database for a period of time so that it can be converted to the new database. During this time, existing data will be converted to prepare for the netForum implementation. As of now, we are revisiting our earlier plan to freeze the data between Dec. 31, 2011 and Feb. 1, 2012, understanding that this may cause a backlog of memberships that will likely burden some NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates. We will communicate an updated conversion plan as soon as we have worked out a plan that is reasonable for everyone.

Update on Standardized Dues Town Hall calls were held throughout October to offer the opportunity to hear more about the decision, and over 200 people participated. If you were unable to attend one of the calls, or would like to share what you heard with others, you can find a recording of one of the calls here.

Discuss What You've Read with the Information Services (Month was sent out incorrectly for October 2011 issue)

Team We will be holding an hour-long conference call on the fourth Monday of each month to give readers the opportunity to discuss the content of that month's newsletter. The call information for October is as follows:  When: Monday, October 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central, Noon Mountain, 11 a.m. Pacific)  Where: 1. Dial 1 (888) 858-6021 2. Enter conference code 7035247600# when prompted Notes from this call will be available in the next newsletter for anyone who is unable to participate. To view notes from previous calls, please visit the Document Resource Center.