NYS LEAH Online

Information System

LOIS

User Manual

Edition 1.03

LOIS Manual 1.03 212/23/2009

The NYS LEAH Online Information System

• Purpose (3)

• Important Concepts (4)

• Accessing LOIS (8)

• System Status Information (9)

• Chapter Leaders Section (10)

– Members Tab (11)

• Manage Members (12)

• Member Lookup (15)

• Manage Chapter (19)

• Renewals (21)

– Reports Tab (30)

• Member Listings (32)

• Chapter Listings (36)

• Regional Representative Section (39)

– Functional Differences (39)

– Added Functions For Regional Reps (39)

• Manage Chapters (41, 42)

• Change Chapter Leaders (42)

• Receive Chapter Payments (43)

• Transfer Primary & Add/ Remove Secondary Memberships (45)

Table of Contents (Page Numbers)

LOIS Manual 1.03 312/23/2009

Purpose of LOIS

• To provide the state organization with database capability to track members, past & present

– Current members• Mailing List (for the LEAH Messenger, etc)

• Email Broadcast (for alerts and information dissemination, etc)

• Membership Verification (for discounts and other member benefits)

– Past members• Maintain directory information

• To provide each chapter a convenient means of:– Maintaining their membership data

– Performing membership renewals

– Manipulating their basic member information

– Transferring their information to the state organization

• Requested member family information is tailored to needs of the state organization

– Chapters may desire to maintain additional information• Additional family information will need to be maintained offline

• LOIS can be used to download basic information to your offline chapter database

• Chapters may also request that LOIS be expanded to include family information that they need to maintain as a chapter (in order to make the system more useful to them). If enough chapters request the same types of expansion, enhancement of LOIS will be considered.

The NYS LEAH Online Information System

LOIS Manual 1.03 412/23/2009

Important Concepts

• Membership Year– October 1st to September 30th of the following year

• Normal Renewal Period– July 1st to September 30th

• Primary Chapter– The “home” chapter of a member family

• The primary chapter is responsible for maintaining the data for each of its primary member families

• Secondary Chapter– An additional chapter that a family may maintain membership in

without paying state dues twice

– Secondary membership still requires the member family meet that chapter‟s requirements and pay that chapter‟s local dues

The NYS LEAH Online Information System

LOIS Manual 1.03 512/23/2009

Important Concepts

• Member Family Status– Regular & Current

• A member family that has paid state dues for the current membership year – only Regular & Current members receive NYS LEAH benefits

– Regular & Expired• A member family that has not yet paid state dues for the

current membership year

– Retired & Current• A member family that has paid state dues for the current

membership year, but has requested to be taken off the active mailing lists (rare status: e.g., a family that has moved out-of-state)

– Retired & Expired• A member family that has been expired for an extended period

• Automatic retirement of expired families is planned to occur at four months after the October 1 deadline (i.e., Feb 1)

LOIS Manual 1.03 612/23/2009

Important Concepts

• For Chapter Leaders, renewing (or adding) a member

has two major steps

– Update existing member data and/or entering new member data

• If member has an entry from a previous LEAH chapter membership

and needs to be transferred, or for a secondary membership,

contact your Regional Rep

– Renewing the member (existing and new)

• In addition, the Chapter Leader should also keep

their chapter information up-to-date

– Leadership team

– Meeting town

– Chapter website address (if they have one)

LOIS Manual 1.03 712/23/2009

Important Concepts

• It is important for good functioning of LOIS that each family only have one entry– If your new primary members have ever been members of LEAH before,

do NOT enter them as new members without first searching for their member record

• Member families who do not renew are NOT deleted from LOIS; instead, they are eventually placed in Retired status (automatically after six months)– Only “mistake” entries are deleted

– The LOIS administrator currently controls the delete button

– It is very desirable to potentially have a way to contact former members

• It is highly recommended that non-renewing families not be manually retired unless you are very sure that the family is not going to renew– Retiring a family removes them from the “Eligible to be Renewed” list

– Renewing a retired family requires finding locating them in LOIS and changing their status to Regular first

– Failure to realize that a retired family already has an entry in LOIS may result in a double entry for that family

LOIS Manual 1.03 812/23/2009

The NYS LEAH Online Information System• Address: manage.leah.org

• Authority to manage the chapter data on manage.leah.org:– Chapter Leaders

– Membership Secretaries

• LOIS Username: Your email address as listed in LOIS

• LOIS Password: Stored on the Chapter Data page – can be changed/retrieved by the chapter leader and the membership secretary

• Password Recovery: Click the link on the login page

• Super Authority: Your Regional Rep can do everything a Chapter Leader can do, plus

– Change Chapter Leaders

– Transfer a family from one chapter to another (primary membership)

