Office volunteers

The office coordinators actively look for volunteers when there is a vacancy. They may call someone who has expressed interest on an enrollment form or on-line, or they may contact someone they know or have been referred to.

If a volunteer cannot cover their assigned shift, they may ask the office coordinator for help in getting someone else to cover. In any case, when a substitute is determined, include that information on the large wall calendar behind the front desk (in pencil).

The office coordinators provide training to volunteers as needed.

The office coordinators establish and oversee the procedures used by the office volunteers, and document those procedures. If procedures need to be coordinated with other ASURA volunteers, the office coordinators do that.

The various chairs ask the Office to schedule a room(s) for some activity. How the Office responds  depends on what room is being requested.

CSB 203A - 2nd floor conference room

ASURA is  "in charge" of scheduling this room. When requested to schedule it an Office volunteer will:

1. Add the request to the wall calendar.
2. If there is already a meeting scheduled, ask for an alternative date / time.
3. The key is at the office front desk

Other ASU meeting rooms

ASURA events are often held in CSB rooms 330 and 333. These are schedule through Room Scheduling. There are three office volunteers that know the process and can make the necessary arrangements:  Linda Van Scoy, Nancy Lesko, and Jeannette Robson.

If the office is low or out of supplies, email Carolyn Minner and ask her to order them.

Carolyn will check periodically on the number of boxes of envelopes and stationery on hand when a large mailing is coming up. Those are in the lateral file in the copy room and in room 259 (Book room).

To make sure the ASURA websites are current and useful, contact the web administrator when:

• The office hours or volunteers change.
• There is a new volunteer. Obtain a photo and brief bio from the volunteer for posting on the website.
• The procedures documented on this page change.

Work with ASU Facilities Key and Lock Services as needed to authorize office door keys for approved volunteers.

Maintain a list of who currently has keys to the office.

Retrieve keys from those who no longer need them, and dispose of appropriately.

Answer the phone with “ASU Retirees Association, this is xxxxxx.” 

Check for messages if the red message light is on.  Enter 5-2000 and when prompted, password: xxxxxx.  Write down any message and take care of it you can, or send to whomever it is intended for. 

Many questions are really for the ASRA or ADOA state offices and callers confuse our office with those.  Refer them to those offices. Phone numbers are on the bulletin board behind the desk and in the FAQ notebook on the desk.  To get an outside line dial 9 first.  Ok to return a long distance call.

See below for other information on helping members who have questions.

Push the screen on button (lower right hand corner) and turn on the mouse.

If screen is blank, hit the space bar or any key on the keyboard and it should come up. Then enter the password:  asura.  

We are using Firefox as a browser and its icon is at the bottom of the monitor.

At end of a shift sign out but DON’T shut the computer down. Turn off the screen and the mouse. Leave the printer on. 

When you leave after your shift make sure the lights are out in all rooms, the Keurig is off, the copier is off and the ac/heat is on low or off depending on the temperature.

If there are problems with the computer, contact UTO deskside support at utofulton@asu.edu .

Calling the Office is probably the most common way members seek information, Following are some typical questions with thoughts about how to respond.

I don't know what email I gave you when I enrolled

Make sure you are  logged into Wild Apricot and then look the person up in the Member Directory and give them the information.

I want to change the email you are using for me

• If the person can log in with their old email account, they can update their membership profile themselves by going the ASURA website and selecting Update Profile from the Membership menu
• They can email the change to asura@asu,edu. 
• If they want you to make the change for them, take the member's name and new email address and tell them that the change will be in place in a day or two.  Send the updating information to the Business Manager.

Where is the ASURA Office?

• Give them directions over the phone
• Tell them they can get a map on our website in the "About" menu, the "Contact ASURA" link.

Event-related

See "Events tasks" below.

 Video History Interviews

Some Video History Interviews that are on DVDs are kept in the lateral file by the door to the copy room.  There is a checkout form on top of the mail slots so a person can check out DVDs.

However, most interviews are stored in the Digital Repository of the Library.   You can direct folks to our website, under Service - To Community - Video History Interviews.  There are instructions there for viewing interviews on their computers. 

The Office often needs information about a member. There are three approaches depending on what is needed.

• If all you need is contact information, you can check the office Rolodex, which the office volunteers maintain. While it seems old-fashioned, it is really a quick and easy way to look up someon's phone number or address. And some staff who do not regularly use computers find it helpful.
• If you need to be sure you have the most current contact information or the person you are looking for is not in the Rolodex, you can look them up in the membership database. Some members maintain their information themselves on-line, so the Rolodex may not be current for them. In addition, there are normally no forms for new introductory members -- these are imported to the database from a file supplied by Human Resources, so again there is no form or any printed information that can be used to update the Rolodex.
  • Log onto Wild Apricot
  • Go to the ASURA website
  • Select Member Directory from the Membership menu
  • Follow the directions tor running your search
• If you need more than what is supplied for contact information:
  • Log onto Wild Apricot  and go to Admin view
  • Click on Contacts in the gray vertical menu, it will come up in List view which is what your want.
  • Enter the name of the member in the Search box. This will bring up a list of members that satisfy what you entered in the search
  • Click on the name to see all the data values associated with the member.

