HOW A NECA MEMBER REGISTERS ONLINE FOR NECA MEETINGS

Transcription

1 HOW A NECA MEMBER REGISTERS ONLINE FOR NECA MEETINGS Overview NECA has enhanced many areas of our web site in an effort to provide additional member benefits and a more personalized experience for members. We ve focused on adding features that allow you (as a loyal NECA member) to log onto our site (using your personal information) to update information about you and your firm. We ve also added a feature that allows you to register yourself, or others in your firm, for a variety of meetings using our web site. Our goal is to offer meeting registrations that will have the same look and feel each time you register for a NECA meeting. That is, registering for the NECA Convention should be a similar experience to registering for one of our Regional Conventions or a Management Education Institute (MEI) course. This document will provide more detailed information on how to register yourself and/or others for NECA meetings. Advantages of Online Meeting Registration You won t have to write or type redundant information to identify yourself (like your name, your company, address, phone, , badge nickname, etc.) on a registration form. You will have the ability to edit the information in our database or make a onetime change, for example, to a temporary address. Because you ll be able to pay with your credit card, you won t have to wait for your accounting department to draw a check to be mailed with your registration form - snail mail is the only way to pay by check. You ll receive immediate confirmation of your meeting registration by Ten Step Rapid Registrations: Please don t be intimidated by the size of this document or the number of steps necessary to register for a meeting. In order to demonstrate how this online registration system works, this narrative will use a real NECA member registering for a meeting in Boston. Each of the ten steps is listed below. Each step is described and copies of screen shots pictures of what your computer screen should look like as you navigate your way through the process should help you to understand the process. Through these screen shots we ll show you how the member only needs to click his mouse 13 times and enter minimal information to be fully registered for the meeting. 1. Log in to our website 2. Locate your meeting 3. Initiate the Registration a.k.a. Register Now 4. Enter/Verify Attendee Information (including Add A New Individual, Determining Who Is Paying For The Registration and Where Should Correspondence Be Sent ) 5. Reserve Hotel (if applicable) 6. Review the Registration 7. Processing Guests (if applicable) 8. Review Shopping Cart 9. Enter Payment Information 10. Confirmation April 8,

2 A Credit Card is necessary for online registration Just like ordering online from the major online retailers (like Amazon.com or ebay), you ll need a major credit card to register online for NECA meetings. In the past you may have paid for meeting registrations by check, but we believe that payment by credit card can expedite processing and actually make it easier for you to act on your decision to attend a meeting. All credit card transactions are processed in a secure environment! NECA accepts VISA, MasterCard and American Express credit cards. Is there another option to using credit cards? You may pay by check but this eliminates the option of registering online. You may mail a copy of a completed registration form with a check to the office processing the registrations generally, the national office or one of the regional offices (for regional meetings). One disadvantage of this, however, it that someone has to complete all the information on the registration form manually. Checklist for Online Registration Have your own individual username and password to get to the private website. Information about the meeting so you ll understand any choices or options that you have Have your credit card information including (for verification purposes) the billing address and zip code that your credit card recognizes Arrival and departure dates if requiring a hotel room Reminder about giving other people in your company their own access In the past, we know it was common for people to give their usernames and passwords to others in their organization. Since we have added the capability for you to act on behalf of others, there is no longer a need to share login information. Instead, you can log in as yourself and then choose who you want to impersonate. Or your secretary or assistant can impersonate you to register you for the meeting. In fact, not having separate login and password codes will eliminate much of the advantage of online registration. The system has been designed to minimize unnecessary keystrokes (such as name and address, etc.). Based upon your login and password, we ll know who you are! If your company has other employees that ought to have access to the private site for any of the reasons listed below, it is possible for other members of your company s staff to register themselves for their own username and password. To do so all they need is two pieces of information: your company s membership ID and your number company s phone number. They should visit the public web site, click on Log-In and then My Account. When they click on New User they will prompted to enter the information above. At that time they can create their own user profile. Please note: The phone number that they enter must agree with the main company phone number that is on file in NECA s membership database. Any other phone number will not be recognized and access will be denied. Here are some reasons why your key employees should have their own access: You don t need to remember to tell others about useful information that you find on the private website April 8,

3 When they register for a meeting online (with their own access) their information will automatically be pre-populated during the process. They ll have the ability to go to the private website to do research. Each user can complete a profile indicating, among other things, the topics in which he or she is most interested. For example, if the user is interested in Government Affairs, related news and information services will be the first thing they see when they log onto the private site. If the user is primarily interested in Safety, then safety-related items will be most immediately accessible, and so forth. Of course, users will still have access to all of the articles and services available through the members-only site. April 8,

4 Ten Steps to Rapid Registration In order to demonstrate how the online registration system works, the screen shots show how a real person registers for a meeting in Boston. Linda Milbourn (from NECA in Bethesda, Maryland) has agreed to let us use her as a sample. Linda has a user name and password but it s not the default ones assigned by NECA s database. Linda recognized that the default information was not easy for her to remember, so she changed her user name and password to something more memorable. For more information about how you can do this, see the references to My Account Screen 2. Also you can visit If you are a frequent visitor to the Members Only portion of necanet (via your log-in information), you ll want to jump right in (entering your login information) as demonstrated on Screens 1a and 1b. You should then move ahead to Step 2 on page 7. If you are an infrequent visitor (who needs some refresher) or a first-time visitor (who needs to establish themselves in NECA s database) you ll want to click on My Account (see Screen 1a). That will take you to Screen 2. Here you can get some additional assistance during your login. You can also obtain your password if you have forgotten it or add yourself if you are not already in NECA s database of members and affiliated people. If you re reading this narrative online you obviously don t need instructions about getting to our private website. If someone (with access) printed this for you, instructions for this first step might be helpful. Step 1: Log onto our website NECA s homepage is This is the Internet address where you want to point your browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.). If you don t have a User Name and Password you can see more detailed discussion about logging into our private site, at Screen 1a shows you what the homepage should look like when you arrive. Next to the red star on Screen 1a, click on Members Only. April 8,

5 Screen 1a This is the screen that you should see when you click on Members Only. If you do not know your User Name and Password click on Forgot Password or you can refer to the section listed as My Account that follows. After entering your User Name and Password you should click OK Screen 1b April 8,

6 Note that Screen 2 is only necessary if you want to make some changes to your account. It s not really part of the meeting registration process. It s only shown to help those that may not be familiar with some of the features of necanet.org. You can see this screen by clicking on My Account at the top of the web page on the right at your first visit to the necanet.org main homepage. This screen will be helpful to you if you would like to: Screen 2 April 8,

7 Add yourself to the database as an affiliate of a member firm. This will enable you access to the members only private website. To do this you need to click on New User. See higher red star on Screen 2. Change your login information (User Name and Password) to something more easily remembered. To do this you should click on Change My User Name/Password. See lower red star on Screen 2. April 8,

8 Step 2: Locate Your Meeting Screen 3 shows what the Members Only private website looks like. The red star shows you where to go to register for a NECA meeting. By clicking on Online Meeting Registration you should be taken to a screen that looks like Screen 4. Screen 3 April 8,

9 In this example, Screen 4 has two options: Online Meetings Available (which offers a list of those meetings for which online registration is available) and Printable Meeting Registration Forms which you may select to print a registration form from your local computer printer. This form may be convenient if you need to pay by check or just want to review the form before going online to register. For this example, we want to select (by clicking) Online Meetings Available. See the red star below. Screen 4 You will also see the option of printing some instructions here. The menu item should read: Printed Instructions How to Register Online for NECA Meeting (PDF file). That s what you re reading unless you re viewing a printed copy and the instructions have been updated. April 8,

10 In this example, we are going to select the Southern Region Conference. Linda Milbourn clicks on Southern Region Conference 2007 in screen 5 (see red star on screen below). Screen 5 Note you may see a different screen from the one above that says: Welcome {insert your name here}. This is not shown because the information therein (about Linda Milbourn) is not relevant to this example. Also note that the registration for certain meetings may be restricted to members of specific demographics. In the case of the Southern Region Conference, an individual registering for the meeting must be affiliated with (linked to) a member firm that is a member of one of the chapters within NECA districts 3 or 5. Registering for the NECA Convention will have different screens that will be shown on future pages (page 25 page ). April 8,

11 Step 3: Initiate the Registration a.k.a. Register Now Screen 6 shows some specific information about the Southern Region Conference 2007 and offers the viewer the opportunity to register for this meeting. When Linda arrives at this point he knows she wants to register for this meeting, so she clicks on Register Now the red star once again shows the location on the screen. Screen 6 Note: earlier we mentioned that the registration process was simple. Specifically, we mentioned that you could register with 13 mouse clicks. Below each applicable screen, we ll count those mouse clicks for you. {This is mouse click #1 to Register Now.} April 8,

12 Step 4: Enter/Verify Attendee Information Here comes the beauty of this system because Linda has entered her user name and password (way back on Screen 1b) our database knows this is Linda Milbourn and it prepopulates relevant information about Linda s attendance at this meeting directly on the form you see on Screen 7a through 7d The Registration Information screen will be presented. This screen is designed to gather information about the attendee such as: Who the attendee is Who is paying for the registration Where (what address) the attendee wants to receive information regarding this meeting When looking at Screens 7a, 7b, 7c and 7d (these are continuations of the same area of the website seen by scrolling down the page), keep in mind the fact that the information that you see is already here (via the pre-population feature of the software mentioned above). Linda doesn t have to enter any data about her unless she wants to make some change in the information that is in NECA s database. Registration Information Screen Screen 7a April 8,

13 Note that Screen 7a and 7b appear very similar. The difference is in Screen 7b, where Linda could click on the down arrow to the right of the box labeled Who is Paying? See the red star. You can see that two options are displayed: payment can be made directly by Linda (the attendee) or by his company (attendee s company). In this example, Linda has elected (by clicking) to pay for this registration using her own credit card (more on that later). Screen 7b {Note I didn t count this mouse click because it was only done to demonstrate the paying option.} April 8,

14 On Screen 7c, you can see that by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the box labeled I want to receive Correspondence at: (see red star) Linda has a choice of addresses to which she might choose to have information sent that is relevant to this meeting. Note Linda can also add a new address here by clicking on New Address and entering the information requested. By adding such a new address, (his home address, for example) Linda wouldn t be changing any other address within the NECA database, she d only be creating an alternate address where he wants mailings related to this meeting the Southern Region Conference Doing this will add an alternate address for future mailings. Note by this action, Linda is not changing her address for receiving (for example) the mailing of the NECA News. Screen 7c {Note I didn t count this mouse click because it was only done to demonstrate the correspondence option.} April 8,

15 Screen 7d shows the remainder of the information available to Linda during this identification and verification process. Remember if Linda doesn t have any changes to his information, she doesn t have to enter any information about herself. She just scrolls down to the bottom of the screen and clicks on Submit Registration. Screen 7d {Mouse click #2 to Submit Registration.} April 8,

16 Step 5: Reserve Hotel (if applicable) If the meeting offers hotel reservation services, then you will be shown a screen similar to that below. Here you can choose what type of room you would like as well as designate other related preferences. Now that Linda has confirmed his meeting registration information, the software will ask about his hotel requirements. In this case the Southern Region Conference 2007 is being held at the Harvey s Resort & Casino in Nevada and room blocks have been established with different prices and sleeping configurations. On Screen 8a you can see that Linda has selected one Single/Double room. She did this by entering a 1 in the box near the red star. It was zero when the screen first appeared. Hotel Registration Page Screen 8a {Mouse click # 3 to indicate number of rooms needed by Room Type.} April 8,

17 By scrolling further down the same page, Linda has the opportunity to enter his arrival and departure dates (for her hotel s information). Note in this case, the default dates of the meeting (June 22 arrival and June 26 departure) are exactly what Linda wanted so she didn t have to do anything here. If Linda wanted to arrive at the hotel earlier, depart later or some combination thereof, he would only have to go to those fields and enter the desired date. Linda has the option of selecting a smoking or non-smoking room by clicking on the proper button. He also has the option of selecting the type of beds in her room. She clicked on non-smoking and One King Bed. Note a different meeting might offer different options. Because Linda wants to use the same credit card for both her meeting registration and her hotel room, he also clicked on I authorize you to use the credit card for this hotel reservation. At the bottom of the page, Linda then clicked on Continue Registration (see red star). You ll note that there is also a button labeled Skip Hotel. This provides an opportunity to proceed with the registration process without booking a hotel room at this point. If you clicked on Skip Hotel you would see the following options to check: Make Reservations Later, Staying with Relatives/Friends, Live Locally or Other. Screen 8b {Mouse click # 4 to select Non-Smoking hotel room; Mouse click # 5 to select type of bed configuration; Mouse click # 6 to click in box to indicate Use of credit card OK for hotel reservation and Mouse click # 7 to Continue Registration.} April 8,

