Program Update from Minneapolis

Its official, the first Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar is one for the history books. Great music, great classes and great people. . . What an event!


If you were there, THANK YOU for all your help in making this a wonderful experience for everyone involved. If you were unable to join us this year then be sure to check out our Facebook posts from last week and some that will be added in the coming week.

In the program, there was a New Initiatives update that we wanted to share with you all this month. If you have any questions please be sure to post them or contact the national office. 1.800.878.5459.


New Initiatives Update

It was just one year ago that AGEHR president, John Pfeiffer, announced a bold new plan from the national board of directors. This New Initiatives Plan included three elements: (1) a technology update, (2) a new name for our organization, and (3) a plan for enhanced member benefits based on a member’s area of interest. AGEHR members demonstrated their support for this plan through an overwhelming response to the fundraising campaign launched to help pay for these new initiatives. So now, one year later, we are pleased to provide this update on the progress of implementing each element and the next steps in the process.

• As of June 1, 2011 members have pledged a total of $155,281 to support the initiatives and $93,174 has already been collected from those pledges. Well ahead of the planned 3-year schedule.
  




• Phase 1 of the plan is basically complete. The new NEON member database is in place and being used every day by the national office staff and our members. Since going live with this system in February, nearly 2000 AGEHR members have activated their NEON member accounts. We continue to find new features and uses for this new technology and will keep working to make this technology work for you to improve your member experience. Cost to date: $27,577. Estimated Remaining Expense: Less than $5,000
  




• Phase 2, rebranding, is well underway. The new logo has been finalized. Trademark paperwork has been filed with the U.S. Office of Patents and Trademarks. The new name has been in use in conjunction with our current name on both national and area levels. Area Leaders have made important decisions about how they will implement the change to the new name. National staff has started updating sections of our website to reflect the change to Handbell Musicians of America. Print materials are being updated with the new name and logo. Plans are in place to convert to our new website address – www.handbellmusicians.org – on October 1. Cost to date: $15,284. Estimated Remaining Expense: Approximately $3,000
  




• Progress on Phase 3, the membership plan, has been steady. The task force created to assist the executive director in implementing this phase has had several very productive meetings and is now ready to invite the membership to submit outlines of potential resources for consideration. For details on this Call for Resources, please visit the event registration desk. Cost to date: $6,551. Estimated Remaining Expense: As much as is available so we can develop the best possible resources which are robust and dynamic.
  You can see many more details about our progress in past issues of Overtones and (as you know) by following our blog.

Finally, here is a huge THANK YOU to all who have pledged their support to this project, both through their cash contributions and their willingness to assist in the process.

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Mark your calendar today for National Seminar July 18-21, 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio!

Signs of the times. . .

If you are looking for it, you will begin to see the signs of our transition to Handbell Musicians of America next October 1st, 2011 all around you.

• Areas 1-12 have already begun the process of changing from roman numerals to Arabic numerals Check out their events here
  


• This year’s seminar is being billed as
  The Handbell Musicians of America
  National Seminar
  an AGEHR event
  


• E-Notes our monthly email has had its header modified to read
  Handbell Musicians of America
  E-Notes
  an AGEHR publication
  


• Today, I even ordered an actual sign of our transition for our front door that will hang under the AGEHR sign

It is really quite exciting as our community moves ever closer to the realization of the second prong of our New Initiatives Campaign with the rebranding to Handbell Musicians of America with the nickname of The Guild on October 1st, 2011 in just 101 days from today!

Milestone

June 1st, 2011. . .

a big date in the New Initiatives Campaign.

The keynote address at National Seminar 2009 indicated the need for AGEHR to move in a bold, new direction. During the next year, our National Board utilizing input and ideas gathered from all levels of AGEHR membership focused on creating a plan to achieve that move. Then the following year at Pinnacle 2010 our National Board announced major changes which will serve to transform the face of AGEHR and become the catalyst for handbell musicians to build “a lifetime of ringing.” As a result, AGEHR will invest in the future of our organization by concentrating on three areas.

First will be a COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF TECHNOLOGY, which will bring our handbell community together in exciting new ways. A software solution has already been identified and is undergoing customization to serve the unique needs of our membership. Completion of this phase of the plan is scheduled for June 2011.

