Lead institution instructions

These instructions are guidelines for lead institutions to aid in the process of inviting members into InCommon, from the initial contact letter through sponsorship.

Initial contact letter - a copy of the text for the initial contact letter is on the wiki: https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/inclibrary/Contact+Email; This email should be sent to account rep for your institution or someone higher up in the organization if possible, preferably in sales.  May want to call account rep to know who to send to, use best judgement.  On sending initial email copy co-signers and inc-lib-vendor.  Co-signers can be found on the spreadsheet: https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/download/attachments/3442162/Vendor+letters.xls; These names and the names of their institutions should be placed at the bottom of the email message, as in the contact letter on the wiki.

(note on the letter regarding sponsorship - if you are a lead institution, and you are not sure if your institution will be able to sponsor, feel free to change the follow text: "____ University would like to be your sponsor for membership into InCommon and help facilitate the process." to "____ University would like to assist in the InCommon membership process." or something to that effect.)

2nd attempt - If vendor does not respond in an adequate time frame, say two weeks, send a follow up.  If still no response after another two weeks, report back to inc-lib-vendor.

Phone call(s) - If vendor has questions, try to answer, or set up phone call to answer.  If you need/want other members of inc-lib-vendor on call, set up conference call.  InCommon may be able to assist with this if you can't do from your own institution.

Sponsorship letter - Your institution's executive officer sends sponsorship letter to InCommon for vendor.  Template and instruction on InCommon join page: http://www.incommonfederation.org/sponsor.html.  If your institution is unable to sponsor, inc-lib-vendor can coordinate a sponsoring institution.

InCommon application - Follow up with vendor a few weeks after sponsorship letter regarding InCommon application.  Offer assistance with testing and with interpreting best practices.

Refer to inc-lib-vendor - for testing and best practices, send note to inc-lib-vendor to coordinate testing institutions and working with vendor on best practices.

Checklist