It’s a new year and we are working on improving our IT platform and this seems like a perfect time to upgrade FELIX to better serve your needs as members. As FELIX moderator I am interested in hearing from members regarding what they like/ dislike about FELIX. Do you have any suggestions for ways that we can make FELIX more real-time? I have proposed a message board for FELIX in the past. What are your thoughts regarding this possible platform? It’s your FELIX, your benefit and I want to ensure its working the best it possibly can for members.
Any thoughts, constructive criticism or suggestions for upgrades are welcome.
Thanks,
Tom Thompson (tthompson@financialexecutives.org)
Response:
I just saw this question when I looked at a later FELIX Q & A publication. As expressed by others among your published responses, FELIX is the only e-mail from FEI that I read (fairly) consistently. I like it coming to me. I do not really have time to go to websites and look at stuff of this nature during the course of my day. On the other hand the RSS feed is not a bad suggestion if it reduces work.
Ted McArthur (tmcarthur@brockwhite.com)
Response:
In my opinion FELIX is just fine the way it is as an email product. I agree with most of your respondents that putting it on a message board or on a social media site will kill it. Most Finance members are much too busy to think of going out on a site to review comments or posts. We view this as a publication of FEI and as such it needs to be mailed directly to members who signed up for it. In terms of rank or status I view it is much above the social media of “Linked In” or “Twitter”. Those sites have no relevance for anyone who is in the office working all day. I admit they are probably interesting if your life is spent waiting for flights in an airport. That probably explains some of the inane comments that have been sent. I prefer not to mix real business with junk messages that your flight is delayed or was cancelled or that you are on your way to New Madrid.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
Duane Locher (Duane.Locher@CommerceBank.com)
Response:
I really like the current email format, but would be interested in seeing how effective a message board would be (as an addition, not a replacement). The current format is timely and allows for easy browsing of applicable items to my company. Thanks, Jack
Jack Larch (JLarch@ProLiance.com)
Response:
I like receiving Felix by email. I read it religiously - it is the only FEI “publication” that I always read. I learn things that may not be of immediate relevance but that could be applicable to my company sometime in the future. I occasionally forward selected bits to others in my company. If you stop emailing Felix and just go to a message board, I know that I will not make time to go to the message board periodically to read it. Please keep the email format!
Heather Korsvik (Heather.Korsvik@matholdingsinc.com)
Response:
I like the way it is currently operating in that we are noticed of new questions and responses. If it was a message board there would be no incentive or reminder to go and look for new questions. However, this is a natural for a Wiki application so if there was some way to a notification whenever the Wiki got new data, possibility through an RSS feed, that would probably reduce your administrative burden.
Thanks,
Ed Falkowitz (efalkowitz@usac.org)
Response:
Regarding your request for comments/recommendations for platforms to better improve communications among FEI members on forums like FELIX, I have two recommendations:
- Consider moving all of FELIX related Q&A to one of following platforms:
- A dedicated “FELIX” group on Linked-In
- A sub-group under the current “FEI International” LinkedIn group which is sponsored by Lili Devita, your head of marketing
- Explore further the capabilities of www.proformative.com. I have registered at this site, but I am doubtful it has enough activity to survive the other social media engines it is competing against.
A conservative rollout strategy might be to continue with the current email delivery platform as has been used for FELIX lifetime-to-date coupled with the parallel use of a Linked-In group approach as recommend above. The key concern is that FEI members may forget to check the LinkedIn group discussions from time-to-time which would quickly lead to its demise. Personally, on LinkedIn I always check the option (box) to have discussions forwarded to me only once per week for the Groups I belong to.
Jerry Sweas (jerry.sweas@comcast.net)