Ah, and there it is. . . June 1st 2011 the completion of the “complete overhaul
of the AGEHR technology”. As you may already be aware we have blown this
scheduled date away by having already started providing a wide variety of new
electronic capabilities, benefits and opportunities to our community via the new
and improved structure of our website months ahead of time. While there have
been some transitional hiccups here and there, overall this overhaul has not
just been a huge success but a real boon for our community of musicians. Our
members have already begun enjoying a variety of technological improvements such
as enhanced on-line renewal and account management options, on-line registration
for upcoming national events, as well as new benefits like the Life Time of
Ringing option for ringers. (tutorial information here)

For me, while I am thrilled that we have more than successfully met this June 1st deadline of completing the installation of this new technology, the REAL EXCITING part of this new technology called NEON is that it is a “cloud based,” dynamic system (as opposed to purchased software or hardware) that will continue to grow and develop with us and with the ever changing technological world that we live in over the coming years. This ability to grow and develop means that new benefits and opportunities will continue to be developed and made available to our community thanks to this first milestone in our 3 pronged New Initiatives Campaign.

TimeLine Review:

• December 2010
  • NEON system works on customization and current member data
  • National office staff begins training
  • National staff reviews data and customization and works with z2Sytems to adjust the NEON system where necessary
  • National office begins converting content of AGEHR website to reflect the new name - Handbell Musicians of America (see example of transitional page here)
  



• January 2011
  • Begin using NEON in-house for all member database functions
  • Begin integrating NEON with AGEHR website and make basic features available to membership
  • Begin incorporating our new name into event marketing and branding
  • National Seminar registration opens on-line through NEON
  



• March/April 2011
  • Begin incorporating new name into E-newsletters and e-mail messaging
  • More NEON features become available on-line
  • Continue transitioning website
  



• June 1, 2011
  • Completion of this phase of the plan
  • 9:00-9:05AM EST national office official happy dance commences
  • 9:06-9:09AM EST resting on laurels while luxuriating in success
  • 9:10AM Right then onward and upwards to . . .

Phase 2: Rebranding 10/1/2011

A Rose By Any Other Name. . .

Handbell Musicians of America

National Seminar

an AGEHR Event

This first Handbell Musicians of America national event, National Seminar, takes place July 14-17, 2011, in Minneapolis at the upscale Hilton Minneapolis. Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar offers a variety of experiences and opportunities for all levels and types of handbell musicians and enthusiasts. Numerous class topics, access to the latest handbell products and literature, a wide range of concert performances, and valuable networking with the best and the brightest in the handbell community.

As I bet you have noticed, the 2011 National Seminar is a dual branded event. If you have been on our website on some of the "deep" pages that receive less traffic, you may have even seen this at work sign:

Slowly but surely, your national office staff and Area Leaders have been working together towards October 1st, 2011 when we make our official name change. In fact just this month, all 12 Area Chairs and other Area Leader representatives meet this month in Minneapolis with the National Board and office staff where we spent a great deal of time discussing the actual pragmatic and logistical changes that need to take place in the coming months. One EXCITING change that your Area Boards voted on is that Handbell Musicians of America will begin using Arabic numerals when referring to our 12 Areas instead of Roman Numerals. The Area Boards also voted to move to a standardized web site naming system. Currently, all the Area's have their own web address' as you can see here there are several variations currently being used by the Areas:

Area 1: agehrarea1.org/

Area 2: area2agehr.org/

Area 3: areaiii.org/

Area 4: agehr4.org/

Area 5: areavagehr.org/

Area 6: area6bells.org/

Area 7: areaviiagehr.org/

Area 8: areaviii.org/

Area 9: areaix.org/

Area 10: myweb.cableone.net/davadahlgran/AreaX/

Area 11: area11.org/

Area 12: areaxii.org/

which you can also access on the Area Connections web portal on the AGEHR website. By moving to a single standardized web address for the Areas, handbell musicians and interested individuals from the general public will have an easier time finding us all across the nation. Ringers whether they have moved or are on vacation looking for handbell events and other ringers will be easily able to access not just the national web site and maybe their Area's website but all of our websites! This further helps to brand us as one community working together to ensure the future of our community and our art.

So, as we move ever closer to October 1st be sure to not only keep your eyes peeled for the dual branding of our organization during the transition, but also help us to spread the word with your fellow ringers, directors, composers and other handbell enthusiasts!

TRANSITIONS

In the beginning, there was the NEW ENGLAND GUILD OF ENGLISH HANDBELL RINGERS. In 1954, this group transitioned into The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers extending its outreach to a whole new audience across the US. Now in 2011, our community is once again positioning for a name change to extend our outreach and accessibility. On October 1st of 2011, we will be known as the Handbell Musicians of America or the Guild for short. As you know, one of the reasons that this name was chosen was because it quickly identifies who we are and what we do, to a whole new generation of current and future ringers and enthusiastic audiences. In preparation for this change, we have already begun the transitional branding process. Transitional branding process, now there is a mouthful. But all that means is that you should have already begun to notice a mixing of our identities. For example the 2011 National Seminar is officially titled:

HANDBELL MUSICIANS OF AMERICA NATIONAL SEMINAR:

AN AGEHR EVENT.

