BVWS membership confusion?

[boater sam]

Mike Barker (Mr Murphy ) has indeed done a sterling job, his time in charge is now over so there may be some changes.
He continues to be devoted to the cause but like all such organisations everything is left to the dedicated few.

I agree that the money side is archaic , needs updating, but for me the biggest error is the year end subs system. I appreciate that having all renewals at the same time is easier, but it is a disincentive to join mid year.

[ppppenguin]

I can't remember how we dealt with people who joined mid year. It may have been something like you got the back issues of the magazine for the whole of the year. It might have been that if you joined near the end of the year your membership included the full following year.

The question of regional meetings where there is a low density of members is fundamentally not solvable. Ultimately if a few local members get together privately that may be the best that's possible.

[Terry]

With on-line banking so common these days, what is wrong with giving members the bank sort code and account number? Then they can pay their subs by electronic transfer, possibly quoting a membership number as reference.

The treasurer then has a list of payments to check off against his records and not a piece of paper or stamp in sight! And no visits to the bank, either.

If I can pay my plumber like this, I'm sure it is not beyond the BVWS ...

[ppppenguin]

I handled a small number of bank transfers when I was BVWS treasurer. For whatever reason it was usually a nuisance to correlate the transfer with the member. Probably because we didn't offer it as a standard payment method nor did we have a routine for dealing with it. Definitely needs a membership number as reference to cope with the occasions when, for example, your wife pays your membership because she's the one who handles the banking.

[Kalee20]

I've been treasurer of quite a different sort of Club (riding club), turnover approx. £12,000 per year. I've handled payments by BACS transfer and to be honest, it was a pain! Credits from accounts that I didn't recognise... Payment references which didn't tie up with amounts due (usually because the member had made one payment for one thing, and their on-line bank didn't allow for an alteration of reference once a payment had been made). Similar to Jeffrey's experiences, really.

A Website-based payment system, working via PayPal, on the other hand, did work and was easy to trace.

[ppppenguin]

As of January 2018 businesses won't be allowed to surcharge for card payments:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/c...-be-banned

I don't know if a members' club counts as a business but I believe it does.

One person whose opinion would be useful is Brian Summers (Beamcurrent) who's treasurer of the British Amateur TV Club. I think they've taken card payments without surcharge for some time. I don't know how well they've integrated their payments system with their membership system. Their join/renewal page is delightfully simple:
https://www.batc.org.uk/shop/paper-subs

[Kalee20]

Yes - that's really simple!

[Nebogipfel]

Usually it's just irritating but sometimes I can see why elsewhere are strong on staying on topic ............

[beamcurrent]

The main payment method used by the BATC is Paypal, we just swallow hard and accept the payment charges ( 20p + about 3% a variable!!) Some 90% of our receipts come this way to the cost is built in.

We abandoned shop style credit card terminals due to cost and lack of automation. But there are some new mobile phone systems that are worth looking into, but you need to be able to tie the payment to a member/shop transaction. Not sure how it works in this situation?

It is tricky correlating payments to members and can take a LOT of sorting out. We do take payments by BACs and the small number involved makes sorting them easier. If there were a lot it would be much harder.

The old fashioned cheque in an envelope works well as you have the payment, and what it is for in the envelope in your hand.  

Standing orders are to be avoided like the plague.

Brian S BATC

[Raditechman]

I still belong to a few radio clubs/ societies that require subs by cheque or cash.
I would prefer to have a way to pay on line, partly because sometimes the trouble of getting  an envelope, writing  the cheque etc. means I leave it too late and inadvertently loose my membership. I soon re-join, but if I could pay on line I would do it immediately.

John