IEEE vTools IEEE Twin Cities Section Officer & Volunteer Training January, 2013

Key Messages Communicate what vTools is Review available tools Training on how to use key tools Encourage use

What are vTools? vTools mission is to provide tools to the volunteers and staff who support our members. vTools are developed and made possible by IEEE volunteers. The toolbox is meant to simplify administration by offering web based software in one location, reduces time spent managing activities, and assists in member development. vTools is sponsored by IEEE Membership and Geographic Activities (MGA). MGA serves the needs of IEEE members by supporting IEEE Sections, Chapters, and Branches and is responsible for IEEE membership, and member development.

Where to find vTools? Note that not all of the products are listed on the quick links sidebar only, the most mature. A description of each tool can be found on the Products tab on the menu bar Note the Tutorials tab on the menu bar – Much more training than we have time for today

Access to vTools Access to vTools is automatically enabled for any volunteer who appears on the section roster. –Note that this is IEEE headquarters roster not the section roster. To verify who is listed visit this page: – –Also check the vTools officer reporting. It should match. Per vTools request, IEEE now records more positions for Chapter and Affinity Group officers: Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer. Committee Chairs are recorded for Sections Also includes local Society Chapter officers Sections can also report a vTools Coordinator position. For the Twin Cities Section Lee Globus has this position

Available vTools vTools.Meetings –Meetings is used for managing section and chapter meetings. Officers can create meeting announcements with no dependence on webmaster availability and show them on your website. Event registration with or without credit card payments is available. –Update Dec 2013 with new features vTools.OfficerReporting –OfficerReporting is an online officer reporting tool. It enables authorized volunteers to submit officer reporting with automatic validation and updates the central IEEE database. Volunteers can view/add/remove/update officers. vTools.StudentBranchReporting –Student branches can submit annual plan and report of activities

Available vTools vTools.Voting –Voting enables online officer elections for sections/chapters/affinity groups. Please note that this is different from the general IEEE elections. vTools.WebInABox –WebInABox uses a wizard to generate simple section/chapter/affinity group websites that are automatically updated –New version released in Dec 2013 eNotice –IEEE eNotice is an electronic newsletter subscription service that has been developed for IEEE organizational units to facilitate distribution of newsletters, meeting notices, social events and IEEE conference materials. FluidSurveys –MGA sponsors this survey tool for regions/sections/chapters/affinity groups. The tool can be used to quickly create online surveys using intuitive interface and distribute them via , web link, etc –New version released in Dec 2013

Available vTools ReviewRoom ReviewRoom is a tool used to collect, organize and evaluate online applications and submissions quickly and efficiently. Use for Awards & Nominations, Competitions, Scholarships & Grants applications. Contact vTools Administration to learn more and get access.Contact vTools Administration SAMIEEE –Web-based ad hoc query tool that provides volunteers access to member data. It allows ad hoc querying, reporting, and downloading of IEEE’s membership data to authorized or designated IEEE volunteers. Web Conferencing –IEEE MGA sponsors web conferencing services for geographic organizational units to conduct online meetings, webinars, training, demos and presentations. The service is available to MGA Board members and MGA Board Committees as well as region and section EXCOM officers –There is a cost for this service

Most Important vTools for Officers Officer Reporting – The Section and Chapters MUST use the vTools Officer Reporting to report changes in officers. This is the only way new officers will have access to tools and receive important information from Headquarters. Meeting Scheduling – vTools.Meetings – Scheduling meetings through vTools automatically gets the meeting notice on the Section and Region websites. It will also show up in local members MYIEEE pages. – Most importantly all of the information for the REQUIRED L31 is entered here. Meeting Reports – L31’s – These are REQUIRED. If meetings are not reported, the section and chapters lose out on annual rebate money. Meeting announcements – eNotice – Tool to send meeting notices to your members. The meeting scheduler does not automatically send notices. Elections – vTools voting – Tool to create and run officer elections

Officer Reporting Go to vTools and click on “Officer Reporting” –Log in using your IEEE account. –Only currently listed officers for a unit can report new officers –Section officers can report for any unit in the section. Start typing “Twin Cities” in the text box and a list of the section units appears.

