Account Management

Enter what you collect into Connect - and make sure to protect! This is our motto to remind ourselves to make sure our teams can enter information from their important conversations with voters into the system - and to make sure that only the people who should access that data can do so.

This bulletin will go over the ins and outs of account management including how to create accounts, send password reset emails, and deactivate or reactivate user accounts.

Creating Accounts

Creating a new account in Connect is quite easy, however you should always first check to make sure that the individual in question does not already have an account that has expired. It’s much easier to re-activate than to create something new! You can do this in the Users section of Connect by simply entering their first and last name, or email address, and setting the Status to empty before clicking search. This will prompt the system to check for all active and inactive accounts.

Once you have confirmed that your new user has never had an account, you can begin setting them up! Simply click Add New User and enter the information that the system asks you for, such as the user’s name and email.

Fill the fields available to create the new account:

Enter the user’s first and last name
The username you wish to assign them.
Select the User profile you wish to assign to their profile. This is the account level that you are giving them.
Select the constituency to which you are giving them access
You can also set an expiry date.

When done, click Next to proceed to the next step.

This individual will receive an email with a link to set up their account.

Please remember that for accountability purposes, it is very important that every account is assigned to a specific person, not shared amongst volunteers. This will help to ensure that all data remains secure and that users are accountable for any data they have access to. All the duties and requirements for volunteers to protect the data to which they have access are detailed-out in the User Agreement that they have to sign before they first get access to Connect.

When creating accounts, we suggest including an expiry date. It’s easy to extend volunteers who stay involved, but setting an expiry date in advance makes sure that people don’t have access longer than they should. Most basic volunteer accounts are created in bulk just prior to an election. Set these types of accounts to automatically expire right after the election.

Once you have created an account, we strongly suggest ticking the box “Send a copy of this email to yourself” which will copy you on the email sent to the new user. You can then follow up with a friendly welcome message to offer help getting set up on Connect. Consider including information about logging in, what Connect is, how your team uses Connect, and other information about volunteering with your team. It's a great way to introduce your new volunteer to Connect and welcome them to your team!

Users with various accounts in different constituencies can link them all using an ActionID. This prevents you from having to remember your username for all your accounts and you can access them all by logging in with your ActionID. It’s really convenient!

PASSWORD RESETS

Everyone forgets their password every once in a while, but it’s not the end of the world. Volunteers can reset their own passwords from the login page by clicking on the Forgot My Password link.

You can also easily send your volunteers a password reset email! Simply search for the account in the Users page and click on the account from the results that appear. Once you are in the User Profile, click on More and select Send New Account Password from the drop-down menu.

Please note that the password link will expire after 48 hours.
IMPORTANT: If the email does not arrive after a few minutes, please have the volunteer check their Junk or Spam folder to see if it was forwarded there.

Higher-level accounts are able to send password resets for lower-level accounts. If someone else on your team has the same level of access as you, you can still help them by reminding them of their username, which they can then use to request a password reset link from the login page. Any other requests can be directed to the Connect Help Desk Team at connect@libdems.org.uk.

Pro Tip: If you can’t see someone’s username because they’re too high level, click the gear icon in the top right-hand corner of the Users page to add Username to the list of things you see about accounts on the Users page.

DEACTIVATING ACCOUNTS

As mentioned above, it is always a best practice to set expiry dates when creating new accounts for lower-level users. However, teams are always changing and it is important for data security and accountability reasons to keep your active accounts up-to-date and to deactivate anyone that no longer needs access.

Doing this is very easy. You can search for your active accounts from the Users page by selecting Active from the Status drop-down menu. Once you click Refresh Results you will be able to see all the active accounts for your constituency. Take a close look at the list and identify the users that no longer need access. You can then enter their user profile and select the Deactivate button.

If a team member needs access to the database and their account has been deactivated by mistake, they can easily be reactivated by looking up their account in the Users tool. You can search for inactive accounts from the Users page by selecting Inactive from the Status drop-down menu. Once you click Refresh Results you will be able to see all the expired accounts for your riding. You will then simply need to click on the account you would like to reactivate and on the User Profile page, set the Status to “Active” in the upper right-hand side of the page and set a new expiry date. After you click Save, send your volunteer a password reset email so that they can access their account.