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Subscription
Drive Instructions
Online processing of the Subscription
Drive
Brief explanation of
types of subscriptions sold
There are
two types of subscriptions in our
office.
The first is called "Parish affiliated"
subscriptions.
This means that the subscriber belongs to one of the 76 parishes in the
Diocese of Gary.
That person is to renew his/her subscription through the parish during our
Subscription drive,
which again, begins on February 4.
That person's subscription will begin as soon as we receive his/her name
and address (or in the case of processing the drive online, the name and address
is added to the online database and takes immediate effect.)
All parish affiliated subscriptions expire with
the last issue in March of each year, no exceptions.
The second is
called an "Odd Expire"
subscription.
This means that the subscriber
does not belong to any parish in the
Diocese of Gary;
lives outside Northwest Indiana;
might be a gift subscription for someone else,
or is a person who does belong to a parish in our diocese,
but does not wish to be listed as affiliated with one.
We process those subscriptions here in the office, and the subscription expires in a month other than March, thus the term “odd expire.” (Expires in Jan. Feb. April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.) A parish would never handle an "odd expire" subscription.
Priest/Library Subscriptions
Priest
subscriptions are
"complimentary"
through Bishop Melczek
and your parish is not charged
for the subscription.
Same holds true for parishes that have a school
library.
They receive a "complimentary" copy of the
newspaper addressed to the school library.
Religious Education Subscriptions
Bishop Melczek has asked
that all children enrolled in a PUBLIC SCHOOL
and in a
religious education class receive the newspaper.
That includes all kids, grades K-12.
Those subscriptions are "complimentary"
through Bishop Melczek,
and they all have an
expiration date of
September 30, 2007.
You are not to delete
any of those subscription with that expiration date.
You can quickly find them by sorting your screen by
"expiration date"
or you can just sort by last name, and those households with children in
religious education classes will be quickly seen by the wording of "school
subscription" in the "company name" field of their record. The wording "School
subscription" will appear within the name and address of the household.
Promoting the Subscription Drive
Have you placed the
special announcement in your parish bulletin that we sent to you,
informing the parishioners it is now time to renew their subscriptions?
Please make
announcements from the pulpit during the weekend masses from February through
March.
Have you placed the promotional poster with pull-away subscription forms in a
place where there is a lot of foot traffic?
Have you handed out our welcome folder to any new parishioner?
Getting Started With Your
Parish Listing
You will need a computer and
internet access to process the subscription online.
In your browser window, type
http://www.nwicatholic.com
You are now at the homepage for the Northwest Indiana Catholic newspaper.
Look in the menu bar on the left-hand side of the screen, and you will see a
link that says
Parish Subscription Drive.
Click on that link.
Now you will be at
the "welcome screen" for the subscription drive.
Welcome to the Northwest Indiana Catholic
Subscription Drive Database.
Click the Login button at the bottom of the
screen. That will take you to the login page.
You will enter your Parish ID number
You will enter your Password.
The next screen
will say: "Please select the parish you will be working with.”
Drop down the box and find your parish number.
Click the Select
button.
Please note:
Choose the three digit parish number. Ignore
the parish numbers that have a -M designation after it. Those are records
marked that are affiliated to the Religious Education Programs in the different
parishes.
You will now see a screen that shows you, alphabetically listed by last name,
all current subscribers who are registered parishioners at your
parish.
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How to use the software
USING PARISH 103 AS THE EXAMPLE...
Using parish number 103 as an example,
please take note of the following screen functions:
Your screen probably looks like this listing your parish number and stats:
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NWIC Subscription Listing Parish 103 |
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PARISH ID |
LAST NAME |
COMPANY NAME |
MARKED FOR DELETION |
SORT BY EXP |
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Total Records Returned by Search (448) Records Marked for Deletion (80) Active Records (368) Total Records Parish 103 (367) |
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Please
notice the following:
1. You can search by "last name"
2. You can search by "company"
3. The "marked for deletion" <All>,
<Deleted>, <Not Deleted>.
4. Sort
by "expiration" with a box to place a 'check mark'
in.
What those
function do:
1.
The search by "last name" is helpful if you need to
find someone quickly.
The search by "company name" is helpful if you need
to find someone who is having the newspaper mailed to his/her business. Also
note that the wording "School subscription" is
written in that "company" column. That is something that only we do here in our
office. You will probably never have to write anything in the company field.
2.
<All>, <Deleted>, <Not Deleted>.
Sort by "expiration"
with a box to click and place a 'check mark' in it.
The search by "MARKED
FOR DELETION" is explained as follows:
If you instruct to show <ALL> --
the software will
show you ALL the records for your parish, whether active or deleted.
