“Membership Update”
by Tom Wilmer, Membership Chair
New Members/Returning Members
We continue to welcome new members, both writers and associate members. And I continue to be amazed by the new members’ envious outlets—true professionals. We have also received renewals in past month or so from old members who belatedly sent in their renewal fees.
A Word about the Credentialing Process
I have received numerous inquiries about “Credentialed Membership,” and the process of applying for status as a “Credentialed” member, along with issuance of a press credential card. There are two annual open enrollment/application periods–November and May, with the subsequent month allocated for vetting and approval. All applicants will be notified of their status at the end of the subsequent month. One month previous to the application period, members will be notified electronically of the Credentialing criterion, along with instructions for downloading the application form.
Updating Member Profiles
As an integral process of providing transparent and verifiable data in the online BATW Member Profiles, it is essential that all members take the time to review and update their information. This includes telephone numbers, snail mail address, websites, etc. It is equally important to revise, as needed, the outlets in your listing, both current and previous. Please list only recent (past 24 months) in the Current Outlet box, along with month and year of publication. Be sure to list all old outlets in the “Past Outlets” box. AND be sure to list month and year of publication in all Past Outlet posts as well.
Transparency and Accuracy
Additionally, in keeping with our mission of providing clear and transparent information about our members, it is equally important that you list accurate stats relative to website following and/or readership stats. If you are a contributor to Web-based outlets that showcase contributions from numerous journalists, please do not list the cumulative total of the website (for example, we have received substantiating stats from two or three Examiner.com producers who claim between 15 and 24 million followers. Might be true for the entire planetary domain of Examinerdom, but not so for any one individual Examiner). List the stats for your particular post, e.g. Huff Post, Examiner, About.com, etc. FYI: we now require a Google Analytics screen shot of your specific website as a part of the Credentialing process. In the coming months, the Membership Committee will be reviewing Member Profiles to ensure accuracy of information. Any blatantly inaccurate or misleading information will be deleted, and the member will be asked to make modifications as needed.
A Note about BATW Yahoo Groups Proper Protocol:
Think before you click
We have all made this mistake. When replying to a BATW Yahoo Group Post, stop and take a moment to ask yourself this question: Is my response germane to the entire group, or is it of pertinence solely to the person who posted the message? Be sure to remember that if you just hit reply, you are sending your response to more than 100 fellow group members. BATW member April Orcutt supplied concise instructions for proper response to individual poster: “If you look at the bottom-left corner of this and all other messages posted to the forum, you’ll see “Reply to sender” at the bottom. You can simply click on that to reply just to the sender rather than to the whole group.”
BAR at bottom of Yahoo Groups Posts:
Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic
Messages in this topic (2)
If you have any questions about Membership issues, please contact the Membership Committee members listed below:
Tom Wilmer ([email protected]) or Suzie Rodriguez ([email protected])