As we move ever closer to the October 1st transition you will see more and more references to our community that interweave our names, you will see the new logo more and more often, and you will hear the national office and your Area Leaders asking you to help us spread the word throughout our community to help us create a buzz. To help with the transition there are a few things that you can do to help. First, keep your eyes peeled for these transitional opportunities in your part of our handbell community. Talk to people not about the HMA because what is THAT?? Talk about the Handbell Musicians of America or the Guild to shorten it up. While the Guild does not specifically reference handbells it does give more information than a cold un-descriptive, acronym. Second, if you are following us on FACEBOOK and see a status update please repost it to your facebook page. If you are following us on TWITTER, then RETWEET our posts. If you are a director or ringer who knows other ringers and directors who are not following us on facebook or RECEIVING OUR E-MAILS encourage them to do so, in fact help them subscribe themselves or do it for them (with their permission). Generally, I encourage you to be proactive in helping us to make sure everyone in our handbell and handchime community is aware that our name is changing. The fact is that our membership represents approximately 125,000 ringers and we are counting on you to make sure that they know who we are and where we are going!

Help us spread the word!

AGEHR Website Building on-line Community!

Whether you are a handbell director, ringer, composer or just an enthusiast the AGEHR community is where you want to be!

This vibrant and active community has a long tradition of excellence that is reaching new heights via our website because of the huge success of the New Initiatives Campaign as our membership continues to support us with ideas, volunteer hours and financial support. As you are aware from reading this blog, our journal Overtones and e-newsletters ( subscribe / view back issues) the first stages of developing our on-line community have been launched with the help of our new database management system, NEON. From your log in you can now shop in the store, register for events, post to the forums and manage your account information. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is the idea of getting in at the ground floor as our website opportunities begin to explode over the next few years!

In just the last month, we have already had over 10% of our membership that have signed on to the AGEHR website and created their user name and password. (Hopefully, if you are reading this then this 10% includes you! If not, please take a moment to follow the link below.)

But while 10% in a month is GREAT, we would really like to get the word out and encourage more members and non-members alike to get involved and join in the fun! So that is where YOU come in. We need you to help us spread the word. Whether you are at rehearsal, at a concert, participating in a ringing event or using a social media application, please help us to encourage people to login and become active participants in our on-line community.

So what can you do?? Well. . .

• Right now you could click one of the social media sharing icons at the bottom of this post.
  
  
  
• You could take your iphone/ipad/laptop to rehearsal this week and get your whole group set up. (Non-members can have accounts for free and get our emails for free!)
  
  
  
• You could volunteer to man a kiosk at your next ringing event where you take names and emails via a wireless system or even with an old fashioned pen and paper.
  
  
  
• You could add reminders with links at the bottom of your email signature.

The fact is this is our community and there is such a wide variety of things each of us can do to help spread the word about all the exciting things happening in our world!

Remember:

Members
already have accounts & Just need to

create user names and passwords.

Non-members can create accounts

to join our on-line community!

See you next month. . . with double the numbers????? ;>)

New Initiatives Stage 1 Launches

IF YOU ARE A MEMBER
YOU ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT!

Set-up Login Name & Password HERE

There are even Video Tutorials Available HERE

As you may have heard in the January E-Notes, NEON, our new membership management technology is here! If you have had a membership record between January 1, 2006 and now, then you already have an account in our record. As long as that record has a current email address in it then you can quickly and easily set up your Login Name and Password to visit the new AGEHR online membership management pages using the Forgot Password? Get Help link! If your email needs to be updated in the national office please shoot us an email or call us between 9-5EST at 1.800.878.5459.

This initial release of the new technology, has some exciting new features available for you to take advantage of ranging from registering for NATIONAL SEMINAR online to actually getting to create your own unique Login Name and Password that is good across the board, no matter if you are logging into view Overtones online, visiting our forums or shopping in our web store to purchase the 2011 Priority Music Club.

To help in the introduction of these new opportunities we have created some quick Video Tutorials to serve as our welcome to the neighborhood tour. Even if you are sure that you can figure it out, I fully recommend that you take this opportunity to watch them due to the AMAZING voice over talent that really adds to the entertainment value of these videos. Rumors have it that there is already Academy and Grammy Award buzz surrounding these outstanding performances. If only it wasn’t an anonymous performance. . . ;>)

So, if you haven’t already, take a moment now to login to explore the blossoming fruits of the New Initiatives Campaign that is being made possible by the on-going generosity of our members like YOU!

Regards,
Katie

Gentlemen start your. . .Training!

