In response to the post by Lynsay Callaghan


One issue that has not been addressed since John Turton's post is that of communication by the LN team with the membership. John is quite rightly disappointed with the turnout for the Toulouse meeting but, if members are going to attend, they have to be informed and that ain't happening. I think I am signed up to receive notices of meetings in France (as I often work there) but John's post was the first inkling I had of the event. John (Phil)'s post tells me that there are even more meetings which I have never heard about. Same game with the PATW event in Prague. I think I am signed up to receive notice of meetings in CZ (where I live) but I only found out about the meeting informally. I have the feeling that HQ staff don't even recognise this problem and certainly nothing has been done about it for a couple of years or more.


THIS NEEDS FIXING!!!


On another tack, the French IET LN can justly claim to work well with the ICE and the IMechE. (Compare nuighbours if you need convincing). It's about people, their volitions and their energy. For a couple of years or so I was an ex-officio committee member of the French ICE and this helped develop the symbiosis which we enjoy today. Tomorrow I plan to have lunch with the Czech ICE representative although I admit having been at the origin of one of his best events yet (Blanka Tunel).

Mike makes a good point:

ex-officio committee member of the French ICE

In the Benelux we held joint commitee meetings with the Mechs: the first half hour or so was devoted to institution-specific stuff, then we joined with the Mechs for the meat of the meeting.


This approach has been strengthened to the point of amalgamation in eg Malta where the whole UK PEI operation is joint.


Keith

Keith Parr‍ There are 30 LNs that have used the system so far this year, although there are more that have access. We also have an internal best performing emails "league" across the whole IET (which will include 100s and 100s of campaigns) - there are six volunteer emails in the top 30 and three featured in the top 10. It's nowhere near all LNs using it, but those that do are having huge success. 


Yes, that's true of the US office. There was a time when the office provided some support for the regional governance and we had home-based community manager in the US to support the LNs, however all of this is now done from the UK for various (and very good) reasons that I won't go into. "HK office" is perhaps a misnomer - it's an Asia Pacific office that is in HK. They do sales throughout the region, regional LN governance support, have two members of staff to look after the AP LNs and provide regional membership support.

Michael Wrigley‍ I work for the IET and manage the entire team of community managers, who take responsibility for the LNs around the world and all of the TPNs. I hope that answers your question, although it felt quite loaded to me and perhaps I should be reading something else between the lines....?


Re: communications. Have you doubled checked your preferences? It is possible that you've unsubscribed and not realised (if I had a £1 for every time that happened, I could probably retire ). It's also possible that your spam filter is a little on the aggressive side and doesn't like our emails. As an aside, all events get listed online and word-of-mouth continues to be very powerful, so I'd never rely entirely on email.

David Houssein Thank you for that insight, David, but I think it only tells half the story.


We have, or at least we had, around 90 LNs, is that still about right?  So roughly a third of the LN are using Adestra?  How do the others communicate with their members, do we know?


But my concern and my question were more about the penetration of Adestra within any / all LNs.  What proportion of LN members are "signed up to" / reached by an Adestra mailshot?  And of them, how many members actually read the mails?  Perhaps unfairly, I compare it with MyCommunities where, the last time I looked in 2015 and taking France as an example, there were approximately 300 IET members in France, 80 people were "signed up" for the French MyCommunity group of which 7 were staff.  So the penetration was at best 25% and we don't know (at least at that time I couldn't find out) how many of them have alerts turned on and how many of them actually visit MC as a result.


I'd like also to understand how you would characterise "huge success"!


You didn't address my question about the IET European strategy, is there anything you can tell us about it please?


Keith

Keith Parr‍ I think it's about 100 LNs. That said, it comes with the caveat that not all LNs are equal in size and ambition. There are a number of countries that have a large land mass, small population, tiny IET membership and low density, which really can limit the effectiveness of emails, and especially if they're received by so few people. I can think of countries that fit that description but still manage to run good local networks through using social media, university notice boards and personal networks / word of mouth. Aside from all of that, there will be other socio-economic factors to consider such as access to the Internet or even a reliable electricity supply in some countries. With that context mind mind, it's probably not useful for all LNs to use Adestra, but more would certainly be a positive.


Those not using Adestra still get emails sent out by staff. The important thing to remember is that email is just one channel and there's a number of ways of communicating with members. I honestly don't know (although I can see the reports exist in our database, I've never really needed to look at them in detail) what proportion of members are signed up to receive email communications, but I wouldn't necessarily agree that it's a useful figure to have. If members have unsubscribed and genuinely have no interest in engaging beyond maintaining their membership, then I think it's probably a good thing that they don't get a load of email that they'll never read. I believe open rates are normally around 20-30%, which is quite normal. The volunteer emails tend to exceed the average, which is why I describe them as a success. If members are more likely to open and read a more personal email from "Joe Bloggs from IET Exampleland", then I think that's a positive and something to celebrated.


I wouldn't look too much into the comparison with MyCommunity or any IET online platform. Although profiles on this platform are linked to the central membership database and we have single sign-on, the members of a group are an entirely different data set to those who we can email via Adestra.