– Add & delete secondary memberships

– Receive renewals

– Retrieve the LOIS password if the chapter can‟t

• User Manual– Located At www.leah.org/images/userfiles/LOIS/LOISmanual.pdf

• Also available on the LOIS Home Page (after login)

• User Assistance– Please contact your Regional Representative

LOIS Manual 1.03 912/23/2009

The NYS LEAH Online Information System

• System Status:

– Operational; being rolled out to Chapter Leaders

– Regional Representatives performing many Chapter Leader functions in

the interim

• Known Current & Corrected Error Conditions

– Members mistakenly placed in „renewal pending‟ status even though

never included in a renewal batch – corrected 11/5/2009

– Secondary members are not being included on any member listings of the

secondary chapter – developer has been notified – corrected 12/2009

• Upgrade/Enhancement History

– None

Status InformationDec 23, 2009

LOIS Manual 1.03 1012/23/2009

Chapter Leader Login

Your email

address as

recorded in LOISYour initial password will be

provided to you by your

Regional Representative

Please change your initial

password upon logging in for

the first time*

* See Manage Chapter

Throughout this manual, there are examples

of computer screen captures. Some of the

information potentially shown has been

blanked out in respect for family privacy.

LOIS Manual 1.03 1112/23/2009

Home Page

Click on Members

to perform entry

and edit functions

LOIS Manual 1.03 1212/23/2009

Members Tab > Manage Members

Click on Form

icon to access

member renewal

form*

*Use is optional

at your

convenience

Click on Add

New to enter

new membersStatus filter to view

your chapter’s roster

with various criteria

Member status

indicators Click on either

the name or on

Edit icon to

update/edit

member data

Bold indicates

Chapter Leader

Move your mouse

over the blue? to

get help

LOIS Manual 1.03 1312/23/2009

Renewal Form

• Use of Renewal Form is Optional

– For the chapter leader‟s convenience in

obtaining updated information from

renewing families

See discussion of

Number of Children on

Slide X

Click on this icon to print out

LOIS Manual 1.03 1412/23/2009

Edit Member Data / Add New Member

Use this space to make

notes about family

particulars. Don’t use

to record sensitive or

confidential information

Expiration date is kept

by the system. You can

not change or set it.

Do manually “retire” a

family unless you are

sure they are not

renewing

Primary chapter can be

transferred by Regional

Rep; Secondary chapter

is set/removed by

Regional Rep

Basic family data:

Full Mailing Address,

County, Emails, Phone

Numbers,

HSLDA Membership,

School District

Enter as much as possible

Resets the page to the way

it was when you entered

Emails must be unique (not

shared with another family);

system will check and warn

you

If you are warned that the

email is not unique, the

family may already be listed

in the system. Use Member

Lookup to find out.

LOIS Manual 1.03 1512/23/2009

• Purposes

– Secondary memberships

– Transfers

– Preventing duplicate entries

• Any part of the name or any part of the email address will work

– If not specific enough, LOIS will ask for more

Members Tab > Member Lookup

Enter any part of a

first or last name, OR

any part of an email

This will search the

entire system of all

members past &

present

LOIS Manual 1.03 1612/23/2009

Using Member Lookup

Click to view

limited

member dataClick to email Regional

Representative (of the

member) to request transfers

(to your chapter), secondary

memberships, etc

Partial email

displayed hereFull data not available to view

unless the family is your member

(just enough for identification)

LOIS Manual 1.03 1712/23/2009

Member Data Page from Lookup

Can’t change,

just view (unless

they are in your

own chapter)

LOIS Manual 1.03 1812/23/2009

Email Regional Rep from Lookup

LOIS Manual 1.03 1912/23/2009

Members Tab > Manage Chapter

Click to access your

chapter data page

LOIS Manual 1.03 2012/23/2009

Chapter Data Page

Password for chapter

access to LOIS is kept

here

Click on wand to

display passwordNumber of Children

This data is requested for statistical purposes only,

e.g. “How many children are homeschooled

within/represented by LEAH?”

This information can be very useful when LEAH

advocates on homeschooling issues in Albany

For the privacy and security of each LEAH family, this

information is requested here on a chapter-aggregate

basis only – the chapter leader should collect this

information from each family (see renewal form) and

enter the sum totals here

Enter the town where you

chapter typically meets

and has its activities

If your chapter has its

own website, enter the

URL here. Otherwise,

leave blank

Chapter Leader can

only be changed by

your Regional Rep

You can add/remove people

from any of the other

positions – leave blank if

your chapter doesn’t use a

particular position

To add a person to a position

1. Select chapter member under Add

2. Select Position

3. Click on Green Button

To remove a person

from a position, click

on Red ButtonIn addition to the Chapter Leader, the

Membership Secretary also has

access to LOIS, using their own email

as the login and the chapter password

LOIS Manual 1.03 2112/23/2009

Renewals

Click to access

member renewal page

See Reminder Below

• For Chapter Leaders, renewing (or adding) a member has two major steps

– Update existing member data and/or entering new member data (via Manage Members)

• If member has an entry from a previous LEAH chapter membership and needs to be transferred,

or for a secondary membership, contact their Regional Rep (via Member Lookup)

– Renewing the member (existing and new) (via Renewals)

• In addition, the Chapter Leader should also keep their chapter information

up-to-date

– (via Manage Chapter)

Reminder:

LOIS Manual 1.03 2212/23/2009

Renewal Page

Click to display a blank membership

form for new members, which can

then be printed out and distributed.

