Membership… It might seem early but experience has proved that it can take over 6 months to pry a tenner out of some people and this year I had to go to some fairly extraordinary lengths to steer people away from loosing their GLUG accounts as some people can testify! This coming year I’m hoping for a slicker process which is why I’m starting a little early.

Apparently, and this was news to me, the club’s financial year runs to 30^th November and thus membership does to. Which doesn’t make any practical difference as January is when we start with the heavy-handed tactics!

As those of you who have seen the minutes of our last meeting will know, the committee has set some deadlines and this post is the first step in making sure I don’t need to disrupt too many people’s access to the website.

Important Dates
1^st December – Beginning of GLUG financial and membership year
15^th January – Preferred date for membership Standing Orders to be processed
31^st January – Web accounts for anyone who hasn’t renewed become suspended
28^th February – Web accounts for anyone still not renewed are deleted

A recap of Standing Orders; Two years ago the club moved towards SOs as the preferred method of payment for memberships to reduce the risks of collecting substantial quantities of cash at meetings and to reduce the amount of chasing necessary to get members to pay. Following some teething problems the system has more or less settled down.

There remains a problem however with when these actually get processed as there seems to be a spread of about 6 months between the first SO and the last. This makes verifying membership payments a headache hence why the committee has now set an official date for SOs. Why the 15^th? Well because apparently there can be issues with payments on the 1^st which is of course a bank holiday so a date in the middle seems safer.

In order of preference (most to least) here are the payment methods on offer:

• Standing Order
• Bank Transfer
• Cheque
• Cash
• Payment Gateway (Currently AlertPay)!

I know that some people will be thinking about how much hassle changing their SO will be and so on. Please be assured for most people it’s simple and quick and I’ll guide everyone through this step by step.

So that everyone knows where they stand currently, I’ve added 2 fields to the end of the profile page on the site.

For the benefit of some on the committee: That’s the ‘ugly’ profile page in the ‘unfriendly’ part of the site… not the one with the slideshow and links to gaydar! No honestly, it does exist!

The two fields show your current payment method and for SOs and bank transfers, the transaction date. Please note that the date will not accurately reflect the 2010 processing date if your SO was setup during 2009.

For those with SOs who also have access to online banking, adjusting the processing date of the SO to 15^th January should be a simple and quick task. Once you have made that alteration please also adjust the date field on your profile accordingly and save the change by clicking on the ‘update profile’ button.

Anyone with a SO set to operate in January who can’t alter it via online banking can leave it as it is however those with SOs which operate after January who can’t make the adjustment are asked to contact me for advice.

If you don’t have a SO established then the good news is its simple to do. Online banking allows you to set one up in seconds, here are the required details:

Account number: xxxxxxxx
Sort Code: xx-xx-xx
Payee: G.L.U.G
Reference: YOUR NAME <– THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
Frequency: Annually
Duration: Until further notice
Date: 15/01/2010
Amount: £10

If you don’t have online banking then you can download a SO form here, fill it in and take it to your bank.

If you set up a new SO please let me know by email so I can adjust the method field (it’s locked!).

For those who don’t wish to setup a SO the other options remain available.

The details above are valid for bank transfers but PLEASE remember to set the reference to be your name otherwise it is impossible to match your payment!

Cheques can be posted to:

GLUG
144 Don Phelan Close
Camberwell
London
SE5 7DB

And with the current state of the postal service cheques posted now might just arrive in time!

You can of course cross my palm with gold at any club meeting including the AGM.

And should anyone wish to pay via AlertPay you can by clicking here: AlertPay – GLUG Membership

In due course I will be adding code to the welcome page to show you your membership status and personalize the advice given to avoid having to issue endless blanket post like this.

As always, please keep your profile up to date and if you have any questions or queries please do drop me a line and I’ll assist as best I can.

Mark
(Webmaster & Membership Secretary)