How does your beek association collect its subscriptions?

[The Riviera Kid]

How does your beekeeping association collect its subs?

Our treasurer is getting bogged under with processing payments. People send cheques without indicating who/what it is for or set up bank standing orders with things like "bee subs" as the reference that make them almost impossible to marry up to individual association members or members of the public.

So we're looking at electronic payments.

Aside from the obvious payments services such as Pay Pal and WorldPay, have you had any experience, good or bad, that will help us make a choice?

Does your association use an online payment service provided by a bank, such as Barclays?

Any experience that you can share would be greatly appreciated!

 

[amigadave]

In Norfolk, I pay by bank transfer with a reference that is on the renewal form (surname and postcode). It is also possible to pay by cheque, although in this case the form should be included too. I have not heard any complaints from the treasurer, other than that he now accepts bank transfers because cheque payments alone became too much hassle.
I have used PayPal and Google Checkout before as a seller, and both would work pretty well for simple things, like renewal payments. You can make things more complicated if you allow customisations, but it can be a very easy way to take payments (just watch out for fees).

 

[AndrewD]

My local association use web-collect, I think they may take a percentage but it seems to work OK.

Andrew

 

[The Riviera Kid]

We use bank transfers too though the problem is that a lot of members don't use the reference number. This is particularly the case for older members who are perhaps less familiar with the technology.

I think our treasurer is thinking about some kind of e-form where people are prompted to put in personal details too at the point of payment so as the £££ and the info related to it remain together.

In Norfolk, I pay by bank transfer with a reference that is on the renewal form (surname and postcode). It is also possible to pay by cheque, although in this case the form should be included too. I have not heard any complaints from the treasurer, other than that he now accepts bank transfers because cheque payments alone became too much hassle.
I have used PayPal and Google Checkout before as a seller, and both would work pretty well for simple things, like renewal payments. You can make things more complicated if you allow customisations, but it can be a very easy way to take payments (just watch out for fees).

 

[amigadave]

We use bank transfers too though the problem is that a lot of members don't use the reference number. This is particularly the case for older members who are perhaps less familiar with the technology.

I think our treasurer is thinking about some kind of e-form where people are prompted to put in personal details too at the point of payment so as the £££ and the info related to it remain together.

How good is your webmaster? It is quite simple to use PayPal to send an invoice, but it is a bit harder to do what you're asking. You could do what BIBBA do (just an example, as I went through the membership process recently), which is use a Google Form to collect the membership information (which goes into a Google Docs spreadsheet for easily fetching the details out later on) and then have a simple payment page which takes a membership reference (and do a little bit of verification, as that is quite easy to do):

1. BIBBA membership details
2. BIBBA subscription payments

This is still a bit manual, but it gets more complicated if you want your own form with a payment link as part of the form, assuming that you will want to handle new members, renewals, different payment levels and other complications.

 

[Beefriendly]

Direct debit done automatically each year...works well and the few who don't wish to pay this way are penalised by having to pay an extra few quid.
It does depend on your bank and type of club account. Worth asking about.

 

[madasafish]

Paysubsonline.

Automatic by Paypal..

We still have 4 members offline.. but all new members...have to payonline.
Auto renewal notice, payments...

MUCH easier.

 

[peterbees]

We, C0nwy Beekeepers, have devised an online joining and renewing system, which works well. See http://tinyurl.com/gmnvh73 Feel free to have a look at the online form and make comments. It caters for differing numbers of colonies wanting BDI, and we ask members to indicate if they would be willing to help with various voluntary tasks. Payment is by PayPal.
Members can still pay by cheque if they prefer. We still have to chase late payers.

 

[The Riviera Kid]

Thanks all for those ideas.

I have explained to our trustees that there is no such thing as a free lunch and sooner or later we're going to have to pay for a service *or* do a huge amount of admin...

Lots to think about!

Cheers for taking the time to reply.

Simon.

 

[REDWOOD]

Cash or cheque, I did mention balance transfer but got knocked down by a few on the committee because they believed there would be less members attending the general meetings which I can understand


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[B+.]

In Bedfordshire, all of the above methods are used.
Membership subscription has been £10 for a long time. Since we are not affiliated to the BBKA, there is no need for the extra charge. I suspect that we are probably the cheapest association in the country. At our recent agm, the treasurer mentioned that we have about 400 members so we must be doing something right.
Payments can be made online using any of the usual methods, but also, via cash or cheque at the agm. Technically, our subs are due in Dec/Jan but most people pay at the agm in the third week of February as this is often more convenient if they're attending the agm (which is well supported) anyway. So long as you pay within 3 months (I think that's the right limit) you're still a member and receive all the benefits of membership.