Posts Tagged ‘website’

CEDAM Members Take Note: Changes to Membership and Member Portal

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

From CEDAM’s Office and Systems Manager, Katie Fritz

1. New Membership Levels and Benefits

We’ve been thinking hard about how to make CEDAM membership more valuable and more inclusive of the whole Community Economic Development industry. We are excited to announce both updated membership levels AND several new member benefits in 2012!

Here’s the breakdown on the new membership levels:

You are an Individual Member if…

  • You are an individual who supports community economic development
  • You want to keep up with current industry news and access trainings
  • (See all benefits)

You are a Practitioner if…

  • You are a nonprofit organization or governmental department doing community-based economic development in a Michigan neighborhood, city or county (this includes CDCs, neighborhood organizations, main street programs, social change organizations, community engagement organizations, human development organizations and more)
  • You want to save thousands of dollars, get better at what you do and expand your reach
  • (See all benefits)

You are a Partner if…

  • You are a statewide or national association, intermediary, university program, financial institution, for-profit developer, vendor or consultant
  • You want to stay up-to-date with the CED industry and promote your services to CEDAM’s membership
  • (See all benefits)

Current CEDAM memberships have been converted to the appropriate level in our member database for the 2012 renewal season. No member will be asked to pay more in 2012 than in 2011. If you are a current Individual member and would like to switch to a Practitioner or Partner membership, you’ll be able to do that through the member portal or by email.

We hope that you’ll find your 2012 CEDAM membership more valuable than ever before. And along those lines…

2. Get Ready to Renew your Membership

The renewal process in 2012 will look a little different than in previous years. Instead of a paper form in the mail, you will receive an email next week with instructions and a link to renew your membership online. Only primary contacts at organizations will receive this email – when you renew, everyone else at your organization will be renewed automatically. You will still be able to pay by check or credit card. For more information, visit the Membership Renewal section of our Help page.

We hope this renewal process will be faster and easier than ever. To sweeten the deal, if you renew or join by February 15, you’ll be entered into a drawing for your choice of a free single-day CEDAM training or a $50 Visa gift card – so don’t delay!

3. New Member Portal Features

Thanks to recent software updates, you can now do the following through the CEDAM member portal:

  • View the outstanding balance on your account
  • View and pay invoices online at your convenience
  • Make a single payment for multiple trainings
  • Get a random password when you create an account
  • Make a credit card payment over the phone

To learn more about how to use the member portal and these new features, visit the help page.

Still have questions about any of these changes? Give me a call at 517.485.3588 – I’d be happy to talk to you!

CEDAM Launches New Online Member Portal

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Beginning today, a new online tool will let CEDAM members manage their contact in
formation, renew their membership, access restricted members-only resources, view a current member directory, register for events and more.

screenshot of CEDAM Member PortalThe CEDAM Member Portal can be found at http://members.cedam.info, but the key tools are integrated into the main CEDAM website (www.cedam.info) for a seamless experience. The site is built with Wild Apricot, a membership management platform for nonprofits and associations. Interested organizations can sign up for a 30-day free trial here.

We are thrilled to finally launch this new system,” said Katie Fritz, CEDAM’s Policy and Program Manager, who handles CEDAM’s technological needs. “It will make many tasks easier for members, and it will free up a lot of staff administration time so we can focus on our programmatic activities.”

All members should receive an email this week confirming the information we have on record for them. If you are a member and your information is incorrect, you can log in to update it. Visit the Member Portal help page for instructions.

Non-members will be able to use the Member Portal as well: the site will contain registration forms for the Comprehensive Community Development Institute, a public directory of members and a new and improved membership application.

If you have questions or feedback regarding the new member portal, please contact Katie Fritz at fritz@cedam.info or 517.485.3588. We look forward to hearing from you!

DHS Welfare 101 Campaign Attacks Myths About Welfare

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

The Michigan Department of Human Services is currently touting a campaign to discredit common myths about welfare and its recipients.  The campaign aims to reduce widespread negative perceptions and show how valuable the welfare system is for Michigan residents, as well as the state’s economy.  In Michigan’s current economic climate an unprecedented number of families qualify for social services, but many who qualify may not apply because of the myths that tarnish the purpose of the welfare system.

The Welfare 101: Busting Myths About Welfare website is a great resource for human service agencies and other organizations that seek to help populations whose members often qualify for public services.  The website offers documents discussing various myths about welfare, including “Welfare recipients are a drain on the system,” “Welfare is full of fraud and no one’s doing anything about it,” and “Welfare recipients only live in poor, urban areas, not the suburbs or wealthier areas of the state.”  These resources can be directed to people who qualify for benefits but may be reluctant to apply or be used to inform the general public.

Please view the Welfare 101: Busting Myths About Welfare website for more information and to access campaign resources.

HousingPolicy.org – a resource for everyone

Friday, December 11th, 2009

[This policy-related post is from Katie Johnson, Policy Associate at CEDAM.]

This Tuesday, I participated in an interesting and innovative event hosted by the Center for Housing Policy on their website, HousingPolicy.org. The first part was a phone interview with housing policy expert Frank Alexander from Emory Law School. Alexander talked about using land banking strategies for foreclosure mitigation. Then, instead of the usual question-and-answer session on the phone, the event moved to the Internet. We listeners – and others – posted questions as comments in an online forum, and Alexander wrote replies in the same place.

Although nontraditional, this method had some real advantages:

  • It brings in more people by allowing them to post questions before or after the live event, not just in a ten-minute window.
  • It gives the expert more time to formulate answers that address all parts of each question.
  • It creates a public, written record of the conversation.
  • It allows the conversation to continue because the forum remains open.

Of course there are some drawbacks to this format too, but overall I think it was successful. If you’re interested in participating in future events, you can see what’s coming up on their home page. You can also listen to recordings of previous interviews on foreclosure mitigation.

As I was keeping an eye on the land banking forum, I started exploring the rest of the site. What a great resource!

  • The Toolbox section, ideal for those new to or outside of the industry, has content on many different aspects of state and local housing policy, from energy efficiency to tax increment financing. Each topic has a basic overview, more detailed explanations, and links to outside resources.
  • The Building a Strategy section has instructions and tips for creating a comprehensive community housing strategy – good for local officials.
  • The Forum lets practitioners (and others) create or participate in written conversations on any and all housing policy topics.
  • Last but not least, the Gallery has photos and information on dozens of successful affordable housing projects around the country.  Admire the handful of Michigan projects featured, and submit your own to show the rest of the country the kind of work we do here.

When you have a few minutes today, visit HousingPolicy.org and look around. I’m confident you’ll find something interesting and useful.

HousingPolicy.org

MFPP Online Foreclosure Service

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

The Michigan Foreclosure Prevention Project’s foreclosure online inquiry/intake service is now up and running! View it here.

MFPP foreclosure

The MFPP web inquiry will provide intake, counseling, and advice services to households facing foreclosure that complete the on-line intake questionnaire.  A MFPP attorney will monitor the web intake daily and answer questions.  If the MFPP attorney believes that more extensive services are required for a client, the MFPP attorney will either refer the client to a housing counselor or to one of the legal services partner programs serving the geographic area where the property is located.  Please let homeowners in your networks know about this new online service.