1.0 Overview

This is accomplished through three major thrusts. These thrusts are intertwined, and work harmoniously, to deliver on the value proposition stated above:

1. ChamberStar^©; provides online services, which provide many conveniences, and capabilities not previously offered to the Chamber members. The members realize that they are getting better value for their membership dollars. This will increase the interest of the community, as well as the local businesses in the Chamber, which will translate to more memberships

2. ChamberStar^© provides online listings for member businesses, as well as banner advertising. The amount of information provided online for member businesses can be controlled by the Chamber, and the Chamber can decide as to whether provide the online listings as a complimentary service, or charge a fee for the listing, or a combination of the two. For instance, one of our clients provides a complimentary listing of name, address, and phone number, and charges a fee for providing a link from the Chamber site, the Web site of the member business. As an added service, Compublue is ready to develop the Web site for your member businesses.

3. As a somewhat independent, but in some ways related component, ChamberStar^© provides Back Office Management tools, as part of the application. This software is approximately five times larger in terms of code, than the software which provides the online services for the public, and is comprised of two major functions: 1) It provides content management capabilities for the content of the public Web Site 2) It provides structured payment collection and management capabilities. This function not only allows the Chambers to collect everything due to the Chamber, but it promotes consistency in the fee structure, and its collection methods.

Why would such a Web presence be more successful than many other “dot coms” out there? The answer is simple. Other or organizations do not have the inherent credibility associated with a Chamber of commerce organization. Everyone in the community understands the mission and purpose of the Chamber, and that they exist for the good of the community. It is also known that the Chamber is focused on bringing together businesses and clients in the same geographic vicinity, which is attractive to both businesses and clients alike.

So you have an advantage. We urge you to capitalize on it, for the good of your Chamber, as well as your community.

2.0 Back Office Management

1. Internet Activity Calendar Management
2. Membership Information Management
3. Membership Attribute Management
4. Membership fee management and collection
5. Special event and services enrollment management, and related fee collections
6. Membership Internet advertisement management, and related fee collection
7. Visitor tracking system
8. Various business reports
9. System administrator and security management

2.1 Internet Activity Calendar Management

Please see the Administrators’ Manual section in this document, for details, and screen samples.

2.2 Membership Information Management

Member Business Description
Member contact information (including e-mail, Web Site) – In addition to the    main contact information, a secondary contact information can    be maintained    for a representative
Member Business data, such as number of employees
Membership Type (Sole Proprietorship, Corporation, etc.)
Membership Classification (CPA, Technology, etc.) – Multiple categories can    be associated with one business
Membership Status (Active, Suspended, etc.)
Additional Comments

Please note that the Chamber, using the software, defines many of the attributes, such as Membership Type, and Membership Statuses. Please see the Membership Attribute Management for further explanation.

Members can be located in the directory, using various methods. These methods include:

Partial Name Search
Full Name Search
Search by business category

Please see the Administrators’ Manual section in this document, for details, and screen samples.

2.3 Membership Attribute Management

Membership Type – This is a field that a chamber can use to define the membership business types. The system, associates membership fees, with these types. For instance many Chambers use the legal categorization of a business, to determine the annual fee. As an example, a sole proprietorship may have a different annual fee than a large corporation. If the legal categorization is the determining factor of fees, then the Chamber can define the field types to be Sole Proprietorship, Small Corporation, Large Corporation, etc. Let’s say that a Chamber has a flat fee that they charge all members. In such cases, the Chamber can define a single type (let’s say Member), determine the annual fee associated with this type, and define every member to be the same type. This way, everyone will get the same fee. Let’s take another case, where we do want to define the legal categorization of the business as the Business Type, yet we want to charge everyone the same fee. Well, all this means is that when defining each type, we will enter the same fee mount for everyone. This way we can have the legal categories for informational purposes, and still have the same fee. This is the beauty of the system. It is very flexible. Along with the membership base fee, two additional optional fields are provided, should there be additional fees associated with a given business type. When the administrator enters a business type which uses one or both of these additional fields, the system will prompt the administrator for entering the additional fee information associated with the given business type. For instance, for a small business corporation, there might be an additional per employee fee. In such a case, in another part of the system, where we register new members, or change their membership information, when the administrator enters a Small Business Corporation as the business type, the system will prompt the administrator to enter the number of employees, so the additional charges can be calculated.

Membership Classification – This attribute allows us to declare all the business classifications, which we want to use to describe the goods and services, which our member businesses offer (such as Accounting, Technology Services, etc.). This can be used by the Chamber for statistical purposes. On the public Web site, this classification is crucial in being located by a potential client. Multiple classifications can be associated with one business

Membership Status (Active, Suspended, etc.) – Just like the membership type, the Chamber can decide how to best utilize this field. When designing the system, it was our intention to provide additional capability in determining the standing of a member’s membership with the Chamber, and providing control for the Chamber is the type of services that they offer, or withhold from a member. For instance, a member may be current on their dues, and be classified as “Active”. Another member may have let their membership lapse, and the Chamber may decide to give them a membership status of Not Renewed. Furthermore, a Chamber may have some memberships, which may be complimentary (such as for nonprofits, etc.). The system, when defining membership statuses, also provides the capability to determine whether annual dues apply or not. Furthermore, the Chamber decides if particular statuses should be excluded from being listed on the membership Web site.

It is important to note that there are no limits on the number of attributes within each category.

Please see the Administrators’ Manual section in this document, for details, and screen samples.

2.4 Membership fee management and collection

And finally, there is an additional field provided, which allows the administrator to make adjustments to this fee. For instance, many of the pre-existing members may be under a different cost structure, which may be lower.

As members pay membership fees, the system administrators can update the record, reflecting payment. Overpayments will automatically appear as credit.

2.5 Special event and services management, and related fee collections

Once payment is made, the system also tracks, and posts payments.

BOM provides the capability for administrators to register events in the system database. When members are being registered for events, the administrators can only choose from predefined events. This allows for easy access of event information, when registering members for a given event. It also insures consistency in the event descriptions, and reduces error rates in fees charged for the same event. This consistency is also very important when reviewing reports, to make sure that the data regarding two different event are not mistakenly bundled together, or that the same event is not split, and mistaken for multiple events.

In addition, BOM allows for editing, and updating of information for a given event. Sometimes, the information for a particular member may need to change. For instance, the number of attendees may need to be modified. At other times, the information regarding an event may need to be updated (such as date, or cost). And yet at other times, the information regarding events for a particular range of time may require updating. The system allows for the administrators to search by organization, by event, or by a range of dates. Any changes would propagate to the entire selection.

2.6 Membership Internet advertisement management, and related fee collection

ChamberStar^© allows for display of Banner advertising on the Web site. Administrators have the capability of accepting banner adds from the member, and non-member organizations, and then using the BOM system, posting the advertisement on the Web site. If the banner ad dimensions match the default dimensions, they will be displayed in the most optimum way. A proprietary algorithm, developed by Compublue, provides maximum flexibility for the Chambers to charge for online advertising, while controlling the relative display frequency, based on the advertising fees collected from each client. By way of example, the ads can be configured such that an advertiser, which has paid twice the fee, compared another member, its ad, can be displayed twice as often. The system also provides the capability to control the maximum viewing period (start and end dates), as well as maximum number of displays.

The system also keeps records on the current, and history of advertising for the advertisers, including information on the intervals, when the advertisement banner will be displayed on the Web site.

2.7 Visitor tracking system

Our baseline software, is shipped with the following reports:

2.8.1 Membership Main Contact List