More about Institutional Memberships

How Institutional Memberships Work

We use the Wild Apricot member management platform, which allows for membership “bundles.” GSOLE Institutional Memberships are really bundles of individual memberships managed by a single individual called the “Bundle Administrator.” This individual is also a member. However, the Bundle Administrator has the following responsibilities:

Responsibilities of Administrators for Institutional Memberships

Maintain a list of individuals whose memberships are paid for through the Institutional Membership bundle. Although GSOLE will facilitate occasional bulk entry, including the initial list of individuals (see more below), Bundle Administrators should expect to add and remove individuals as needed through the Wild Apricot Bundle Administrator interface (explained below). This expectation allows us to keep our administrative costs--and therefore membership dues--low while also allowing institutional administrators to rotate individuals into and out of their Institutional Membership as they see fit, thereby spreading more broadly the benefits of GSOLE membership.
Maintain the profile associated with the Institutional Membership. This profile will appear on the same account as the Bundle Administrator. For this reason, the Bundle Administrator may choose to use an institutional contact address and an institutional name (e.g., "University of [School Name], Writing Program"). The profile allows the Bundle Administrator to add an image too, which can represent the institution itself, rather than just an individual. See below about how to use this profile to inform other GSOLE members and the public about your program.
Make sure the Institutional Membership is paid for like any individual membership. Bundle Administrators will receive multiple reminders when payments are due, and the Wild Apricot system automatically generates an invoice when you start the initial purchase or renewal process. If you have any concerns about maintaining the membership or require other documentation from your institutions, please contact <membership@gsole.org>

Managing the Individuals within your Institutional Membership

As noted above, “bundles” are a feature of Wild Apricot’s member management platform. As such, Wild Apricot provides resources guiding Bundle Administrators: <https://gethelp.wildapricot.com/en/articles/514-bundle-administrator-guide>

More guidance for Bundle Administrators of Institutional Memberships:

To manage the list of individuals, login with the Bundle Admin account. You should see the name associated with the account in the upper right-hand portion of your screen once you've logged in. Click on the name to view the Bundle Admin's profile, which should also allow you to access an interface for managing your list of institutional members.
To avoid this confusion, be sure to clarify for each individual in your bundle which address was added as a part of the Institutional Membership. individuals on your list who have previously participated in GSOLE activities may have used a different e-mail for their contact information. This may result in two GSOLE accounts for that person. This often leads to confusion when the individual logs in with the old address, rather than one associated with the Institutional Membership. As a result, the person may have difficulty accessing resources. To avoid this confusion, be sure to clarify for each individual in your bundle which address was added as a part of the Institutional Membership. See Member FAQ for more information.
To enter your initial list of individuals in bulk, use our import template (a spreadsheet). After creating your intuitional account, download a copy of our Institutional Member import spreadsheet. Complete all fields, entering your Bundle Administrator account number in the "Member Bundle" field. Then, send your list to <membership@gsole.org>. We'll upload the list as soon as possible, entering all the individuals all at once.

Inform Others about Your Program

(BETA TESTING: HELP US TEST THIS NEW FEATURE)

You can use the Institutional account to inform the public or other GSOLE members about your program. We're piloting a program that displays Institutional Members in a area at the bottom of pages throughout the GSOLE site. Visitors to the GSOLE site will be able to click on the display to find out more about the institution. To participate in this pilot, take the following steps:

Add a new account--a Program Information Account--to your Institutional Membership bundle to provide access to program info. Follow the same steps you would for adding an individual faculty, staff, or student, but adjust the details as suggested below. Alternately, you can use the Bundle Administrator account itself as the program's Program Information Account.
Enter the name of the program as the first name and your school's name as the last name. You will probably want to make the contact e-mail something equally appropriate to represent the program, whether that's an administrator's account or some other kind of organizational e-mail inbox regularly checked by a program administrator.
Set this Program Information Account's profile picture to a 16:9 image, While GSOLE reserves the right to review this image and ask for changes, you're otherwise free to use the image to represent your program however you see fit. Consider developing the promotional image in a slide-presentation app, exporting the slide as a web-compatible image (jpg, png, etc...). Provide a brief description of the program in the Bio field, which may also include links to pages on your institution's site.
Set the Program Information Account's profile settings to allow for public viewing. This will ensure that the profile with it's promotional info is accessible to both GSOLE members and non-members visiting the site.
Contact <membership@gsole.org> to request your Program Information Account appear in our "Institutional Member" rotation. At the bottom of many GSOLE pages, you'll see a section including a profile image of our featured institutional members. For your institution to join the rotation, complete the steps above and let us know that you want to try out this new feature. In your e-mail provide e-mail username for the Program Information Account.

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