I'm working on a project at the moment, and I'm interested in comments/feedback/interest.
Having been involved in club committees for a long time, it's been my experience that managing the list of current members is an important but thankless task for the person charged with doing it. Usually, the list is an Excel spreadsheet on their PC. Some clubs have a locally maintained database (perhaps using Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro), or an Address Book (like Outlook or Entourage). There are some clubs that have some form of shared resource, such as a file on Google Docs or a copy of the spreadsheet saved on the club website for download. And then there are some clubs that riffle through the receipt book to track current memberships.
Unfortunately if it's not done properly, it can have a really serious impact on the club as a whole because:
* current members aren't getting timely notifications, which leads to low turnout at events
* new members may be getting no information at all, which leaves a poor impression of the club
* money is wasted on posting stuff to members who aren't financial
So I'm working on a web-based membership management application designed specifically for car clubs, allowing committee members shared access to the club's data. Pricing would be based on the number of members in the club. I'm looking at some sponsorship possibilities, or possibly a "freemium" model, where some features are provided free of charge, and some others require a subscription. Anyway...
The features developed so far or under immediate consideration are:
* management of "people": past and current members: addresses, contact details etc
* management of "subscriptions/renewals": who's "current", when are renewals falling due, who's recently become non-financial, life-members etc
* management of "vehicles": register of vehicles part and present, with as much or as little ID information as the club wishes to maintain
* management of "the daybook": recording the movements of club-plated vehicles, if this is required in your jurisdiction
* management of "contacts": other clubs, sponsors etc who you need to keep in contact with
* ability to export mailing addresses, email lists or phone lists of the "current" member-base
* built in "mailing list" service, so members/committee can just email yourclub@myservice and the message goes to current members (and only current members), plus sponsors, other clubs etc
* built-in SMS service (like NSW used at Orange), to text all your members with event info.
* ability to store custom information as required by your club, so you can choose to store club-specific data about your members (i.e. you're not constrained to just the data elements I thought were relevant)
* customising look, upload logos etc to "brand" the site with your club's name, colours etc
* initial data load service (uploading whatever computerised data you have into the system, so you don't have to re-type everything.)
Features being considered depending on take-up:
* Inventory management (club merchandise stock on hand)
* Web-store: managing sales of merchandise, processing renewals via credit card/pay-pal etc
* End-user updating: allowing actual club members (rather than just committee members) the ability to update their own contact information
* Member-only file repository: central store for club committee documents etc
* Event Management: managing payments, proposed attendance etc for large upcoming event
So, I'm interested in whether:
* your club would be interested in such a service?
* you see sufficient benefit that you would be happy to pay for such a service?
* you would be interested in beta-testing this application?
* you have features you think would be useful that I haven't included/thought of above
* any comments or suggestions
The beta programme for the app is available here:
http://test.ourcarclub.com.au You won't be able to do much without a username/password, which you can request from the "Beta" tab on that page.
Thanks for your time.
cheers
RET
