The Aquarium Society Of Victoria

Nearly 100 years old and still modernising

Summary: The Aquarium Society of Victoria Case Study

The Aquarium Society of Victoria (ASOV), founded in 1933, modernised its operations in early 2024 by switching to Member Jungle. Prior to this, the nearly 100-year-old club struggled with a cumbersome, paper-based management system of handwritten forms, manual cash renewals, and significant data inaccuracies.

After rejecting open-source and overseas systems due to data security concerns and the risk of relying on a single web administrator, they adopted Member Jungle. The shift to an all-in-one digital platform drastically reduced administrative burdens, streamlined event bookings, and centralised communications. As a result, the ASOV has seen their membership numbers double, event attendance skyrocket, and online engagement flourish, prompting them to look for a larger physical clubhouse.

Growth: Membership increased by 100% since adopting Member Jungle in February 2024.
Automated Renewals: Switching to automated, rolling 12-month digital renewals eliminated the "nightmare" of chasing members for cash.
Event Success: Event attendance surged from 15-20 people to 70+ members per meeting, with all bookings now managed effortlessly online.
Thriving Chatrooms: The built-in chat function became an unexpected massive success, fostering active communities (like a dedicated 3D printing group) and connecting regional and interstate members.

Who Are The Aquarium Society Of Victoria?

Founded in 1933, the Aquarium Society of Victoria (ASOV) is a club dedicated to the hobby of at home fishkeeping. Helping people understand more about what it takes to keep fish and run a successful mini ecosystem in your living room. Over their near-century of operations, they have navigated major changes in the aquarium hobby.

But as their community grew, traditional paper forms and manual renewals kept slowing them down. So the ASOV set out to modernise their operations, and in early 2024 they adopted Member Jungle.

I recently caught up with Bob, the society's secretary, to hear how this tech upgrade has streamlined their admin work and helped their community grow.

Also, I have to say, as someone who just bought their first fish tank earlier this year and is slowly filling it with live plants, fish, and freshwater shrimp, I am incredibly jealous of their setup. The club seems like a goldmine for equipment and knowledge I am currently trying to soak up.

What Problems Were The Aquarium Society Of Victoria Trying To Solve?

Up until they joined Member Jungle in 2024, the Aquarium Society of Victoria was using a paper-based system to manage their club. They had paper application forms; all details were handwritten, and all membership renewals were done manually with cash payments.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this was not the easiest or most efficient way to run a club, as their secretary Bob explained.

"When I went through all the membership details, 90% of them were spelling errors because it's transferring paper-based applications, and some people's handwriting is just horrendous. There was so many problems with emails; we had a lot of email addresses that were incorrect,”

“Then there were renewals; we notified everyone. Then all the funds come in at the one time, and it's cash management; it was just a nightmare. So I went on a bit of a hunt for what would be a good option.”

The ASOV then started looking for a better way to run their club, which involved looking at several different options both in Australia and overseas.

“A few committee members suggested an open-source system, and my first reaction, because I've been involved in some open-source integrations in my previous job, was that's all well and good, but who's going to manage it, who's going to manage the back end?”

"Some of the stuff we looked at was overseas-based. You've got to be really careful with your data. Well, that was one issue that I knew I had to be careful with, because if you have a data leak, you know, and if you haven't set up the right security protocols, you're in trouble.”

"My wife is in a pastel artist club. They're having similar issues where they've got WordPress plugins, and they're keeping them updated. As we all know, someone does it, and the minute they leave the club, leave the state, get sick, everyone goes, ‘I don't know what to do’,” Bob explained.

With open-source, piecemeal, and overseas-based systems ruled out due to data risks and the danger of relying on a single administrator, the ASOV narrowed their search. They soon discovered Member Jungle and decided it was worth doing a free trial.

“So, I knew again from previous experience we had to have something that's fairly bulletproof and I stumbled across Member Jungle and thought, ‘Oh, okay. We'll give that a bit of a crack.’ And, so we transitioned everything over, and you know, it's not a sales pitch, but it's been fantastic," Bob said.

How Have Things Changed For The Aquarium Society Of Victoria Now That They Use Member Jungle?

A lot has changed for the Aquarium Society of Victoria over the past few years, so much so it’s worth breaking it down into subcategories. However, the headlines are that:

their membership has doubled,
they are seeing more engagement both online and in person than ever before,
and looking to buy a bigger clubhouse so more people can fit inside for events.

Renewals & Membership Growth

Bob explained how their previous manual renewal method has been improved and the result it’s had on the club.

“We've really increased our membership dramatically. We now have it so when your membership is 12 months from when you join (rolling, not fixed renewals), we don’t have that worry about chasing everyone down the track. They all get notified through the app,”

“We're now going to look for a new building, which we've been talking about for years, but we're actually getting a lot of people and engagement now,” Bob explained.

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Events

Their overall membership numbers aren’t the only thing to grow, with ASOV’s events also becoming more popular and easy for the club to manage.

"We were sometimes lucky to get 15-20 people to a meeting. Our last meeting, we had 70-something members turn up,” Bob recalled.

He also explained that the system has been easy for members and admins alike to come to grips with.

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“If we have our Christmas function or the Fish Fair, everything's booked online. So the members log on and can book a spot, whether it be for the dinner or for the Fish Fair coming up. The beauty is that non-technical people within the club and in the committee have been able to step up and quite quickly learn,” he said.

The Website & App

Bob also explained the stark contrast in how members are engaging with the new platform compared to their old website.

“The members are using it. You know, we didn't get a lot of traction on our previous website. People would look at it, and go, ‘Oh there's a meeting coming up next month, oh big deal.’ You know, it was that sort of engagement. Whereas now the chat has just been, I cannot praise it high enough,” Bob said.

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He went on to detail how having everything on the app has allowed their members to get all their clubs' value in one place.

“They're all doing it on their phone, and it's just been amazing. You can send out notifications on the app, so everyone is notified. You know, we've got events, news, and a library where we can put documents and various reference materials. Got the blog. We've even started using the online store for some T-shirt sales. The digital cards, where we've had a few local aquariums step up that have offered discounts, and so members can prove that they're current members with their membership cards,” he explained.

Chatrooms

Bob explained that the Member Jungle chatrooms feature was not something he had initially cared about nor thought would get much use. However, he has been pleasantly surprised as the chats have become very successful, with almost constant discussion and advice being shared. He has even had to set up several different chats, including event-based and opt-in chatrooms.

“It [Member Jungle] had the chat function, which I'll be honest, I thought with a lot of members using Facebook and all these things, I actually didn't think the chat function would be as successful as it has been, but it's gone off,” Bob explained.

“Even though we're based in Clifton Hill, we have some interstate members and we have regional members. So, it's allowed them to ask questions, chat, and we have a multitude of chat channels now. In fact, a lot of the members are now using 3D printers to produce all sorts of things, egg trays, plant holders. Look, you know, if you can think of it, they're producing it,”

“There's a lot of material available online and I just added a 3D printer chat, and it went off that night. People complained that they didn’t get to bed till late. But the beauty of that is how quickly it happened,” he continued.

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How Has Member Jungle Been For The Admin Team Of The Aquarium Society Of Victoria?

Finally, Bob and I discussed how it has been for him and the rest of the committee to run their club with Member Jungle, and how using an all-in-one system has helped save them money.

“From the aspect of committee management, Member Jungle does make it quite easy because all those things often require individual bits of a puzzle… and you might need all these plugins, or you're running separate applications. It's sort of, well, it is all in one hit. So it's been really good,”

"Often if you do a bit of an audit of what you're paying already [for all your other services], it's pretty good; well, it's beyond pretty good. It's a bit of a lifesaver for us, as someone who manages it,” Bob told me.

It's even helped them plan for the future and ensure that there will always be committee members who know how to use their system.

"We've been able to put subcommittee members in the admin side for them to do certain things that make club management so much easier because it's almost plug one out, plug another one in and off you go," he said.

My Final Thoughts

I just wanted to jump back in with a quick personal note. As I mentioned at the start, I recently got into this hobby. The ASOV is just over 1,000 km away from me; however, they have an incredible amount of information on their new platform. Between the recorded educational events they upload to the website, their monthly newsletter, and the active chatrooms where members can get help with their fishkeeping questions, I have actually signed up to be a member of their club while writing this. They have put so much value into the app that it’s worth paying for a membership, even if I never get to attend an event in person.