This form is for your convenience

only in collecting new member

information. Its use is optional

Click to display all pre-filled renewal membership

forms, which can then be printed out and distributed to

renewing members to audit & update their information.

This is the same form that is accessible from the

Manage Member page, but this link here produces the

forms for all your renewing members at one time.

These forms are for your convenience only in

collecting information. Their use is optional

Click here to begin the

actual renewal processClick here to review your

renewal batches that you

have already completed

LOIS Manual 1.03 2312/23/2009

Readiness-To-Renew Verification

This is a “Readiness-To-Renew”

verification form, to make sure

you have completed these steps

and are ready to renew

LOIS Manual 1.03 2412/23/2009

Checking Off Renewals

Use this check box to Check (or

Uncheck) all renewal boxes

(Individual boxes can then also be

checked or unchecked)

Check the boxes of your New

and Renewing members (New

Members will not have an

expiration date displayed)

Amount of money that will be

due to NYS LEAH is based on

the number of boxes checked

(Remember, your local chapter

dues, if any, are additional)

Only primary members with “Regular” status show up

on the list for renewal. If a family has been marked as

“Retired”, they have to be first updated to “Regular”

(on the Member Data screen) before they will appear on

this screen and can be renewed.

The family also needs to have your chapter listed as

their primary chapter in order to be renewed by you. If

not, use Member Lookup to contact their Regional Rep.

Depending on what that family desires, the Regional

Rep can either transfer their Primary membership to

your chapter, or set your chapter as their Secondary

Chapter (in which case they will pay their state dues

and be renewed in their Primary Chapter)

LOIS Manual 1.03 2512/23/2009

Send Batch Report with Payment

Click here to view and print the batch report.

This batch report should be enclosed in the

envelope with your payment and sent to your

Regional Representative.

The system will also automatically generate

an email to your Regional Rep telling them to

expect a renewal batch payment in the mail.

LOIS Manual 1.03 2612/23/2009

View a Renewal Batch

Address to send report and payment

Members covered by this payment

Batch number that the Regional Representative

will use to access this renewal batch in the

system and mark it off as “Received”.

Click on this icon to print out batch

report for sending with payment

LOIS Manual 1.03 2712/23/2009

Renewal Page

Click here to review your

renewal batches that you

have already completed

LOIS Manual 1.03 2812/23/2009

View Membership Renewal Batches

You may view batches by clicking

on the View icon You may delete a batch that has not

yet been marked as received by

your Regional Representative*

* If you have already sent the

payment with the report to your

Regional Rep, do NOT delete

batches without informing your

Regional Rep and tell them why

LOIS Manual 1.03 2912/23/2009

The View Upon Doing Another Renewal Batch

Upon subsequent renewal batches, previously-

renewed members are in the “pending state”

until the Regional Representative marks the

renewal batch as “Received”.

When your Regional Representative marks the

renewal batch as “Received”, the system will

automatically generate an email to you

informing you that the batch has been received.

LOIS Manual 1.03 3012/23/2009

Reports

The Reports tab is used to generate

listings of member and chapter data.

LOIS Manual 1.03 3112/23/2009

Report Wizard

Select Member List to generate listings

of your chapter member information

Select Chapter List to generate listings

of your chapter contact information for

chapters within your region

LOIS Manual 1.03 3212/23/2009

Member Fields

This selection generates the

address list for a mailing

Select the information you want

in the listing for your chapter

LOIS Manual 1.03 3312/23/2009

Member Filters

Select the filter criteria to limit

your listing. Remember,

“Regular/Current” produces

your current membership list

Report format produces a listing suitable

for viewing on your browser and/or

printing. It also works cutting and

pasting the data into many applications.

(For spreadsheets, see CSV Data)

CSV Data format produces a listing that is

primarily intended for transferring data into

a spreadsheet application, such as Excel

Report format often works better for

transfers to other computer applications,

such as Word or an email program

Additional Item (Not Shown Here – added 12/2009)

“Include Secondary Members”

In order to obtain a complete listing of chapter

membership, this box should be checked in order

to include all chapter members

Warning for Regional Representatives and Other

NYS LEAH Personnel: When producing a report

covering more than one chapter, checking

“Include Secondary Members” will cause some

families to be listed multiple times, one time for

each chapter of which they are members

LOIS Manual 1.03 3412/23/2009

Member Report (Report format)

To transfer this listing to another computer application (e.g. Word), manually

“Select” the information you wish to copy (using your mouse curser), do <Ctrl

C> to copy it, and then <Ctrl V> to paste the data into your other application.