Mail is delivered daily around noon. We have a mail slot in the door so it can be left if the office is closed.

Outgoing mail can be clipped to the door slot if necessary.

Open all incoming mail.

If the mail contains an obituary that someone wants ASURA to publish, email the obituary information to Tara Roessler, the Obituary chair.

Routine mail for officers can be placed in the box for them in the office. If something appears urgent, the Office Coordinator can help determine whom to contact about it.

See below for handling of membership-related or event-related mail.

Returned mail with an incorrect address or address changes should be sent to Carolyn Minner, as she updates the membership data base.  Also update the Rolodex with any address changes. 

Any invoices or credit card statements should also be sent to Carolyn. 

If we need to mail something off campus stamps are in the left hand drawer of the front desk.  We do not have an account number so we must use postage stamps.

It is possible to receive membership enrollment forms and payments any time during the year, but the bulk of this type of mail comes during the membership drive, which begins in mid-May and ends in about mid-August.

Open envelopes and date stamp in lower right-hand corner.  Write check number and initial.

Check should be made out to ASU Foundation-ASURA.  Check to see if additional donations are more than $100.  If so send a personalized thank-you note using the Membership Chair's signature and/or that of the President. The current chair or president will provide wording to use.

Check to see if the 2nd page  of an enrollment form has any boxes checked for volunteer interests.  If so a second copy of both sides of the form will go to Carolyn Minner, Business Mgr.

Confirm that contact information on the form is the same as the Rolodex card and put an “R” at the bottom of the page.  Some forms will not have the top part filled out because there are no changes.  No action needed for Rolodex on these.

Make 2 copies of the renewal form, front side only unless the back side has volunteer information indicated.  For Introductory/Free memberships make only 1 copy for Carolyn.  File the original in the membership files in the lateral files in front of the desk. 

If there is a check, clip it to 2 photocopies of the form and send to Carolyn.

If payment is made by credit card, it goes through Carolyn first and she will send a copy for our files.  Confirm contact info on Rolodex for these and add an “R” to the bottom of the form and file in alpha membership files.

PROBLEMS:  No check for a renewal?  Call person and hold form at front desk with a note on it that you have contacted the individual. Include the date and your initials.

Check but no form?  Fill out a membership form from one of the blank ones in the file.  First and last name is enough. 

General

There is a folder labeled "Wild Apricot" that contains detailed instructions, in addition to the instructions that follow.

Requests from event organizer

• Add or remove an attendee
• Create an attendance list
• Prepare report which summarized attendee / guest choices
• Prepare Excel list of attendee data

Get help to do the above tasks

Requests from members

• I want to register
• I need to unregister
• I need to change my registration

Get help to do the above requests

Registration tasks

There is some amount of Office processing for all types of events except for free events where the member registers online.

• Case A - free events
• Case B - paid event (registration form + check)
• Case C - paid event (invoice + check)
• Case D - paid event (phone call to Office)
• Case E - paid event (check only)
• Case F - paid event (payment is not to ASURA)

Get processing information for all six cases

When the Business Manager notifies the office of a donation of $100 or more, the office staff sends a personalized thank-you note (by US Mail) acknowledging the gift. The signature on the note is the chair of the membership committee and/or the President of ASURA, and these people determine the format and wording of the note.

Upon request from an officer or committee chair, the office staff sends a letter by US mail. Most often such requests are for letters thanking someone for speaking at an event.

ASURA partners with Friends of the Phoenix Library.  See  "book donation" for more information about this program and book collection options. The program is overseen by the Book Donations chair, currently Mary Stevens. She should be contacted with any questions or problems. 

Books being donated are brought to the ASURA office. We can offer the use of our hand carts to get them upstairs to us from the parking lot. If someone asks us to pick up their books, contact Mary.

Books should be placed in one of the red bins that Friends supplies to us. These are in the book storage rooms. Donors should take their boxes back home with them. When the storage bins are full, send an email to pickup@plfriends.org to let them know we need a pickup.

If the member donating the books has not filled out the Gift in Kind form, print a copy and help them fill out their portion of the form.

Send the completed form to the Membership Operations Manager, who will submit it to the Foundation for processing.

Download gift in kind donation form