'Single Tier' Membership?

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Folks, that Thread has now been moved to the Committee Section for me to analyse the feedback.

I'll report back.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.
 
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bluejon

Club Member
:thumbs:Rob, please don't 'analise' the feedback information. I'll feel much better if you analyse it.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Ok folks, I've had a look at the replies and extracted the main points.

Many thanks to the 23 people who contributed, only two being 'Website members', however one was prolific in his posts.

We have a membership of around 220 'Z Club members' and thousands of 'Website members'. I'm trying to ascertain how many 'Website members' are active on here because many will be long gone. If we knew how many were active in the last year it would give us a 'feel' for the 'membership split' of the Club.

There was some goods points raised about issues (and praise) for the Club which will not be lost but I'm just focusing here on the membership admin bits.

Most people thought that paying was ok (and expected) and the current amount was acceptable. That's not a great surprise considering who replied - shame more 'Website members' didn't. Some people suggested that the subscription needs to cover costs and so as Steve and I have discussed before, we can lower the fee and also hopefully attract more 'full' members.

The topic of one or two tier was less easy to understand because it was generally thought that there should be one tier with full access to the Forum but that full membership should give distinctive benefits and that one way of doing this was to limit access. :confused: What I understand from this question and the other 'access' question is that ideally there should only be one level of membership but if we have to have two then access for 'Website members' should be far more restricted that it is now.

A single date for renewal was accepted as a reasonable idea but thought impossible to implement fairly. Paypal was suggested as a way of cutting down admin work.

Data storage got little response apart from it being a good facility for a 'full' member to be able to see a car's history. Nobody had any comments about all the other data we record i.e. the confidential stuff e.g. addresses/phones/method of payment/date of payment/ etc which is currently all typed in by me.

Two people volunteered to help which was a positive.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has helped me understand the way the membership feels which is quite interesting and has 'relaxed' me a bit about the 'divisive' aspect I was concerned about. Some people see us as a Forum others as a Club, which is fine but perhaps if Forum members use Club facilities there should be a charge?

Admin can be streamlined a bit but not much until we get an automated system for online membership applications and renewals. Data storage should perhaps be seen as a member benefit (but typing it all in has to be automated).
 
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zNathan

Well-Known Forum User
Hi Rob,

Glad that you're gaining clarity on steps forward, it sounds positive.

If we were to have a list of cars with their history hosted on the website for members to see, I would strongly advise against putting owner contact details / address' online..
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Hi Rob,

Glad that you're gaining clarity on steps forward, it sounds positive.

If we were to have a list of cars with their history hosted on the website for members to see, I would strongly advise against putting owner contact details / address' online..

Hi Nathan - sorry I didn't mean I'd do that what I meant was that no-one commented on whether we should record all that sort of data, they just mentioned the car.

I'll edit my previous post.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
This is the data I type in for a 'Z Club member'. For a 'Website member' (and Z Club member) we have anything the member has entered in V Bulletin:

Member No *
Title *
Name *
Familiar *
Forum Name *
Partner *
Address 1 *
Address 2 *
Address 3 *
Address 4 *
Postcode *
Country *
Local Group *
Home Phone *
Mobile Phone *
Email *
Pay Type *
Amount In *
Member Since *
Last Renewed *
SCar *
No Cars *
Model *
Seats *
Body *
Aspiration *
Reg *
Year *
Colour *
Colour Code *
Cond *
Mods *
 

Moriarty

Well-Known Forum User
Be aware
Data protection act applies and as "the controller" and possibly "the processor" then its wise that the club and the committee to be aware of the law.

For example there is a requirement that data is "not held longer than necessary"
If you are holding data from a lapsed membership then you had better have a good reason as this could be considered "longer than necessary"
 

STEVE BURNS

Club Member
I'm trying to ascertain how many 'Website members' are active on here because many will be long gone. If we knew how many were active in the last year it would give us a 'feel' for the 'membership split' of the Club.
.
Rob
We can prune away the website members who have not logged into their account for say over a year or what ever time span would be best but once done can not be retrieved
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Rob
We can prune away the website members who have not logged into their account for say over a year or what ever time span would be best but once done can not be retrieved


I've been wanting to do that for a while (including Z Club members) but I think we will lose all 'posts' from any deleted members. I'll have a look into it.
 

STEVE BURNS

Club Member
I've been wanting to do that for a while (including Z Club members) but I think we will lose all 'posts' from any deleted members. I'll have a look into it.
Rob there are various criteria it can be set by it can be set to search for people who have never posted since they first registered or never re turned again after first visiting there is loads of different ways that has been set up for us to chose
will try and discuss with you tommorrow
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
I've been wanting to do that for a while (including Z Club members) but I think we will lose all 'posts' from any deleted members. I'll have a look into it.
I would suggest reducing the info that you hold - maybe a nice to have but hardly necessary and don't delete 'lapsed members, inactive forum members - I don't see the point if you can already reduce the info held to a minimum !

"The topic of one or two tier was less easy to understand because it was generally thought that there should be one tier with full access to the Forum but that full membership should give distinctive benefits and that one way of doing this was to limit access.

What I understand from this question and the other 'access' question is that ideally there should only be one level of membership but if we have to have two then access for 'Website members' should be far more restricted that it is now."

I disagree in more restrictive access to the forum - in all practicality to what are you going to restrict access ? There is no database of useful info - there are merely a lot of topics.

People not accessing those topics :

a) won't know what they're missing to encourage them to join the club
b) will begrudge ultimately having to pay to see more
c) be disappointed after having paid to see what they can access

You will simply satisfy those that have paid, convincing them that they're getting 'more' for their money when in fact they're just getting the same as before.

In stead of restricting access (and therefore reducing 'value for money'), why not offer club members more ?

The forum is the portal of the club, it is through which the club attracts members - reduce it's atractiveness is counter-productive. The Club is after the forum, it communicates through it and the club must offer more and certainly more than some perceived Forum+ service.

The club MUST offer more to its members today than it presently does or the club will gradually be replaced by forum members as people stop paying their m-ship.....look at Paul the barometer - why should he pay to be a Z Club member ?
 
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