@GlasgowFinn as a fellow club secretary I would advise you not to underestimate the amount of work a membership of 140 can generate. My club is +/- 190. As it's raining I'll probably spend 3-4 hours on club admin this morning!!!
We moved to the BC system three years ago. While I will happily make exceptions 100% of sign ups and renewals are now via BC. It is an entirely painless process for both members and administrators. If alternatives are advertised people will use them, if there is a genuine need for an exception those concerned will contact you and you can help out.
There are many benefits to the BC system:
- GDPR responsibility is with BC as the data collector
- All member data is secure
- Members enter their own data eliminating potential error when you transfer data from a form to spreadsheet
- Huge time savings. 140 forms to issue, receive, process, chase up, data input, file and store? I'd wager 15 minutes per member, that's 35 hours, a full working week.
- Coordinating all the different payments, banking, cash handling etc. eliminated.
- Renewal reminders can be generated from BC for any number of members you wish. Chasing up is simplified - it takes a great deal of time to chase the "I'll do it tomorrow" brigade. Keep in mind unpaid renewals could have insurance implications
- BC send a statement and payment monthly
- Your membership do not have to join BC
- The cost is £1 per person. A secretary can't match that cost
Those are the key benefits. You can download all the data to your spreadsheet at the click of a button.
One potential pitfall, and this happens every year, one or two members will accidentally join BC! If you have members with race licenses make it clear they must renew those in December and not when renewing club membership.
Obviously you will need a transition period but I'd suggest this only needs to be one year. The whole process presumes everyone has/is web savvy. Everything we do is electronic, your situation may be different.