Revelation From Our Survey...

There seemed to be a strong undercurrent from among the many of you that responded to our recent membership survey—everyone wanted to be able to network more among the members.

We are in the process of enabling those of you who want to, to have a simple means of doing so. It involves utilizing our website and responding to two questions about your current position. Remember this is totally a volunteer project in response to the survey results, which will only be available to current members. All this information will be retained behind our “Members Only” wall. Let me explain.

For years both ISM’s and Orange County’s membership application have included a place to indicate the type of business your company is in. Technically, this could be considered a simplified Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) number. So that instead of a book 1 1/4” thick with around 10,000 four digit code numbers, you will be able to select from an abbreviated list of 83 three digit code numbers—easier to complete, but less comprehensive. These three digit codes follow the structure of the government’s SIC number system, so if indeed you know your SIC number it will probably be okay for you to enter it on your record. Doing this will enable you to contact other professionals who are involved in some way with commodities similar to those you deal with. This will be a new “search” blank on the initial Members Only screen, where when you have entered the code you are looking for will return all the fellow members whose companies deal in those commodities.

Similarly, both membership applications have a place to indicate what your job title is when you join. These have not heretofore been included on our on-line membership database. First, because a high percentage of new members neglect to included that information. Here again knowing the level of the person you are contacting would be a good indicator of the proximity of that person to the matter you are asking about, or need information on. Obviously, you would not want to disturb a Vice President or Director with commodity detail, nor would you ask an Assistant Buyer about managerial concerns. Here again this is all voluntary.

We’ll give you an e-mail Blast when we have the website ready for your input - stay tuned!

And in case you wondered, we are working on a full survey compilation and report, which should be available soon..