18 Step 6: Review the Registration Screens 9a and 9b show information about the registration. You are also able to do the following on these screens: Update Registrant Information Add a Guest (if applicable to the meeting and registrant) See Step 7 Update Guest Information Update Hotel Information (if applicable to the meeting and registrant) Update Event Information (if applicable to the meeting) Click on Complete Registration to proceed to checkout By clicking on Continue Registration on Screen 8b, the next screen Linda will see is the Registration Summary. On Screen 9a Linda can see that her registration fee is $359 and that she has overlooked registering her husband an oversight she s about to rectify. {Don t tell William!} Linda can also see what her badge will say (Linda) with her company name. She can indicate whether he wishes to be included in the printed meeting directory (or not). Linda could edit any of this information in the Registrant box by clicking on Update Badge Information (see red star). However, Linda is agreeable to what she sees, so she scrolls down to see (what you can see on) Screen 9b. Registration Summary Screen 9a April 8,

19 Screen 9b is the lower part of the same page. Here Linda can Add a Guest or Update Hotel Information. This is where Linda can add William as her guest. She does this by clicking on Add a Guest (see red stars there are two locations to add a guest). This will take Linda to the next screen (10a). Screen 9b {Mouse click # 8 to Add a Guest.} April 8,

20 Step 7: Processing Guests (if applicable) Here is where Linda can register her husband, William. She needs to enter information about him in several of the fields on Screen 10a and 10b. Note that required fields are denoted in red. Add A Guest Screen Screen 10a {Linda has to enter the information about her guest (William). You ll see this on screens 10a and 10b.} April 8,

21 Linda scrolls down to see what s at the bottom of this page and enters some information about William, especially the Type of Guest which at this meeting determines the amount of the registration fee. Note at the bottom of Screen 10b, you can several options. After completing William s information, he could register another guest by clicking on Add Another Guest (just above the red star). That would cause a blank Screen 10a and 10b to appear where Linda could enter the necessary information about her other guest. In this case, William is all Linda needs so he clicks on Continue Registration (there s that red star again). Screen 10b {Mouse click # 9 to Continue Registration.} April 8,

22 We ve seen this screen before (specifically 9a and 9b). This time, however, William is included and you can see that the total fees have increased. You ll see her complete information on Screen 11b. Registration Summary (Again) Screen 11a April 8,

23 This is the continuation of Screen 11a. Here is where you can see that William has been registered. You can also see her registration fee ($235). You can see that Linda didn t enter NECA as William s company for his badge. That may have been intentional, but if she wanted to update that at this time all she d need to do is click on Update Guest Information and she could add that information, click on Continue Registration and be right back at this screen. This is also a good time to view the information about the hotel room if you didn t do that earlier. Because Linda is now done registering for this meeting, he clicks on Complete Registration at the bottom of this screen. Screen 11b {Mouse click # 10 to Complete Registration.} April 8,

24 Step 8: Review Shopping Cart Screen 12a is the beginning of the end of the registration process. It provides one more chance for Linda to review her transaction before she will be asked to provide her credit card information. If Linda did find an error, by clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons (depending upon whether she wanted to update some information or remove a registrant) she would be taken to screens like you ve already seen. This is the bottom of screen 12a. Linda can see the total amount of the registration fees for her and William. She can add another guest by clicking on Register Another Attendee for Same Meeting. Linda chooses to click on Registration Checkout (red star). Screen 12a {Mouse click # 11 to move to Registration Checkout.} April 8,

