Over the last 2 years CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch has grown in leaps and bounds, we’ve blasted through the 1000 individual member mark and are on track to pass 1500 by the end of the year. With this kind of growth some of our systems have been stretched to the limit and I apologise if any of you have experienced problems receiving your membership cards. It’s important to remember that CAMRA BC is 100% volunteer run so the executive have to fit it in around our lives; consequently we appreciate your patience, we really do want to have you as members!
When CAMRA BC first started membership was managed on the back of an envelope, then a spreadsheet, then an online database which was maintained by successive membership secretaries up to our current long-suffering membership guy Brad Ola Tollefsen.
For the last few months we’ve been looking at various options for managing our membership more effectively. Step 1 was completed in the spring with the launch of our sexy new membership cards which have so far been rolled out to Fraser Valley, Powell River and South Fraser Branches. Now I’m please to announce that Phase 2, a dedicated membership database has been designed, built, populated and launched. It was put together by CAMRA BC member Peter Czimmerman, Secretary of the Vancouver Southsiders and freelance genius who has integrated it into our website.
Existing members don’t need to do anything just yet, once your membership is up for renewal you’ll receive an automatic email from us asking you to register with the new membership site where you can check your contact details are correct and then renew with just a few clicks. You can register anytime, just go to http://members.camravancouver.ca/user/login and put the email address you have registered with CAMRA and click “forgot your password“, this will generate an email for you to reset your password and you’re in!
Once you are registered you can update your contact info anytime, previously you would have had to email Brad but now you can do it all yourself! New members can register on the site anytime and it is also mobile device enabled meaning you can join or renew from a smartphone or tablet anywhere.
As a part of the process we’ve had to clean up all the membership information, so there have been some changes to membership numbers but on the whole we’ve kept as many as possible. And of course CAMRA BC won’t share your data with anyone, ever.
If it’s as successful as we hope then we’d like to roll it out to all the branches to use.
Again, the system is new and bound to have a few bugs so if you come across any problems just let Brad or myself know!
Cheers
Adam Chatburn,
President, CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch
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