Officer Reporting Select the unit you want for reporting new officers and then click on the ‘Select Unit button

Officer Reporting Select a position and click on the ‘Vacate Position’ button to remove an officer. – Be careful not to remove yourself until you are done. You can also set a date for end of term by clicking the ‘End Term’ button – Does not appear until you select the position

Officer Reporting Click on add an officer and the screen to the left appears Enter the membership number of the new officer so that they can be validated as legal to be an officer. – You have to be a full member and a member of the society to hold office. Enter a term start date and click ‘Validate & Submit’

Officer Reporting Back at the main screen make sure you click ‘Confirm Changes’

vTools Meetings Use vTools Meetings to – Announce meetings – Take Reservations – Take payments Once a meeting is entered it automatically shows up on the Section website, the Region website, The MyIEEE page of any section member, and in searches by any member worldwide searching for meetings to attend. No announcement is sent – Use eNotice for that.

vTools Meetings Select ‘Schedule a Meeting’ from the main vTools page and log in. Select ‘Schedule a Meeting’ from the menu. Note that any member can use find a meeting to locate meetings anywhere in the world that have been scheduled. You can also use the L31 report to see what meetings others have held. – Useful for meeting ideas.

vTools Meetings Fill out the form – Note that Description and Agenda can be in HTML. Select the correct Event Category – Should be Technical for general society meetings with presentations. – Professional can be used for GOLD, Consultants, or PACE – Administrative for planning and business meetings. – Note there are now sub- categories to refine reporting.

vTools Meetings Select your chapter from the pull down Set a meeting start and end time Set a registration start and end time For US time zones go to bottom of pull down menu Enter an address – Maps are optional

vTools Meetings If using another registration service like EvenBrite enter the URL for the registration page. Click on the buttons to enter speaker information Click ‘Create’ to publish the meeting. These can be edited later to add information. Click ‘add menu selection’ to enter more menu items to be selected at registration.

vTools Meetings New Features Meetings – Event sub-category has been added to Meetings and L31 reports. Find Meetings will provide volunteers the option to search for all Region level meetings within their Region (unpublished, recent, and upcoming ) Meeting event registration form will indicate when member number is not required based on price level selected Registration confirmation will include meal selection, if applicable. Registration confirmation will include a ‘Join IEEE’ link if the registrant chose a ‘non-member’ price level When creating a new meeting from an existing meeting, all registration fees and levels as well as menu options will be copied to the new meeting. Meeting registration deadline is extended to allow registrations up to 11:59pm of the day of the meeting. Meeting refund request deadline time stamp will display ‘am’ or ‘pm’ on registration page The Meetings website will display a warning if cookies are disabled and payment is required. Updated links to tutorials.

vTools eNotice Use enotice to send s to all active IEEE members in your unit. – You must be listed as an officer of your unit to do this. Once filled out the form goes to a person who authorizes the and populates the list from SAMMEE Fill in all fields For the target organization field state ‘Twin Cities Computer Society Chapter’ or your unit. If you want to invite students add ‘, student branches’

vTools eNotice You can paste in plain text or HTML to the message body. You can also add jpg’s and PDF’s as attachments. The message size limit is 500MB but please keep attachments small. Please plan ahead and do not always use “Critical” You can now schedule an automatic reminder

vTools L31 Reports Each Unit is required to file L31 reports for meetings in order to receive the annual rebate funding. After the meeting has been held go back to vTools meetings and click on the L31 Meetings Reports Tab Select Edit for your meeting

vTools L31 Reports In the attendance boxes enter the number attending Update any other information Click the ‘Update’ button Your done!!! Easy!

vTools L31 Reports What if you didn’t use the tool to schedule the meeting – Shame!!! Use the button indicated below to create a report from scratch – This opens up the same form used to schedule a meeting with the attendance fields enabled and creates a meeting in the past.

vTools Elections To set up an election go to the voting tool and sign in. Click on the manage your ballots link – Only shows up for listed officers On the ballot dashboard select your organization and choose a template then click create Or select an existing open ballot to edit.

vTools Elections Fill out the form Use SAMIEEE to create the list of voters for your Chapter or unit – See the link for instructions. – A specific format file is required for uploading When done you can save and activate.

vTools Elections Note for active elections the voting period can be extended but the candidates cannot be changed. When an election is active there is a link to send announcements about the election. – You have to do this to let members know about the election. It is not automatic.

vTools Elections After the election, click on the “manage” link to get the results. Results from paper or ballots can be added in at this point. The results must be reported using the Officer reporting tool

Final Thoughts Note that at the bottom of all pages click on the vTools logo and that takes you to the home page. Check out the other tools and watch for new ones.