Part of the rationale of the move to the new website was moving the memberships and renewals online.  This would mean that only members could access the shop and other benefits of being a member.

Last year, it required the Treasurer to list those who had paid, for me to then manually update each entry to say that you had paid and could have access to the shop/members’ only part of website.  Fairly time consuming!

This year, we are slightly more automated in that many of you have now bought your membership online.  However, it has not been without its idiosyncrasies – not least that we are not professional website builders!  Here are a few niggles:

• If you have paid by Standing Order, I will still require the treasurer to confirm that you have paid.  We would be grateful if you could cancel the standing order and from next year please use the automated system.
• Some of you may have received a notice saying that your membership has expired after having paid a subscription.  This is because I manually added you last year.  Please check you have access to the members’ area and if yes, please ignore the automated email.
• If you wish to take out a Joint Membership, please email me with the details of your partner and they can get another log in.
• The website is really clever!  We were completely baffled when it began offering bizarre discounts, only to discover that a box had been ticked to reduce the membership amount on a pro rata basis if you renewed after the 1 October.  That loophole has now been closed, so lucky you if you managed to take advantage of it!

As I mentioned, we’re volunteers and not professional website builders, so please bear with us and if you have any queries, please email [email protected] and we will try to sort it for you.