How to Access and Manage Your Account
WHAT IS VISIBLE ON THIS WEBSITE - see more HERE - will combine these versions . . .
Everyone can see what's Offered and Wanted
- this means that the general public can get an idea of what Ealing LETS is about before they join, but it will be anonymous.
Everyone can view News and Events to see when meetings and socials will be held.
If it's in someone's home it will show a contact number rather than the address. Everyone can read the Constitution and Rules and access an online application form.
LOGGING IN AS A MEMBER
The Login tab is at the foot of the sidebar. Members are sent an automatically-generated password, but can change it to something more memorable via My Profile. If you forget your password, you can re-set it yourself, as long as you put in the correct four-digit account number and email address. If you have forgotten
your account number, send a message via Contact Us, or ask another member ! Here are more details instructions for Password Reset .
CONTACTING OTHER MEMBERS
The Members List is accessed via the sidebar. The default order is account number, so look at the foot of the list for new members. You can select by account number, or sort the list in various ways, eg by name, or postcode, to find people you know or who live near you. If you click on a members' account number you can see their profile. If you click on the email link, a message box will open up. If you want to collect your own mini-list of people near you, by all means do so, but if you want access to an official group email list for a particular neighbourhood, please contact the webmaster, who will be able to set up a group email address.
UPDATING YOUR PROFILE
You can access your own profile, by clicking My Profile on the sidebar and selecting Edit my Personal Information. Once you get into it, please check that your full street address, neighbourhood, borough, city/county, full postcode and one or two phone numbers, have been correctly entered, so that other members can find you locally (your full street address does not show on your profile, but is important to keep up to date for administrative purposes). If you want to change your email address, you can do so. Please put some introductory information about yourself into About Me which can include a link to your own website. You can also set the frequency of directory updates - the recommended interval is one week. Save your changes by clicking on Update at the foot of the screen - if you can't see it, pan down until it appears.
ADDING A PHOTO
Click My Profile on the sidebar, click on the Upload link, find a suitable photo on your computer - which does not have to be a portrait, it could be your garden, for example, and upload it !
JOINT ACCOUNTS
The names can simply be combined, but you can separate them out if you wish, by creating a secondary account, then taking that name out of the original account. Joint members share Eals but have different profiles and get their own email messages. People with a joint account share their Eals. If you want a separate account, please go into Contact Us and explain what you want.
OFFERS and WANTS
These are visible to the general public - anonymously - so please do not put any private information in the listing itself - members will be able to access your profile once they are logged on. Offers and Wants show in your profile but to amend them click on Update Listings. Firstly create a Title consisting of a relevant key word, beginning with a capital letter! then putting in the details. If you want to put an hourly rate, just put the number in the box. You will be invited to allocate your listing to a particular category. If these are not quite right, choose as best you can, and the Directory Editor may, in due course, create new categories as required. You can temporarily hide a particular listing.
TRANSACTIONS
Anything to do with payments in Eals can be accessed via the Transactions tab in the sidebar. You can view anyone's exchange history and see who they have traded with in case you want to ask for a reference. You also view all trades over a specified period if you just want to see what's going on in the system. You can transfer Eals to another member, tithe a percentage of a trade to a particular individual or fund and also give feedback online. You can also send an email reminder or an invoice if you are awaiting payment, meantime you can also use a Trading Record as an aide-memoir - this is useful for stall-holders at trading events - people can be invoiced afterwards, or the LETS accountant (if there is one) on your behalf.
CHEQUES & VOUCHERS
Not having these is what has made it viable to re-launch Ealing LETS, however, if there is a strong demand by members as a whole, printed cheques could be reinstated. To keep things moving at trading events, vouchers could be used, or a list kept to be processed later. Meanwhile, if you are not online you can be matched to a buddy who will help you by setting up and managing a web-based email address for you or give you access and training.
FURTHER HELP
If you have difficulties with the above or any other aspect of managing your account, please send a message via Contact Us. Please be very specific about what the problem is, so that we can improve these instructions, provide training, match you up with a buddy, or whatever else is needed. Happy trading !
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