I am a big fan of Beacon. We transferred over from a system where all our records were kept on spreadsheets to Beacon as I took over as Membership Secretary, so I have grown with it.

Beacon makes keeping membership records very simple, it is easy to update and any changes made to members’ details automatically feeds into the group leaders lists which means their lists are also up to date.

When our spreadsheet system was transferred over to Beacon, we discovered that there were a lot of email addresses on our records that were incorrect so these had to be put right.

The first year with Beacon was used to ensure that our records were correct and that the system was working how we wanted it to. We then introduced online joining and renewing membership which has been a total success and is used by 70% of our membership. When someone joins or renews online the money is recorded in our accounts, the membership card is issued and the member’s record is updated automatically. The only thing I have to do is – if the person is a new member is check that they have entered their details in the way we want i.e. not all capital letters etc.

I like the way that a mass email can be sent to all members at the same time and the email can be personalised so each member gets their own personal information e.g. when I send the email inviting members to renew their subscription, I can send one email to all members but each email has the member specific information that person needs to be able to log into the members portal.

I have written and stored a collection of emails in the system to cover a variety of occurences.

To do a return for Third Age Matters using Beacon takes at the most 5 minutes.

There are a few minor niggles I have with the system,

1. If someone has not renewed their membership for over a year you have to change the renewal date on their record to within the last 12 months to enable them to renew online.
2. When our system was set up it automatically defaults to a class of membership which is more expensive than our standard membership and this has resulted in a few new members who join online paying too much and we having to make refunds by cheque. To correct this would mean an awful amount of work.
3. After the grace period we give members to renew, I have to go into each member’s profile and mark them ‘lapsed’ to ensure they do not continue to receive information from us – I do wish that there was a way of selecting them from the renewal screen and saying mark all these lapsed.

Those niggles apart the system is very easy to operate and find your way around. It cuts down the amount of time that a membership secretary spends on lists and cuts down the amount of space needed for storage. When I took over as membership secretary, I was handed 2 very large boxes – one where completed membership forms were kept, the other with blank membership cards, envelopes, stamps copies of spreadsheets etc. in. I now have one small box the size of a lady’s shoebox which I keep everything in.