25 Step 9: Enter Payment Information Linda will use her credit card to pay for the registration fee(s) AND the card will be used to hold the hotel room (first night s deposit) although normally the charge will not be made right away. In this case there will be two separate charges to the credit card ( NECA for the registration fee and the Westin Copley Place for the room deposit). Note Linda said he didn t mind us using him as an example of how to register for this meeting, but he didn t agree to pay for everyone s registration (or new DVD player, for that matter) so you won t see Linda s credit card information on Screen 13. Be assured, however, that he did select the type of card (by using the down arrow to the right of Credit Card Type ). He then entered the specific credit card number, the expiration month and year and the other information. Part of the confirmation process includes sending s to the registrant. Note there is a box for this at the bottom of screen 13. Generally this would include the default address in the NECA database. You also have the ability to enter a different address here. You may also choose to send the confirmation to an address other then your default address. Note: NECA takes American Express, VISA and MasterCard credit cards. When Linda was done he clicked on Continue with Checkout (see red star). Screen 13 {Mouse click #12 to Continue With Checkout.} April 8,

26 Registering for the NECA Convention and Show, the web pages are a little different. You can register for the Convention by either going to the Online Meeting Registration icon on the necanet.org/private/ site or necaconvention.org. Screen 14 will take us into the registration process for the Convention. Screen 14 The registration process is the same for NECA Convention as it is for the regional meetings. For this meeting Emily Gray O Brien from Terrapin Electric in College Park, MD, will be registering. April 8,

27 Step 1: Enter/Verify Attendee Information for NECA Convention The NECA Convention registration process is the same as it is in Step 4 (page 12). Emily has chosen that she will be paying for the registration and using her address for any convention mailings. Screen 14a PLEASE NOTE THE PURPLE` STAR: Emily has chosen the meeting materials (badges and exhibitor info) to be sent to her business address. This address is very important. If the Chapter is registering their Governor and President and the chapter chooses the chapter s address, all of the correspondence will be sent to the Chapter instead of the member s address. Also, when they attend the NECA Show and have their badge scanned, the exhibitor will pick up the chapter s address not the member s. April 8,

28 Another difference you will notice when you are registering for the NECA Convention is at the bottom of the registration page you have options to check for ribbons. Please be sure to check all of the boxes that apply. Screen 14b April 8,

29 Emily is not a member of any of the committees so she just submits the registration. Screen 14c April 8,

30 Step 2: Choosing a Path The Path Selection Page only applies to the NECA Convention and Show. Emily must now choose a Path. There are 4 Option you may select from. Pre-Conference Path This path applies to all of the seminars that will take place before the convention. This path will also give you access to the Trade Show/Technical Workshops. NECA Full Registration Convention Path This path includes admission to the Opening and Closing celebrations, General Sessions, Trade Show/Technical Workshops, Life Styles Programs, Managements seminars and lunches. Management Seminar Path This path includes admission to the Management seminars and Trade Show/Technical Workshops only. Trade Show Only Path This path includes admission to the Trade Show /Technical Workshops only for all three days. Emily chooses the NECA Full Registration Convention Path. April 8,

31 Step 3: Events Page Screen 16 Now Emily needs to decide if she plans to attend any of the events listed. This is the location for the Pre-conference listing. Also, if you are staying outside of the room block you will need to select the Out Of Room Block Fee. Emily has decided not to attend any of the preconference seminars and she is staying inside the room block so she will continue with the registration. April 8,

32 Step 4: Review the Convention Registration Screen 17 Notice that this section is the same as Screen 9a & 9b in Step 6. Emily could add a guest here or update any of the incorrect information from this page. Since Emily is going by herself and the information is correct, she will Complete the Registration by scrolling down... April 8,

33 Step 6: Review Shopping Cart Screen 18 Again, this page is the same as Screen 12a. Emily is going to Proceed to Checkout. April 8,

34 Step 7: Enter Payment Information Screen 19 Emily is using a non-existent credit card number in this example. Emily fills in the appropriate information and then Submits Payment. April 8,

35 Step 8: Confirmation Screen 20 This is Emily s confirmation. (Please print this page for your records. You will be receiving a confirmation by either , fax or mail but it is always good to have a backup.) Now Emily needs to make a hotel reservation with CMR so she will now click on Next Step. (Please note there are two locations to do this.) April 8,

36 Step 9: Hotel Reservations Screen 21 Emily will now click on Reserve Room for Attendee and she will be directed to the CMR website to make her hotel reservation. April 8,

37 This is the confirming that is automatically generated by the system. You can see on screen 20 that all the relevant information about this registration has been sent to Emily Gray O Brien. April 8,

38 This is the continuation of the to Emily Gray O Brien. All Emily has to do now is pack. April 8,