On Europe, the LN strategy is written and owned by the EMEA-CC. CCs (communities committees) have the autonomy to prioritise opportunities and decisions are made by members. I'm not up to date on their strategy for Europe, so that's probably a question for them. They're just going into a new session and with a new Chair (based in Switzerland), so the direction for the next few years might be up for debate. I'm sure the sales teams have their own strategy for Europe, but I imagine that's commercially sensitive and it's not something that I'm familiar with.

Just jumping in to add some info to this discussion thread.

Keith Parr‍  following on from David Houssein‍, we are using the same single sign on for Engineering Communities (we haven't called it MyCommunity for a while now  ) as the main IET website, and your membership data from our CRM system is now brought over to the online community when you log in. This user data also includes which Local Network you 'belong' to as set by your address details when you sign up online. After we intergrated the membership data with Engineering Communities (in January 2016) anyone logging in to the community after that date will automatically be added to the relevant Local Network's online community group. 


Many of our LN's have created and sent emails to the members in their area (either via using Adestra themselves or asking their Staff contact for assistance) to encourage them to log into Engineering Communities and therefore join their Local Network's online community.

John Dunbar‍  On the subject of notifications from the IET France online community, the Community Admins for this group have access to the group's admin panel and within it can select and set the default notifications for new group members. However, group members have the ability to turn these on or off as they wish in the group's settings menu. They can also choose to receive alerts as part of a daily or weekly digest instead. I've taken a look at the current settings for this group and all notifications (apart from the 'new group member' alert) are activated so all new group members will be receiving these alerts unless they have chosen to opt out themselves.


Hope that helps?


Lisa

Response to David Houssein

The reason that I asked about your connection with the French LN was that the post clearly did not reflect the reality experienced by IET Members in France. There was the possibility that I had met you at a LN meeting so I left the door open. That you work for the IET explains things.


Our reality is far from what people in HQ would like to imagine. Yes, I have checked my mail options. Yes, I have checked my Spam tray. I have been sent screen shots to "PROVE" that I have received mails. Erreur! They may have been sent but I didn't receive them. (Refer back to line above) Preferring to believe your screen rather than a Member's point of view is pardonable but just once.


No David, it would be better to try and understand reality and not the virtual sort. There are hundreds of IET Members in France who are not signed up to the Community. Why not? There are hundreds of IET Members in France and elsewhere that are not being informed of meetings or other news. Why not?


The IET has double standards in terms of communications with Members. On the one hand I receive mails from E&T News several times a week and I happen to like that but, on the other, it can't get its act together to inform Members about local events. We used to do this locally and, frankly, I can't understand the logic in the IET's interpretation of a UK law which is being applied in France


Please take the time to think outside the box and get to the bottom of this communications problem.

David Houssein I certainly take your point about "horses for courses" when it comes to communicating with members (and non-members), although I would have thought that some of the factors you mention (large land mass, small population, tiny IET membership and low density) would imact the functioning of the LN rather than perhaps the effectiveness of email.


When you say "Those not using Adestra still get emails sent out by staff", that means that staff run Adestra on behalf of the LN doesn't it?  So the participation rate in Adestra is still relevant?

"don't know [...] what proportion of members are signed up to receive email communications"

I find that a bit worrying, it says to me we are using a tool without knowing its effectiveness.  Surely it's not enough to say "I sent it via Adestra" thinking that one is addressing "the membership" when in fact one is addressing some (unknown?) part of the membership.  [Mike's post only serves to underline the importance of really understanding what is (not) happening.]


Of course you are quite right that it is better for members who no longer want contact are able to unsubscribe, although it might bring into question what we offer such members ...  And I accept that it is not necessarily meaningful to compare Engineering Communities with Adestra, but in the absence of other data ...


Your comment about IET Strategy in Europe is interesting and welcome, although I assume it will be within the framework of the IET International Strategy from Hilary Lambert - or is that only for the commercial activities?  I look forward to seeing the results of their deliberations - although their web page is less than informative <smile>.  Who is the incoming Chair?

Lisa Miles  Ooops, sorry, Engineering Communites ...


While I can see the advantages of automatically signing people up when they visit EC, I can't help but wonder how we can square that with our strict interpretation of the DPA.  But if it gets the numbers up ...

Michael Wrigley asks a couple of "why nots".  I suggest that the second one is the "real" problem, why are the French LN messages not getting through to the members who want them?  The other why not, why are there few French LN members signed up to the French community, is easier to understand.  People need to have a good reason to sign up to, and get involved in, any on-line community.  There are so many to choose from (LinkedIn, facebook, ...) that anyone, and especially perhaps a busy professional engineer, needs to get some value from their investment of time and effort.  If the French LN Community was a buzzing hive of activity with lots of value then people would come, but it isn't.  That's not a criticism of the French LN or its committee, it's simply a fact of life, a recognition that other communities offer more value.  If one wants to join a community then one is likely to choose an active one, probably on a platform where one is already a member, which creates positive feedback; one is likely to ignore less active ones, which creates negative feedback.


Keith