I personally don't
use that "show all" because it returns all the records when I really just want
to see the current active subscribers.
If you instruct
to show <DELETED>
--
the software will show you
ONLY the DELETED records for your parish.
Please note that you will be seeing deleted records from years past because at
one time,
this database was not online via the internet; it was here on our hard drive,
and that allowed us to remove the deleted records and keep them in a separate
database.
Now that the database is online via the internet, we have no way of pulling
those records out of the main database and showing only the active/paid
subscribers, because once we purge them off the internet, they will be gone
forever, and we need to in order to assist subscribers who become deleted
and question us as to why their account was deleted. Thus, that is why you will
see lots of deleted records mixed amongst your paid subscribers. *But
there is a way to avoid seeing them all together, and that is in the next
command.
*If you
instruct to show <NOT DELETED> --
the software will show you ONLY the PAID ACTIVE records for your parish.
This is the way I work in the program.
I make sure to say show
<Not Deleted> and then the records come up by last
name order.
Search Command
If you are in
doubt as to whether a certain subscriber might already be accounted for by
another parish in the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, please use the
[SEARCH] button. Enter in the last name
and click on the [SEARCH] button. The
database will show all subscribers whose name matches your search string. If
you do not find the name you are looking for, then you may enter the subscriber
with your parish number. If you do find an exact match of name and address, but
it is not your parish number affiliated with the record, then it is recommended
that you verify with the subscriber which parish he/she wishes to be affiliated.
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Processing the Actual Drive
Beginning with the
weekend Masses of February 4, 2007,
you
will begin to collect those "special collection envelopes for the
Northwest Indiana Catholic newspaper {NWC}.
Your job is
to collect all of the payments and keep track of those people who have paid for
the newspaper this year.
If a name is currently listed in the online database, then they are considered
"renewals."
If a name
are not currently in the online database, then they are considered
"new"
subscribers.
You will need to keep track of those "new subscribers" as you will be added them into the online database yourself.
You will need to keep track of those "renewals" as you will do nothing more with them other than to leave their record "active" in the online database. You need not edit the record unless there is a name or address correction to be made to the record.
Those who specify that they do not want the newspaper; you will need to keep track of those as you will be deleting them from the online database.
The subscription drive
will close on Thursday, March 8, 2007.
By that
time, you should have collected all the money and entered all the new
subscribers into the database, and deleted all those subscribers who
specifically said they don't want the NWIC anymore, and either achieved your
"quoted goal" or came as close to it as possible, and you have not let your
"base number" (the number you opened the subscription drive with) fall below
what was quoted to you at the beginning of the drive.
Changing Information
To change
information on someone's record:
To view
the details of a subscriber's record,
click on the [detail]
link
next
to the person's
last name.
To make a change to the information in the record,
go down to the bottom of the screen and click the edit
button.
You only have access to edit the name, address and phone number fields in a
record.
Our office takes care of assigning an expiration date and check number to their
account.
Please don’t write anything in those fields.
When done making changes to the account, click the
"okay" button at the bottom of the page,
then click the "return to listing" button at the
top of the page, and you are done.
You might want to
click the 'refresh' button to refresh the
screen.
It is located on the menu bar of your computer's internet explorer
program.
That will bring the records up to date for you and for me.
Deleting Subscriptions
Due to a change in auditing
of the records of subscribers of the Northwest Indiana Catholic by the United
States Postal Auditors, an explanation for deletion must now be tagged to each
deleted subscriber’s record.
This means that you
must
provide an explanation when you remove a subscriber.
You have sorted your screen by
"not deleted"
and your screen returned all the active subscriptions by last name.
You have a
subscriber to delete who is:
1. TWO PAPERS AT
SAME RESIDENCE.
IS receiving the paper under "School
Subscription"
(whereas the family has a child enrolled in a religious education class or is in
7/8 grade and is already receiving the newspaper) and is receiving the paper
addressed to the parents. One paper per household. Parent's
need
not
resubscribe at this time
IF
their house is already receiving a newspaper with child(ren)s name on it and the
wording "School Subscription".
*Use reason for deletion:
School Sub in home
to delete the duplicate subscription under the parent's name.
DO NOT DELETE THE SUBSCRIPTION ENTITLED "SCHOOL SUBSCRIPTION"
2. deceased,
3. can't read, or for health reasons, nursing home,
4.
no longer wishes to receive the newspaper and has specifically said they don't
want the paper
5.
left parish, moved out of area, or is sharing the paper with someone else. (name
of other person)
are the only acceptable reasons that Bishop Melczek will accept for
deleting a subscription.
