Communicating with Members

SIAM encourages each activity group to communicate with its members on a regular basis, using email, newsletters, and websites.

SIAM Engage: Online Member Community

SIAM Engage is an online member community used to increase member involvement and foster a collaborative environment. The online community allows for members to select the frequency of the messages they receive and to respond to posts in a threaded conversation or privately reply to individual posts. All members of an activity group or section are automatically added to the corresponding Engage community, but may request to opt out or update how often they receive emails. Activity group, section, and designated community leaders determine the moderators and any policies on who will be allowed to participate in the list.

Other Features of SIAM Engage Include:

  • A customizable profile page, where members can control what information is made public within the site. This includes the opportunity to add personal websites, social media, profile pictures, and a user biography.
  • Specific community landing pages for activity groups.
  • A searchable library of files uploaded via the community discussion. Items for the library include minutes from business meetings, announcements, and reports. These libraries are customizable at the community level, so each activity group library may look a little different.
  • Searchable communities within SIAM. Members can look for communities or individuals with certain keywords, names, demographics, etc.
  • Community calendars with events curated to specific SIAM membership subgroups.
  • The site will take advantage of Single Sign On (SSO) with SIAM’s e-business platform (where you join/renew and register for conferences) for a two-way data transfer and a smooth log in experience for you.
  • Networking with other SIAM members. Once a member has found someone to connect with, they will be able to message them through the site and add them to their personal network.

SIAM Activity Group Newsletters

Electronic newsletters are a great way to communicate with Activity Group members. SIAM Activity Groups should designate a newsletter editor, either by virtue of office (i.e. Activity Group Secretary), or by appointment. Newsletters can be distributed via the electronic mailing list or posted on the activity group website.

SIAM Activity Group Website and Wikis

SIAM has a webpage for each Activity Group, which includes basic information including the SIAM Activity Group purpose, rules of procedure, current officers, SIAM Activity Group conferences, and an archive of historical information including prior officers, minutes of business meetings, and charter renewals. SIAM encourages each activity group to develop its own website content to maximize communication with its members, by either adding information to the existing SIAM Activity Group's web page, or by creating one that will be linked from SIAM's website. Beyond the basic information, Activity Group web content is developed and updated by the volunteers, but the site can be hosted in one of several different ways.

  1. SIAM can host SIAM Activity Group websites and will link to these websites from each SIAM Activity Group page. Examples of such a site are ones created and maintained by SIAG/PDE and SIAG/IS. SIAM Activity Group volunteers build and maintain their own content using standard HTML Web pages. This site ensures continuity for SIAM Activity Group websites maintained completely by volunteers. It allows for a smooth transition when web editors pass responsibility for the site on to successors, with no need to reload the website on to a new server or to establish a new URL.
  2. SIAM can host a structured website, such as DSWeb, which was developed for the SIAM Activity Group on Dynamical Systems (SIAG/DS). SIAM technology staff work with SIAM Activity Group volunteers to select the modules that meet the needs of the individual activity group. Once the framework is established, SIAM Activity Group volunteers build, maintain, and update the module content themselves.
  3. SIAM can develop a wiki for your SIAM Activity Group, as done for SIAG/GS. If you wish to pursue the wiki, we can help you get started. Contact the SIAM Membership team to get started. We are currently using MediaWiki, the same software Wikipedia uses for their website. SIAM Activity Group volunteers build, maintain, and update the wiki content themselves.
  4. Websites can be hosted offsite on a volunteer’s institutional server, as done by the SIAM Activity Group Orthogonal Polynomials and Special Functions (OPSF). To simplify transition to future editors and to ensure website continuity, we recommend that SIAM Activity Groups who want to maintain their own site consider option #1 above.