Why is the Member Profile important to you?
The OFA Member Dashboard of our website offers many features and numerous self-service options for members. One feature is to do an advanced search by branch in the member directory. The member directory pulls information you enable from your profile. Self service options are also available from the member profile and all depend on the member profile for accurate information about you.
Why is the Member Profile important to the OFA?
Simply put, the information in the Member Profile is essential to the association’s operation and even existence. For example, accurate contact information is required in order for the OFA to send publications like the OFA Journal (newsletter), membership renewal reminders, reunion and meeting announcements … everything the OFA must be able to communicate to you to provide the services the OFA offers.
What's in my Member Profile?
It will be no surprise that your profile contains the information required to stay in contact with you – name, mailing address, email address and phone number. It also provides for adding information about your connection to the Ostrander family – family branch, Big Book number, spouse’s name, photos and any free-form comments you would like to add.
Internally, the profile record keeps track of your membership status, event registrations, donations, email preferences and privacy settings.
How can I view and update my Profile?
After logging into the OFA website (ostrander.org), click Member Dashboard, then Member Profile. A My Profile page appears with a list of your Membership Details. Click Edit Profile to make changes or add information. Then click Save at the bottom of the page.
What can other members see in my Profile?
Click My Directory Profile next to the Edit Profile button. Your details viewable by other members appears as a list. Blank fields in your profile do not show at all. Click Back to return to the first profile page.
You have complete control over what information is shown to other members. [See Privacy below.]
What exactly do the profile item names mean? There are quite a few types of names.
- Last Name: Your legal last name
- First Name: Your legal first name
- Middle Name: Your legal middle name or initial. Keep in mind there are OFA members with the same last and first names. Middle name or initial is essential to knowing who’s who.
- Preferred First Name: Often the same as First Name but there are members who prefer to be called or referenced by their middle name, nickname or something else. Preferred First Name will be used on mailing labels, letters, emails and other OFA documents and communications. It’s up to you to decide what name to specify.
- Born As Name: Most commonly, a woman’s surname before she was married (aka maiden name). This field is particularly important for those members whose Ostrander family connection is on their mother’s side.
- Mailing Address: Used to create mailing labels for the OFA Journal and letters to members. Must be correct or mail is returned to the OFA.
- City, State/Province and Zip/Postal Code: Used for postal mailings and also to determine membership demographics.
- Phone: Your preferred phone number for the OFA to use to contact you if there is no response to postal mail or email. Rarely used but very important when needed, e.g. should there be a problem with your membership renewal.
- Email: Your preferred email address for OFA communications. The member self-service functions depend on being able to reach you by email. Please set your spam filters to allow mail from https://ostrander.org to pass through to your Inbox.
- How did you hear about the Ostrander Family Association? This information helps the OFA better understand the success of its efforts to grow association member ship and provide member services.
- Comments: Comments you would like to share with others. You decide, with your profile privacy settings, whether to share them just with OFA members, anyone who visits the OFA website or only the OFA administrators. It’s your choice.
- Family branch: The child of Pieter Pietersen2 Ostrander (PP2) from whom you are descended. This is a dr0p-down list from which you can choose your branch or indicate that you don’t know (Unconnected in genealogy lingo.) Note: Many members have been able to find their connections to PP2 with the help of other OFA members.
- Spouse’s name: Optional but useful if your spouse is the one with the Ostrander heritage or if both of you are involved in OFA activities and projects.
- Big Book Number: If you are listed in the Big Book (Ostrander: A Genealogical Record 1660-1995), a personal identification number (BBid) is assigned to your name.
- Comments: Free-form text. Anything you would like OFA or other members to be aware of. You have the option to make this field viewable by other members but, by default, it is not.
- OFA Account Number: This is an internal number assigned sequentially to new members. This number cannot be changed.