Database of members’ e-mail addresses will help branches
Pharmacists are being urged to register their up-to-date e-mail addresses with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in a drive to help the Society’s branch network communicate more effectively with members locally.
Once collected, the e-mail addresses will form a central database that
can be used by each branch to inform its members of potentially useful
information such as branch news, dates for branch meetings and networking
opportunities.
In time, the e-mail addresses will also be used to allow wider Society
staff to send appropriate communications to members, although conventional
mail will still be used for all statutory information sent to members.
The decision to collect e-mail addresses is in direct response to a request
made by branch secretaries attending a meeting at the Society’s
London offices in March.
Council member John Gentle, a branch sponsor on the Council and secretary
of the Shropshire branch, supports the move. He says: “As an active
branch member I welcome this exciting initiative and have long felt that
branch secretaries need a quicker, more easily accessible method of contacting
their members with branch news. However, it is clear that the new system
is reliant on members registering their up-to-date e-mail addresses and
so we are urging all members get online and do so now.”
The system for registering an up-to-date e-mail address will go live
at the beginning of August.
An e-mail registation form will be accessible from the “About
the Society” section of the Society’s website, via a
link from the “Branches and regions” page.
The form will allow members to add and change their e-mail addresses
to ensure that the database remains current. The unique identifier will
be that members will need to validate the information by typing in their
date of birth. It will be the member’s own responsibility to ensure
that his or her e-mail address remains up-to-date.
In line with the Society’s data protection policy, e-mail addresses
will only be used to support its work as the regulatory and professional
body for pharmacists in Britain. The Society will not share thedata with
any third party.
The e-mail registration form can also be used to remove members’ e-mail
addresses should they decide they no longer wish to be contacted via
e-mail.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal