Association Insight International & European Association Insights Winter 2015 | Page 37

Association Insights Association Success Story NETWORK Activities continued 4. Improved membership renewal process » Members are now automatically moved from one member category to another at renewal time To change membership categories (from student to Early Career Scientist to Full member) members would have to contact us and let us know that they were no longer a student or an Early Career Scientist. We would also rely on their honesty to let us know when they were no longer eligible for the student fee and all the benefits related to that category such as grants. The new CRM system has been customized so that members are now moved automatically from one membership grade to another, based on their PhD graduation date. At the point of joining as a student or Early career scientist member, members will have to provide documentation confirming their PhD graduation date. The system would therefore offer the Early Career Scientist member category at renewal point for students that have reached their graduation date, and will offer the Full Membership category to Early Career Scientists who reached 5 years since they graduated from their PhD. » Members are able to change membership category online SEB offers multi-year options for all the membership categories. To change their membership from an annual to a multi-year one and vice-versa members would have to contact the SEB office to do so. The new system has now been customized to offer the ability to change to relevant multi-year membership options online when you wish to renew. The system only offers the multi-year option that the member is eligible for (i.e. if the member is a student and due to graduate in 3 years’ time the system will offer them only the student 3 year option and not the student 5 years option). This has improved the renewal experience significantly for members and removed many barriers for them to renew. » Email Automation The Automated Email Feature means that correspondence has been created to welcome new members to the Society provide them with their membership details automatically upon approval of membership application. Order confirmation emails are also automatically sent to members upon renewing their membership. In addition renewal correspondence (i.e. renewal reminders and notices) has also been automated and is now sent by the CRM system with no input required from staff » Discounts Discounted Price Feature means that an Early Bird Renewal Rate has now been introduced for those who renew before their membership is due to expire. In addition discounted rates have been introduced for Direct Debit payers as an incentive for opting into a recurring method of payment. » Moved from fixed to rolling membership renewal model The SEB membership year used to run on a fixed basis from 1 October to 30 September. Therefore regardless of when the member would join they would have to pay the full member rate (no pro rata available) and their annual membership would only be valid until the 30th September. This used to be a source of discontent for some members. The new features available on the new system as well as the reduced administration time allowed us to move to a rolling renewal membership model. As a result www.associationsnetwork.org Winter 2015 | 37