Find that person
by last name and click on the "edit" link next
to their name.
Only their record is now on the full screen.
Go to the bottom of the page and click on the "Mark for
Deletion" button.
The deletion screen appears.
You must provide a
valid reason for deletion.
Once you've entered a reason, click the marked for
deletion button.
Then click the
Edit button, and scroll down the screen,
and you will see your deletion reason at the bottom of the screen.
Click the
ok button if you are okay with your entry,
it will quickly say that the screen is updating,
If the deleted name is not
accompanied by an online explanations,
then the software will not allow you to delete the record,
the record remains "active status" and your parish will be charged for that
record.
Click the return to listing button at the top of the page, and you've completed your transaction.
When you return to
your main screen, listing all your parish subscribers,you
might notice that
underneath the name you might not see the wording
(permanent delete)
like other records have.
That is because on
our end here, we go through and "confirm" the deletion "request" that you've
placed on the record, and we give it an "issue date" that the "deletion"
permanently takes place with.
Yes, once you place a deletion command on the record, the paper stops for them
on that day.
For auditing purposes, we do the 'final deletion command' on the record from our
office to make it a done deal.
Undelete a Deleted Record
If
for some reason you need to "undelete" someone
you've deleted, simply go back into the record and remove the deletion command,
and they will become active again that very day. But once you see the
(permanent delete) wording underneath the record, you need to notify me and ask
me to undelete the permanent deletion command on the record and return the
record to active status. Only we can undo a permanent deletion command.
Adding New Subscriptions
To add subscribers to the
current database:
At the bottom of your parish listing, you will see the
“Add Subscriber”
button.
Click on that, and you will see a “subscriber form” ready to receive your
information.
Make sure that the Parish ID is reading your parish number.
The company field
is left blank, unless the subscriber provides you with his/her
business address, in which case, you would type the name of the company in that
area such as Bank One or Sam’s Construction. I’d say 99.9% of the time you will
find this field to be left blank.
You do not put your parish name in this field.
Using ALL UPPER CASE
LETTERS and NO
PUNCTUATION,
begin
typing in the first
name.
We do not list both spouses name,
i.e., John and Mary Smith.
Just the husband in a marriage as:
M/M JOHN SMITH,
for example.
We always type in all UPPER CASE letters because the post office’s computers scan our address labels, and they want all Capitals letters with no punctuation. That is one way we qualify for the lowest possible rate to mail out the newspapers each week. So please do not use any periods, comma, or any type of punctuation, and please type in all UPPER CASE letters.
So
type in the first
name, such as
M/M JOHN,
DR/MRS JOHN
MR JOHN
MS MARY
MRS MARY.
We
don’t type MR/MRS. nor do we type MRS. AND MRS.
We say:
M/M.
Type
in the last name
such as:
SMITH
JONES
WILSON
*Type in the mailing
address such as:
1234 ANY ST.
We don’t spell out the designation such as:
Street (ST)
Lane (LN)
Drive (DR)
Avenue (AVE)
Court (CT),
Boulevard (BLVD)
We don’t spell out apartment, we say:
APT
We don’t say APT #, we say:
APT 2B
We
don’t say:
1234 NORTH 350 WEST
We say:
1234 N 350 W
We
don’t say:
POST OFFICE BOX 26
We say:
PO BOX 26
We don’t say:
P O BOX 26
We place the words together and say:
PO BOX 26
* If the subscriber has an
apartment number, unit number, lot number, suite number, room and bed number,
or another other type of further designation affiliated with their mailing
address, please be sure to include it.
This helps to prevent confusion by the postal service when delivery attempts are
made.
Next fill in the
city name,
such as:
CHESTERTON
LAPORTE
VALPARAISO
MICHIGAN CITY
Fill
in the state name,
such as:
IN
IL
MI
Fill
in the zip code,
such as:
46360
46350
46385
You
don’t have to fill in a
telephone number
if you don’t want to.
More than likely, the subscription if not a
gift subscription.
So you don’t need to fill in that field.
And
it is not a school
subscription,
So don’t fill in a school name or grade.
Click the Submit
button at the
bottom of the screen,
Then click the
return to listing
at the top of the screen,
And you have added a subscriber. Congrats!!!
Separating
March subscribers from School Subscriptions
If you want to get those
“school
subscriptions”
out of the way of viewing your regular parish subscription,
then
make sure you click in the box at the top of the screen called
SORT BY EXP
that will return
all your
“March/Parish affiliated”
subscriptions by last name first,
which are all the records you want to ONLY work with anyway,
then at the end of that, will begin to list the
school subscriptions
by last name first.
