SIM Portland Member Profiles - 7/31/2020

Dear Chapter members,

Well I am still trying to update by President's blogs. I had lots planned but not enough time set aside to get things done. Since we are out on the Summer break for our chapter between June and September, I wanted to take some time to loop back on some recent changes at the National level of SIM. I am going to dedicate my July blog to encourage you to check and update your SIM profile as we become more active as an online community.

You may have remembered reading about SIM website changes that occurred back in March. You may have also missed it with all the COVID-19 pandemic changes going on at the time. I say “update” but it was more like a downgrade or roll back. SIM National had moved to Salesforce for the CRM backend a couple of years back. Unfortunately customizing Safesforce to be a club membership and event management system proved to be too complex. So on May 6th, we switched back to YourMembership (Community Brands), the management system that SIM had used previously.

To check your profile, login into the http://SIMpdx.org or http://SIMnet.org websites. Go to the top right hand corner where it says "Sign In" and logon with your SIM credentials. There is a reset your password function if you need it. You can also reach out to membership@simpdx.org for help as well. Once you are logged in, you should see your avatar in the top right. Click on the drop menu to access your Profile. 
Accessing your SIM Profile
 
Once you have brought up your profile, you can edit your avatar picture, your bio, employment history, etc. Interestingly, all my data in the old system was restored with the change back. So I had only to go in an do a small amount of work to get my profile updated. If you never went in and modified your profile before, or you joined SIM recently (after 2018), then you will need to take some time to build your SIM profile. I cut and pasted a lot from LinkedIN!
 
Updating your picture and bio

Why update and keep your profile current? Because there is a SIM membership search feature! The best way to search your fellow Chapter members is to go back to your Profile icon in the top right, and from the drop menu, select "Communities". From there, find the "Portland Member Forum" and within that select the "Members" tab.
 
Searching SIM Portland members
 
This will allow you to browse and search your SIM Portland colleagues. It is also worth checking what information is being displayed here. This is not accessible to the public, but you might want to check that it is displaying correct information. If not, go back to your Profile and click on "Update Contact Information" in the lower left hand side to make changes. 
 
Accessing your profile Privacy Settings

Finally, you should check your public profile by pasting the URL into a Private Window which will display what can be seen without logging in, e.g., Richard Appleyard SIM profile. To adjust what is displayed publicly, go to your Profile page when logged in, and click on the drop menu by "My Account" to access "Privacy Settings." Here you can set field-by-field whether the access is Public, Members Only and My Contacts.

Feel free to connect with me on the SIM Portal. I will see you all online!
 
Richard Appleyard, PhD
SIM Portland Chapter President 2020

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