Convincing Your Committee To Get On Board With a Membership System

You’ve grown tired of organising your club the old-fashioned way.

Running your club has become a costly and inefficient task. 

You’re tired of your passion being a complete time sink. 

You've turned to Google, looking for answers on how to run your club better.

You've undertaken the daunting task of researching and choosing a membership system. 

You've signed up for the trial of your chosen membership management system. 

 

Now, you face the most daunting task of this whole process, pitching all this to your committee.  You can picture it now, them sitting there judging you and your fancy new fan-dangle system. 

Well stop it, stop picturing them, that's not helping. 

 

We are here to give you everything you need to convince your committee that you are right about your chosen membership system. By the time we finish here, you'll be able to sell the most penny-pinching treasurer on your plan. 

You'll have your most old fashion committee member ditching their old Nokia for the newest iPhone. Just so they can be the first one on your new club app.  Most importantly, you'll be able to prove to your members that this is the right direction for them. 

We are going to cover what your treasurer, current website manager and the average committee member will want to know before they agree to your plan.Plus a few tips and tricks to help your presentation to the committee go perfectly. 

 

So, sit back, relax and let's get to it. 

Designing Your Presentation 

Before we get into what your committee members want to know, let’s talk about your presentation. 

You need to make sure that your presentation is straightforward, easy to follow and has some visual aids. 

Nothing helps recapture the attention of a distracted audience like pictures and Infographics.

 

See, you’re paying attention again, and we can continue.

Remember this, and keep your presentation detailed but attention-grabbing. 

You may want to do a graph of your current time spent organising and your expected time spent organising at Member Jungle. 

Don’t just show your committee the price of everything; show them your projected savings.

If your current website is a little out of date, include an image of a Member Jungle made website. To show your committee what they can expect your redesign to look like. 

Take a moment to show off your club's new app. 

Show off how much time you will save with automatic digital membership renewal.

The best thing you can do to help convince your committee is by taking a moment and remembering what convinced you.

Was it the savings breakdown? The ever available IT help? The added and much need data security? The fact that it is an all-in-one system?  

Whatever your answer is, that is what you need to show your committee.  

 

Convincing Your Treasurer 

Your club's treasurer is going to have more than a few questions before they sign off on your new plan. 

We're going to cover the big ones below. 

Most importantly show your treasurer just how much time they can save with Member Jungle. Make show they know that their job is going to get so much easier once they implement this system. 

Numbers. 

Your treasurer is going to want to see all the sums and figures, so show them a full cost breakdown. 

Your treasurer is more likely to agree to this if they can see where your money is being spent, and where you are saving. 

Make sure your treasurer knows that money will never go missing again, with an automated system like Member Jungle’s. Everything is logged, centralised and easy to find. 

Some other things you may want to tell your treasurer about:

• Automatic invoices to members 
• Digital renewal notifications
• You get notified when a member renews their membership
• All payments can be made online
• Manual cash and debit payments work with the system 
• Your money goes straight to your nominated account 
• Sort all transaction data by date, module and transaction type
• All data is exportable straight into their accounting software 
• Online transaction fees can be passed on to the purchaser or absorbed into your prices
• Customise how your transaction fees work

Prove this to them by not just showing them the potential savings, but by showing them the time they will save.  

Explain to them how these automated systems will save them and your members precious time. 

Take Manually sending off renewal letters to your members. Printing the letters, putting them in addressed envelopes and posting them off, would take about five minutes per letter. That’s just over eight hours of work to send off only 100 renewal letters. 

You could be saving massive amounts of time by automating this process. After all, you do all this to enjoy your joint passion, not to do paperwork. 

Unless of course, you are in the Mundane Paperwork Hobby Club. Hey, no judgement here. 

It is also worth pointing out that with Member Jungle's all-in-one system, you’ll be paying one fee for everything. 

No more paying the three different companies that make up your current system. 

 

Treasurer Summary 

Give your treasurer the numbers and provide them with a comprehensive cost breakdown. Let them see the costs and savings for themselves.

The system offers automatic invoicing, digital renewal notifications, and online payments. 

All transaction data is exportable into accounting software.  Online transaction fees can also be absorbed into prices. 

Member Jungles offers a single ongoing fee for all services. Replacing the need for multiple fees from different companies. 

For more information, see Five Things Your Treasurer Wants to Know.

Convincing Your Current Website Manager

There is a good chance that your club’s current website was built and run by someone on your committee. 

Your current website is probably their baby.  They might be more than a little hesitant to hand over the reins to a bunch of outsiders.  So, let’s talk about how you're going to convince your protective website manager to go along with your plan. 

The good news is this shouldn't be too hard. 

Member Jungle offers a range of services that your overprotective website manager is going to love. Member Jungle’s websites are very customisable. Your new Member Jungle site can take the form of pretty much anything you like. 

You could choose our D.I.Y package and let your website manager make a brand-new baby, to cherish and protect. Choose our Member Jungle made option and let a professional web designer put together your new site. 

They will, of course, create a website to your specifications and ideas. So you’ll still get the exact website you want, but with the added professional expertise. 

Does your overprotective manager still want their hands on the wheel? Well, you can add several administrators to your new website. 

With a dedicated IT team, you’ll never have to worry about something going wrong while your one website person is on holiday. Member Jungle also offers free training for you and your committee members, to make sure everyone he needs to manage the website knows how. 

This means that your current website manger won’t be lost when it comes to operating the new system.  

If you decide against a Member Jungle website, our membership management system will help explain how it can work alongside your current website.   See Should I keep my existing website or use the Member Jungle one for more information. 
 

Current Website Manager Summary

If your website manager is hesitant, assure them that we offer customisable website design. So your website manager can build the site themselves.  Or our professional web designer can do it for you. 

Either way, the system is user-friendly, and the IT team are always available to help.
 

What The Average Committee Member Wants To Know

 

Your committee wants to know how your new membership system works and why it is something that they need. 

 

The biggest thing they need to know is just how much easier life can be with a membership management system. Being able to replace your current systems with a single automated all-in-one system like Member Jungle, will make a massive difference in the running of your club. It will save you and all of your committee members so much time an stress. 

With more time and less stress, they can get back to truly enjoying your club.  

Tell your committee that with your new website, they can do a lot on their own, without needing help from anyone else. They can set up, launch, and manage most of the mentioned features, with simple templates to follow.

Though if they ever need help, support from Member Jungle is always available. 

Outline the time and the money they can save by digitising membership renewal with Member Jungle. Remember to use images and infographics to capture and keep attention.

Make sure your committee members know that there is a free 90 trial over Member Jungle, so they can see for themselves. 

Committee Member Summary 

Show your committee how the new membership system will save them and your members’ precious time. 

Your committee can easily set up, launch, and manage most features themselves, with support from Member Jungle always being available. 

Highlight the advantages of digitising the membership renewal process, including potential cost and time savings.

Your Next Steps

You now have all the tools you need to convince your committee of directors that a membership management system is right for your club.You know what to tell them, what to show them and how to do it.

Now go, nail this presentation and get back to enjoying your club. 

For more on this subject check out our post, 7 steps to help convince your committee and for everything else about membership management, go to Member Jungle.