I paid my dues at Tuesdays meeting, but you have removed ARC member from my profile. Any reason?
James

Your paypal subscription ended 2/15/06. Therefore, you were automatically taken off of the Membership list.

You paid in person at the meeting. Consequently, it will take several weeks for someone to manually enter the information and reinstate your account.

And not to single out jhallewell, but to ask general questions out of my own frustrations - Why do people post this information in the forums? We have a Contact Us (http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/sendmessage.php) page, and people can PM any of the membership coordinators...

Also- I've had to explain the process more times than I can count:

Members who sign up on paypal get ARC status immediately. The card takes some time because they are ordered around the 1st of every month.

Memeber who pay via check or cash must wait for someone to enter it in the system. This takes time- we are not a for profit company with a team of full-time operators. Your status thus will be delayed until this happens. The card again will be placed on the queue to be ordered the following 1st.

Again, I'm not trying to single out jhallewell, but I'd like to get suggestions on how best to convey this message so that we don't get the same questions over and over. Any ideas?

I suggest public cainings...

/d

Chris, how about making that a sticky?

Or possibly making a FAQ section for new members, renewals, public profile info, etc and any other questions that always seem to arise?

You aren't going to stop people asking what the status of there "order" is. You pay $X and you are going to want to know what is happening.

My suggestion is to set expectations. When someone pays at the meeting, explain to them the process or hand them a flyer with the info. If someone pays via paypal, send an automated email letting them know when they can expect the membership card. I paid via Paypal it took a few days for me to get ARC status and I had no idea when the card was going to show up. Someone else asked the question and I was able to read the response from that question to get my card answer however.

to be fair, before I joined I asked a question via the "contact us" email and never received a reply. After a week of waiting I posted on the forum and my small question was answered within a couple hours.

ReeferDawg: I don't know when you asked your question. I noticed I am the contact info...as of 2007.l If you email me I promise to try my best to answer your question in a timely fashion....I am always checking email.

Your customers want information and in absence of information, they'll want control. I guess making the issue public is the best and fastest way to get a response.

I'm sure we can brain storm and think of a better way to automate this process. Maybe we can create a db table with some unique codes and if someone pays at the meeting, you can give them a card with the unique URL which 1.) serves as a temporary card until the real one arrives and 2.) allows them to sign up on this website and activate the account themselves if they so choose.

I don't know VB so I'm not sure how much help I can be... but this shouldn't be too hard to setup and I can help you think the process through if needed.

All I needed was a "it will take a couple of weeks to process" some of you need to chill out!

jhallewell, Im sure they are just a bit frustrated with being asked the same questions over and over again. It happens with any organization but hits harder when its a non profit one.

The new members Q & A is on the forums so its natural for some one to ask any questions on the forums. I would suggest a clear set of FAQ on the main website that has nothing to do with the forums. That way it comes down to a "you should have read" issue. Also the main contact for such issues should be at the top and bottom of said FAQ page in a "webform" and email form. Also if this webform is inserting into a DB then future FAQs can be derived from there as well.

This might help clear things up,. but will not stop people from asking the same questions on the forums. Thats simply the way it is,. but instead of explaining each time you can simply paste a link in. Just my suggestions ;)

jhallewell, Im sure they are just a bit frustrated with being asked the same questions over and over again. It happens with any organization but hits harder when its a non profit one.

The new members Q & A is on the forums so its natural for some one to ask any questions on the forums. I would suggest a clear set of FAQ on the main website that has nothing to do with the forums. That way it comes down to a "you should have read" issue. Also the main contact for such issues should be at the top and bottom of said FAQ page in a "webform" and email form. Also if this webform is inserting into a DB then future FAQs can be derived from there as well.

This might help clear things up,. but will not stop people from asking the same questions on the forums. Thats simply the way it is,. but instead of explaining each time you can simply paste a link in. Just my suggestions ;)

One of the better replies I've read ... this is indeed the way we handle the situation (until something more effective comes along).

Again, jhallewell does have a kind of special case. The database has been in place for under a year (or about a year) so we hadn't run into this before.

Several people have recommended a FAQ... there's been a Membership card FAQ (http://atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=892) in place (and sticky) since July of 2006: http://atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=892

We are working on getting additional information within that thread and also a separate FAQ for more generic questions. Aside from being President, I still feel that we typically do a really good job at responding to questions. We are a self supporting club so the best way we can stay on top of things is if more people get involved and understand how operations work.
That being said... If you're interested in helping create an FAQ, please contact any of the Board of Directors.

I personally agree that the handling of memberships could improve over what was experienced during 2006 and so I recruited two very capable members to replace me in January, 2007.

As the Membership Coordinator during 2006, I know firsthand that members as well as potential members have questions. They want information about the membership process and the status and receipt of their cards.

And while I know that the process has improved since Chris beefed up this Web site, I also recognized that I did not meet my own level of "customer satisifaction". For example, I received ARC PMs frequently, but early in 2006 I could no longer access this site as often as I had before and therefore could not respond to these PMs for days at a time.

I believe that adding more information to the Web site will help alleviate some of these questions, but having Maureen and Sally handling this process will greatly improve this experience too. They are very capable and responsible volunteers and can handle these duties

I believe that our goal as leaders has been to be an organization that serves its community well and I know that your BOD and volunteers try do that as best as they can.

I continously see improvements in the service level provided to this club and I expect it to go on improving and getting better.

Bob

It's no problem at all. Like I said - I asked the question on the forum and it was answered very quickly. I just didn't want to see someone get reamed for not sending an email when the possibility was there that (at least in my personal experience) an email might go unasnwered. I think y'all do a great job with the website and the meeting was top notch. I'm sure it just slipped through the cracks. :cheers:

Man, i need to send in my check... the month is almost up!

I still think public caining would be best...

/d