This will produce a nice table in Word, and is an good way to transfer email

addresses to the To: box of your email program

LOIS Manual 1.03 3512/23/2009

Member Report (CSV Data format)

Click here to “Select All” (Indicated here by blue highlight)

You can the use <Ctrl C>* to Copy the data to your computer

clipboard. Then go to your spreadsheet and use <Ctrl V> to Paste this

information into that application.

*<Ctrl C> means to press the Ctrl key and the C key simultaneously

For importing an email list into the address box of your email program,

it works better to use Report format. Manually “Select” the

information you wish to copy (using your mouse curser), do <Ctrl C> to

copy it, and then <Ctrl V> to paste the data into your email address box

LOIS Manual 1.03 3612/23/2009

Chapter List > Chapter Fields

Select fields desired for listing

of chapter information.

The purpose of the Chapter List

Report is to allow the Chapter

Leader to list contact information

about other Chapter Leaders in their

Region to help facilitate networking

LOIS Manual 1.03 3712/23/2009

Chapter List > Filters

Select chapters to include in listing

Use either Report or CSV Data

output formats. Same

function as in Member List

LOIS Manual 1.03 3812/23/2009

Chapter List > Report

LOIS Manual 1.03 3912/23/2009

• Regional Representative Functionality– Able to perform all functions that Chapter Leaders can

– Generally same functionality as the Chapter Leader but with access to member and chapter data across the Region and not just for a particular Chapter

• Functional Differences– Manage Chapters is under the Regional Tab

– View Closed Batches is under the Regional Tab

– Can not print out entire set of chapter renewal forms – must print one at a time from Manage Members

• Additional Functions– Manage Chapters

– Change Chapter Leaders

– Receive Chapter Payments

– Transfer Primary & add/remove Secondary memberships

The NYS LEAH Online Information SystemRegional Representative

LOIS Manual 1.03 4012/23/2009

Regional Tab

Manage Chapters

(Change Chapter Leaders)

View and receive pending

renewal batches

View previously received

renewal batches

LOIS Manual 1.03 4112/23/2009

Regional > Manage Chapters

Click to edit chapter data

Active / Inactive Icon

Click to change chapter status

Current renewal status of chapter

Click to edit chapter data

LOIS Manual 1.03 4212/23/2009

Regional Edit Chapter

Replace a Chapter Leader by

removing current and adding new

Change chapter region (upon

Board approval)

Retrieve and/or change

chapter password

If chapter is under the LEAH

501(c)3 Umbrella, Federal Tax

ID will be displayed here. This

is the number that the IRS (and

your bank) use to identify your

chapter

Change chapter name (upon

Board approval)

Set A Defunct Chapter as

Inactive; Can also be done

by clicking on the light

bulb icon (previous page)

Click on wand to

display password

LOIS Manual 1.03 4312/23/2009

Regional > Receive Chapter Payments

Click to begin

acceptance procedure

Click to delete batch (in

order to correct an error

condition)*

* Do not do this without

informing the creator of the

batch (Chapter Leader) and

telling them of your action

and how everything is going

to be resolved.

LOIS Manual 1.03 4412/23/2009

Accept Chapter Payments

Synopsis of batch report

The automatically generated message to the

LEAH Treasurer will provide the treasurer

with the basics such as date and amount.

Please add more info as necessary, for

example

“ This is part of the $450 deposit (to be) made

at Key Bank on September 15”Click to view full batch report

Check to set

acceptance

Click to receive batch. In addition to finishing

the renewal process for that batch, this also

automatically sends emails:

•To the LEAH Treasurer with the payment

information (and any information you add here)

•To the creator of the batch (e.g., the Chapter

Leader or Membership Secretary) informing

them of the batch acceptance.

If the payment received does not

match the amount on the report,

you will cancel and not accept the

batch. You will then need to inform

the chapter in regards to the

problem (too much money, too little

money). Part of the problem

resolution may include deleting the

batch and the Chapter Leader

submitting a new one

LOIS Manual 1.03 4512/23/2009

Transfer Primary Chapter

Set / Remove Secondary Memberships

Select new

primary chapter

Select a secondary

chapter. Click on

green button to add

(red button to delete)

LOIS Manual 1.03 4612/23/2009

• Want to know the membership status of a family?

– Ask LOIS. LOIS knows.

• Want a mailing list or an email list of your membership?

– Ask LOIS to do it. LOIS can produce it for you.

• Trying to renew your members?

– Ask LOIS for help. LOIS can renew your members.

The NYS LEAH Online Information System