NEON training has begun for our team in the office. We spent yesterday in a couple of meetings that focused on giving us an overview of the system and how it will work for us. Emily our trainer set up a meeting on-line yesterday to provide us with a guided tour and first look at our test data in the database that they have set up for AGEHR.

While the day was a whirlwind tour it was fascinating. We began by looking at how we will now begin managing our national events. I know this may not sound all that exciting but rather than two databases that don’t communicate, we will now have just one. I know we have been saying this for months but to actually see it in front of us was very cool. This means that we as an office will be more productive and able to more efficiently serve all of our members. It also means that our entire team will have access to the event data and will be able to cross train in order to better assist our members with information regarding their event attendance. There also was this cool new feature that is going to let us. . . oh wait that is a surprise for next month! ;>)

In the afternoon we focused on general membership data management. How our current data will populate the new system, how we renew memberships and create new records for new members. The new system is more intuitive than our current system. It allows us to quickly and easily have access to the information in the system because it is powered by newer and faster technology than our current dinosaur. All of which will once again help our team to help you.

But all of that is behind the scenes and while some of you may be tech wonks who just find this as thrilling as I do, I am guessing most of you have a big “so what’s in it for me” going through your minds. So, here it is. We also got to check out the new user side of the web site. Members will log in and have access to their membership record like never before. With the ease of a dropdown box you will be able to do a variety of activities including create and review your profile (even upload a picture if you would like!), renew your membership, view your payments, change your password and the like. Simply, easily.

Just what you would want and expect from one of your favorite websites. The best part is that this functionality is being integrated within our web site and promises to be a seamless change over that will be the base of your membership experience with our website that will only get better and better as the plans of our New Initiatives Campaign continue to come to fruition over the next 2 years thanks to your continued generosity and support!

Happy holidays to you all! Talk to you next year!

Mapping our future.

While last month we were focused here in the national office on clean up of the membership records to prepare for the upgrades in technology, this month is all about mapping our data to smooth the transition into NEON's system. I know you are very jealous. ;>)

I have been working with Anne Potter of Extreme Consulting going over all of our records. We have begun to decide which information needs to be ported to the new system. We have also begun to map our data to NEON's data management system. What this means is that if you have two tables, Table 1 and Table 2, and want to move data from one to the other you have to be able to say "I want information in Table 1 Column A to move to Table 2 Column A." This is not necessarily a difficult issue but it is time consuming because you have to dig in and decipher how the information is stored. Why? Well, because we have two tables that name things very differently. As an example:

table 1 in our case is Raiser's Edge which labels its column that has our membership's first names in it as:
CnAdrSal_Salutation
Katie
Jennifer

meanwhile, table 2 NEON labels it's column for first names as:
First Name
Katie
Jennifer

So to move this data we have to tell NEON to "map" the column entitled "CnAdrSal_Salutation" to send its information to Neon's "First Name" column. Again, not necessarily difficult but as you can see Raiser's Edge is a bit more cryptic than NEON in its choices which actually is the epitomy of how both data management systems choose to conduct business in general.

Anyway, that process is in its final stages which means that we are one step closer to going live with all of our exciting upgrades in technology and the benefits that will offer our membership! We are all anticipating that by this time next month we here in the national office should be getting ready to begin staff training on how to use the new system which means that we are even closer to opening the new system, new opportunities and new benefits up to you.

More soon: here on the blog, in E-Notes and in the editorials of Overtones!
Katie

21 Century here we come!

"I applied for membership online using my credit card on Sunday. I was
hoping to get on-line into the members only section of the website. When can I expect to receive access???"

All too often, I come into the office on Monday morning and find an email or voicemail like the one above. I can hear the frustration and completely understand. However, until we are able to manually process their membership in the office, this new member is out of luck. Has this happened to you? Nice way to treat new members, huh. {sigh}

This issue is not limited to new members. If your membership expires even by a few hours and you renew your membership online, you are still stuck until the staff gets into the office and has time to process your membership. What about this, has it happened to you? If not can you imagine the frustration? Again, nice way to treat our loyal members, huh! :<(

Needless to say, this is NOT how we in the office want to treat our members. In fact we pride ourselves on serving our community of handbell and handchime ringers to the best of our abilities. Unfortunately, that means that our best is all too often weighed down by the albatross of our current technology.

So, I am VERY excited about the new Neon member management system. By combining all of our records down into one singular data management system, we are able to join the 21st century and finally meet the basic expectation that if you can take my money right now I should have access right now and the ability to begin enjoying my member benefits right now!

The coolest part is that this is only one small part of all the exciting new opportunities opening up to us via the Neon system because of your generosity via the New Initiatives Campaign. What part of the New Initiatives Campaign are you excited about and why??