April 1999
IOL for Members and Nonmembers
By Michael A. Trick
Last month, I wrote about how INFORMS Online and the Web pages for other professional organizations are increasingly seen to be major sources for new members and increased resources. I discussed the new INFORMS Online Bookstore (http://mail.informs.org/Bookstore), which steadily trickles funds into INFORMS' coffers while providing an informative site for those interested in OR/MS. Less directly, INFORMS Online helps increase our membership by showing interested people the variety of work being done in our field and making the case that membership in INFORMS is a good decision. Thousands of people have asked for a membership kit through INFORMS Online.
A more direct way to encourage membership is to make INFORMS Online itself an advantage of membership. After all, if a nonmember wants to subscribe to one of our journals, we charge a higher subscription rate. Nonmembers pay more to attend our conferences. Why shouldn't nonmembers pay more for using the resources offered by INFORMS Online?
Since INFORMS Online is currently free, we can start by making certain areas of it accessible only to members. Nonmembers would then either have to join or perhaps pay a "daily visitor" fee.
The British Operational Research Society (http://www.orsoc.org.uk) has gone this direction by having a "Members' Enclosure." I am not a member of the ORS, so my picture of what goes on in that area is somewhat akin to my view of what goes on in First Class on long flights: no doubt people are having much more fun than I am! Listed in the Enclosure is the OR Newsletter (akin to our OR/MS Today), OR Insight (Interfaces-type articles), and the Journal of the Operational Research Society (its flagship journal). Furthermore, members can put together "mini home pages" and search others' pages. The generally accessible pages of the ORS give a glimpse of what is offered (somewhat akin to the fleeting peeks through gaps in the curtain separating First Class from the rest of us), and definitely makes me want to be a member so I can take advantage of that area. In fact, researching this article made me appreciate the Society enough to send in my membership!
But, then again, it is not clear that I am the typical possible member. After all, I have often worked with the ORS journals and never pass up the opportunity to pick up a "sample copy" from the display booths at INFORMS national meetings. I particularly like their OR Insight articles for the short practical aspects they provide. But, I have seen the newsletter before, and I certainly have a pretty good idea of what operation(al)(s) research is.
But a nonmember without such history would not be in such a position. She or he would perhaps have some knowledge of OR/MS but may not know its usefulness in their life. To my mind, INFORMS' greatest online asset now is the online articles from OR/MS Today (http://lionhrtpub.com/ORMS.shtml). These articles are designed for everyday reading, and do a great job of telling the world of the success of OR/MS. I think by having them public, INFORMS is helping itself by making OR/MS known, and will attract members through this "free" publicity.
I think, however, that the ORS is correct in having parts of its offerings available only to members. INFORMS and IOL are looking in this direction also. One possibility is to limit the membership database to members, or to provide only limited search capability to nonmembers. Other areas that have been suggested include limiting access to the Annual Comprehensive Index or the Meetings Database. Another approach is to continue to provide our current services but to add additional members-only services, like discussion areas, advice services and journal notification services. I would be interested in hearing members' views on this issue. Comments mailed to trick@cmu.edu would be very welcome.
Putting last month's and this month's ideas together leads to the idea of "fractional members." I think almost everyone would like INFORMS to have more members. More members mean more membership dues, which means more money to fund interesting activities. More members also mean more people putting out the word of the success of OR/MS. But more members is not a goal in itself: We could, perhaps, attract more members by trying to attract other groups, but that would weaken the point of the organization.
Instead, perhaps we should recognize that there are tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of people out there who only need the equivalent of a half-membership, or a tenth-membership, or even a hundredth-membership. Online systems are ideal for providing small, appropriate pieces to these fractional members. I believe there are many people who would like just a couple of our papers, or to get involved with just one session of a conference, or wish to speak with just 10 members of our society. The challenge is to create a system where we can provide service to these fractional members while generating appropriate revenue from them.
Over the next few months, you will begin to see more movement in this direction. Journals will start to appear online; IOL will provide a more concerted guide to all of OR/MS; more OR/MS items will be purchasable online. While I am extremely proud of the work IOL and its editorial team have done over the past four years, we have just scratched the surface of the possibilities.
New at IOL
The Cincinnati National Meeting (http://www.informs.org/Conf/Cincinnati99) is online with the online bulletin, Make Your Own Bulletin, hotel information and other services. This is a good time to put your working papers (http://www.informs.org/WorkingPapers) and presentations (http://www.informs.org/Presentation) online in preparation for the conference.
Volunteers are still needed for vacant associate editorships at IOL. Vacancies include Publications, Conferences and Employment Services. Contact trick@cmu.edu for more information.
Michael Trick is a professor at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, and editor of INFORMS Online. He can be reached at trick@cmu.edu.
OR/MS Today copyright © 1999 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved.
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