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Network News is produced by The Pharmaceutical Journal in association with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's public relations and membership unit as a service to members of the Society resident in Great Britain
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The e-mail address collection page on the Society's website |
At their meeting in March this year, Royal Pharmaceutical Society branch
and regional secretaries asked whether the Society could help with
their communications by collecting members’ e-mail addresses
centrally. Several branch secretaries use e-mail for their regular
mailings to members to streamline their administration and save on
postage costs. But secretaries were finding difficulty in ensuring
that their locally generated lists of e-mail addresses were up to date
and asked the Society to help.
Following a period of research, the Society has now begun a new internet-based
service that invites members to submit details of their e-mail address.
The e-mail addresses collected will be used to improve communications
between branches and their members. The addresses will also be used by
Society staff to communicate with members although conventional mail
will still be used for all statutory information sent to members.
In line with the Society’s data protection policy, e-mail addresses
will be only used to support its work as the regulatory and professional
body for pharmacists. The Society will not share data collected on a
commercial basis with any third party.
The e-mail service can be found on the “Branches
and Regions” page in the “About
the Society” section
of the Society’s website or by following
a link from the home page. The page allows members to add and change
their e-mail addresses to help ensure that the database is kept up to
date. It will be
the responsibility of individual members to ensure that they supply updated
information.
The system will also allow members to remove their
e-mail addresses if they no longer want to be contacted
by e-mail.
John Gentle is one of two members of Council who act as sponsors for
the branch and regional network activities and is also secretary of the
Shropshire branch. He says: “E-mail is a fast and effective way
for branches and regions to communicate with the members at a local level.
It also helps to save a lot of money in stamps. The Society has responded
to calls to establish a database of e-mail addresses and I would encourage
members to take advantage of this opportunity.”
To use the system you simply have to navigate to the appropriate page
and supply the required details:
· Request Choose the appropriate option
from: Add my e-mail address | Change my e-mail address | Delete my e-mail
address
· Date of birth Select the appropriate date from the drop-down lists
· Registration number Type in your registration number
· E-mail address Type in your e-mail address
· Verify your e-mail address Retype your e-mail
address
Your date of birth is required because we need to validate each
member. Because registration numbers are publicly available, it is important
that we ensure only legitimate e-mail addresses are collected.
The unique combination of registration number and date of birth is
checked against the information held in the membership system.
If there are any problems with the information you have entered,
an error message will appear. The most likely explanation for this,
assuming
that
all information has been entered correctly, is that you are one of
a small proportion of members whose dates of birth are not held by
the
Society, If this is the case, or if for any reason there appears
to be a discrepancy in the information, you will be prompted to contact
the
registration department. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal