Membership renewal methods
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Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
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URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12628
Printed Date: 07 Jul 25 at 1:17am
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Topic: Membership renewal methods
Posted By: tom425
Subject: Membership renewal methods
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 10:21am
Having just received the latest £300 renewal letter, as with most years I'm left wondering why I can't pay by direct debit and why I still have to write a cheque like it's the 80's or bank transfer which is at least somewhat more modern.
I can't for the life of me understand why in this day and age I can't pay by direct debit either monthly or quarterly with a view to spreading the cost over the year rather than being hit with a £300 at the beginning of the year. I appreciate the sum is not all that much and what I get from the club is definitely worth that, if not more. But why not make it easier to pay? It's not a huge amount of money but for cash strapped 20-30 somethings, it can be a struggle to find the spare cash at this time of the year. As it is I'm left wondering if I should rejoin this year or just keep the boat at home and just do class events and remind myself to put some money aside to pay for next years fees and the inevitable (and in my view) pointless joining fee. It seems to me Sailing clubs want more members but don't necessarily make it easy to join/pay/afford it.
Using gyms as an example, if you went there, they said it was going to cost £420 plus a £150 joining fee upfront you would probably walk away and find something else to do, but they break this down into slightly more affordable payments monthly payments and suddenly it's affordable. Can't sailing clubs do this? I would assume there is some form of admin overhead but at the same time there are plenty of companies that provide this service for small fee's per transaction so surely this could be outsourced?
This isn't intended to be moan, more of a question to see if other clubs are doing it and why clubs might not see it as a viable option....
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Replies:
Posted By: bob3021
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 10:39am
Leigh and Lowton use a system called webcollect - very easy - click the link - pay by either direct debit or paypal.
System sends you emails for duties too etc
(dunno how much it costs to implement etc - but as a member its made it all pretty easy and straightforward)
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Posted By: PeterG
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 11:13am
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No excuse for not taking BACs transfers (or standing orders for those who want to split payments through the year) - I'm surprised at any club which doesn't.
DD's however, add a layer of complexity, and for a small company/club you need to use a 3rd party, and pay them.
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Peter
Ex Cont 707
Ex Laser 189635
DY 59
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 11:31am
The number of times I've suggested this to our lot, or moving the membership period to September when we always seem to get folk wanting to join but then being put off until January as if they'll remember then.
I shall have a look at that web collect thanks for that one, not that they necessarily heed good advice.
Then again why bother..
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Posted By: JohnJack
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 11:50am
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The Scorpions use webcollect, and for the most part it is OK. It's not the most intuitive of front ends however. There online payment method is GoCardless which they charge for,
The alternative is Sailing Club Manager http://www.sailingclubmanager.com/ which looks OK, but never used it
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Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 12:40pm
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GoCardless / WebCollect emails on behalf of my club are a very handy way of reminding me that £34 is going out of my account each month for something I have barely used..... I won't be renewing next year.
Be careful with human psychology ... what you think everyone wants might just highlight the very truth most membership organisations tend to try and hide: the majority are paying for something only the minority are really using.
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Posted By: The Moo
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 1:42pm
We moved our membership renewal year from January to April some years back so that we were not competing with member's Xmas credit card bill. It made life much easier for all concerned. Our financial year remains unchanged.
Our members have the option of standing order over 6 months as well as on line banking. I don't think that many use standing order though.
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Posted By: Noah
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 3:49pm
Hayling offer the ability to pay by DD spread over 12 months. Much less painful than a lump sum. UKFA are also going to a DD model which involves a small fee but much less than Paypal.
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Nick
D-Zero 316
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Posted By: Eisvogel
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 3:52pm
Originally posted by JohnJack
The alternative is Sailing Club Manager http://www.sailingclubmanager.com/ which looks OK, but never used it |
Does anybody have experience with this? Their feature list looks very comprehensive, but is it too good to be true?
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Posted By: SCM
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 4:32pm
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SailingClubManager enables payment by several different methods including payment gateways, direct bank transfer, cheques and cash. You can choose to spread payments over different periods if you want to. Yes, we offer a lot of functionality. You don't have to use it all, or you can start with some and add more later. The best way to find out more is with free trial. http://www.sailingclubmanager.com/register 0r call +44 1983 241615
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SailingClubManager.com
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Posted By: zippyRN
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 5:14pm
Originally posted by iGRF
The number of times I've suggested this to our lot, or moving the membership period to September when we always seem to get folk wanting to join but then being put off until January as if they'll remember then.
I shall have a look at that web collect thanks for that one, not that they necessarily heed good advice.
Then again why bother..
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rather than new members paying standard fees after Spetember get membership through to 31/12 of the next year ?
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Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 5:40pm
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Rossendale Valley S C offer something like that, Leigh & Lowton give you pro-rata of you join late (you pay for the remaining months up to the new year). They also offer monthly payments via web collect for a slight surcharge.
Regarding standing orders, my wife has a ballet school, we invoice parents for a 10 week 'term' in advance (4 in the year, the remainder being the school holidays). We did try allowing monthly standing orders but the extra work of checking who had paid made it a PITA so we stopped offering it as an option.
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Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 7:11pm
We use webcollect and PayPal, as a one off payment by the end of January for membership, followed by other payments to pay for courses, Juniors sessions etc.
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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Posted By: sawman
Date Posted: 19 Jan 17 at 7:23pm
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We use webcollect and go cardless at Tynemouth, it seeems to work very well, from a management point of view it also means that we have up to date details for members and email addresses for contacting the various different fleets in the club separately or as a whole.
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Posted By: gordon1277
Date Posted: 20 Jan 17 at 9:14am
A few years ago some accountant/ treasurer wanted to make our memebership due end of January.
I pointed out the fact that this would cause even more late renewals and people not bothering to re join. Thank goodness the AGM membership all agreed and it was voted out.
I think if I pay up front for the full year then those paying by direct debit should pay a small premium as the club does not have the cash in hand to invest or pay large annual bills.
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Gordon
Lossc
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Posted By: James Bell
Date Posted: 20 Jan 17 at 9:39am
I'm all for making things easier - however, the last time I looked (which was a long time ago) Direct Debit isn't always that easy to setup for voluntary organisations with relatively low turnovers and many banks have minimum (fairly steep) requirements. Instead, Standing Orders are easy for clubs to use, but this relies on individual members to remember to renew the Standing Order each year and is quite a lot of additional work for the Treasurer to ensure the correct fees have been paid by the end of the year.
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Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 20 Jan 17 at 5:12pm
We looked at it a few years ago and decided the cost of electronic payment systems was too much. What's the typical cost for a typical system now?
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OK 2129
RS200 411
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Posted By: patj
Date Posted: 21 Jan 17 at 7:19am
Surely with online banking, a BACS payment (not standing order or direct debit) is one of the simplest ways and once set up, unless the club changes bank accounts, it remains on the member's payments list ready for next year, only needing the amount when the next payment is made. I pay our club subs and other event payments using the one payment I have set up.
Also at our club anyone joining after a certain point (say 1st September) pays a full year membership plus joining fee but this lasts to the end of the following year.
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Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 21 Jan 17 at 9:07am
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Yup, it still requires somebody to check so I wouldn't use it for monthly payments but for annual (or four times a year) it's a much less onerous task.
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Posted By: Gfinch
Date Posted: 22 Jan 17 at 7:33pm
Royal Hariwch YC have begun to roll out Direct Debit payment this year, as well as reorganising the membership fees to a gradual structure of 18-24, 25-30, 31-35 rather than cheap price for those 18-24 then a massive hike at 25.Talking to people, not just cash strapped youngsters taking up the monthly direct debits, but just easier as people budget this way.
Might as well make it easy for members to pay.......
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3513, 3551 - National 12
136069 - Laser
32541 - Mirror
4501 - Laser 4000
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Posted By: tom425
Date Posted: 23 Jan 17 at 9:17am
Thanks all for the responses, I'll take a look at web collect and make some suggestions to the club.
Like Royal Harwich YC my old club had gradual structure of payments based on age which I always liked. At the time of joining (post uni) it certainly was a deciding factor, along with no joining fee and good friendly club racing/atmosphere.
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Posted By: SCM
Date Posted: 23 Jan 17 at 9:37am
When new members are joining it seems only fair to offer them pro rata rate depending on when they join during the year. Even better than a straight line pro rata rate is to band the pricing so that joining towards the end of the membership period when the main sailing season is over and there is less activity is at a lower rate and encourages new members to join straight away rather than waiting for the start of the new season.
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SailingClubManager.com
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Posted By: SCM
Date Posted: 23 Jan 17 at 9:44am
We would dales recommend offering members a range of ways to pay. With bank branches closing at an increasing rate, direct bank transfers and on-line payments are becoming more relevant and convenient. Whilst you shouldn't enforce any one payment method, you should certainly offer easy ways to pay which most people are used to using for paying bills and shopping generally.
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SailingClubManager.com
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Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 23 Jan 17 at 10:16am
I really cannot see what is hard with paying by internet banking transfer.The main thing is to get people to use a sensible payment reference like membership number and surname, to give the memb sec a chance of seeing who's paid. Dropping them an email at the same time helps too.
Our subs are not so high that monthly payment is needed, but I think the yacht owners who have moorings can pay that way. That possibly gives the club a balance of yearly and monthly income.
Bear in mind that some free bank accounts for businesses only allow x amount of transactions before charges kick in.
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