There is no way to remove them totally from the screen like you can with not
showing deleted records mixed amongst active records. Sorry.
However, if for any reason you want to see only the
school subscriptions,
then at the top of the screen in the drop down menu of the
Parish ID
box,
drop down the box and look for a parish i.d. of
103-M.
That will show you only the families in the parish whose children are receiving the newspaper for their religious education class.
Please note:
If
the family is already receiving a “regular March” expiration subscription,
and they have a child in a religious education class or in 7/8
grade in a Catholic School religion class,
then only one newspaper needs to be sent to the home.
The child(ren) can use their parent(s) newspaper for their classroom studies
OR the parents can choose not to subscribe at this time and read the "child(rens)
copy until it expires on September 30, 2007.
In September 2007, our office will notify those families who have a "school
subscription" and inform them it is time to renew their subscription if their child(ren) will be enrolled in a religious education class for the school year
of 2007-2008.
If enrollment is not going to take place, then we will offer the family a
discounted rate to get them back into the database with an expiration date of
March 30, 2008. During next year's subscription drive, in February 2008,
those families will be expected to renew their subscription at the full rate of
$23.
Gift Subscriptions
If
someone else is paying for a subscription for another person,
it is considered a “gift” subscription.
If you encounter such a situation,
you will enter the name and address of the person who is to receive
the newspaper in the fields at the top of the record.
Then you will write the word “YES” in
the field entitled
“Gift Subscription”
"YES"
Fill in the first and last name of the payee,
the "billing" address and telephone number
of the person who is paying for the subscription.
One
final note on processing subscriptions:
Each
parish is instructed by Bishop Dale J. Melczek that:
”Every registered
family is to receive the newspaper unless the family meets the requirements that
satisfy the deletion request as mentioned in these instructions. A goal has been
quoted to you to try to achieve. You will not be charged for the number
quoted to you, but you are expected to add new subscriptions onto your parish
listing and not to delete anyone unless absolutely necessary. Every home
is to receive the newspaper.”
In other words, if a family cannot afford the newspaper, the parish is to pay
for the newspaper for that family, etc.
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Finishing Up the Subscription
Drive
Once you have
collected all the names and individual payments,
then you can consider that your part is done processing the subscription drive.
Remember that
the drive closes on
Thursday, March 8, 2007,
so you need to be done processing everything by that date anyway.
You
are to deposit all the individual payments into your parish banking account.
Individual checks sent to us by subscribers will be forwarded to your parish in
a timely fashion during the subscription drive for posting and deposit by your
parish. Our office will only accept checks from parish banking accounts
for the total amount due and the end of the drive.
When the subscription drive closes, and we receive individual subscriber checks,
then we will resume processing the personal payments here from our office until
the drive resumes next year.
After March 8, I will go through all the records and count up how many
are active.
Your parish will be charged for the number of records that are active.
In other words, you will not be charged for the following:
Deleted Records
Priest Subscriptions
School Library Subscriptions
School Subscriptions
All other
records will be charged
$23
for the year minus the $1 rebate per name if you come close to your "quoted
goal" set forth by Bishop Melczek.
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Closing the Drive
Once the charges
have been created, any deletions you make will be reflected on next year’s
subscription drive. Neither refunds nor credits will be issued until that
time.
Please remember that you cannot swap a deleted subscriber for a new subscriber.
All new subscriptions and
renewal subscriptions received after the close of the drive must be paid for in
advance before being entered or updated into the main database online.
Please submit a parish check for $23 each name and mail to our office in a
prompt fashion.
Please indicate whether the subscription is a renewal or a new subscription.
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Drive Charges
and Payments
You will receive an invoice and final billing statement sometime in May 2006
and the money
is due no later than
the end of the fiscal year,
June 30, 2007.
You are to send to us from your parish banking account one check that will be
representative of all the names that are paid for this year’s subscription
drive.
Our office will
go back and insert your parish check number into each of the paid subscriber’s
records at the end of the drive and update their expiration date to March 30,
2008.
Contact us
We
hope you find your experience in processing the subscription drive online
will be a positive one!
Don’t hesitate to call if
you need help at (219) 769-9292
There are two us currently here to assist you.
In the mornings, you can contact Tina Flournoy at extension 200 or at
tflourno@dcgary.org
In the afternoons, you can contact Carol Macinga at extension 250 or at
cmacinga@dcgary.org
Please feel free to email Carol Macinga with
comments and suggestions.
Instructions created by Carol Macinga
Copyright, 2004-2007 © Northwest Indiana Catholic
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