For our first newsletter we would like to announce some fantastic news.
Continuing the development of our public facing website we have now just launched our members only companion site.
itsmf.org.nz is where the chapter's work goes: the events we are running, writing by people in our community, who sits on the committee, and how to join.
Our new members site (members.itsmf.org.nz) is the other half, and it is where being a member starts to show.
There are lots of features and capabilities in the site at launch and many more planned. Below is just a small sample of what you will see.
An event does not disappear when it ends
This is the change we think you will notice first.
Until now, what happened at a session stayed with the people who were in the room. A set of slides might go round by email if somebody remembered. The discussion itself was gone.
Now, when a session finishes, what it produced goes up on the members site: the minutes, the slides a speaker was happy to share, a recording where we have one. If you could not make a an event, or you were there and want the detail again six months later, it is in one place rather than in somebody's sent items.
Writing about here, by people working here
There is no shortage of service management material on the internet. There is very little of it written by practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand, about organisations of our size, under our constraints, with our budgets.
That is the gap the articles are for. Some are public, because they are worth reading whoever you are. Others are for members, because they are more frank about what did not work.
One diary, and fewer forms
Events live in one place, and registering takes a moment. Your details are yours to correct, and what we email you is yours to choose. No spreadsheet, no asking somebody to update a list on your behalf.
Why we built it rather than bought it
itSMF New Zealand is owned by its members, runs as a not-for-profit, and is vendor-neutral. Those are not decorations. They decide what a site like this is allowed to be: no advertising, nobody's product placed in front of you, and no reason to collect anything about you that we do not need.
It is also why the site is modest. We would rather it did a few things well and cost the chapter very little. It also means we can adapt and serve our community in a more focussed way - if we need a different feature or widget we are in full control.
If you are not a member yet
Membership is what helps pay for keeping the infrastructure and events flowing.
It is also what the members site is for: the minutes, the recordings, the writing that is franker than we would put on the open web, and the company of people doing the same job you are.
If you have been meaning to join, now is the perfect time
https://itsmf.org.nz/membership#register.