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Houston Area Traditional Dance Society

Houston Area Traditional Dance Society

Board Handbook: Membership Coordinator

Many thanks to Kendall Rogers, who originally wrote this detailed guide.

Some procedures mentioned are subject to the whim of the Board of Directors and may not be currently applicable. The most likely changes are

  • emailing rather than printing and snail-mailing documents,
  • not issuing free dance certificates, and
  • requiring all membership registrations and payments to be done online.

Overview

The HATDS Membership Coordinator is tasked with managing the HATDS member roster data and communications regarding membership. This entails performing several general ongoing responsibilities as well as generating some specific products at certain times of the membership year.

The HATDS membership year begins September 1 of each calendar year. Registration opens for the upcoming membership year on August 1, allowing renewing members the entire month of August to renew early. New memberships taken during August take effect immediately as well as applying to the new membership year.

However, registration is closed for July. This allows the webmaster the month of July to make any needed adjustments to the online tools and prevents new members from paying for less than one month of membership.

Membership Coordinator Requirements

  • Must able to generate printed documents. Owning a printer is not mandatory, as there are retail printing services commonly available. However, these services incur costs.
  • Must have secure internet access to access the membership database.
  • Will need to work well with the webmaster, who owns the database, tools and files. The coordinator merely curates the data in the database using said tools.
  • Does not need to be a board member, but needs to be a trustworthy, responsible person who should attend dances frequently.

Useful Tools and Accesses

  • Word Processor and Spreadsheet Program
    • Membership data is stored on HATDS servers in comma-separated value (.csv) format, which is easily read by a spreadsheet program such as LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel.
    • The mail merge feature of office software is useful for creating address labels and such for mailings.
  • HATDS’ online registration and roster editing tools
    • New coordinators should communicate with the webmaster for information and/or training.
    • Download current and past membership data.
    • Enter or edit current membership data.
    • Download reports including
      • a list of members for dance sign-in,
      • emails only, and
      • roster data with Do Not Publish fields redacted.

Membership Products

The membership coordinator is in charge of creating or assembling two annual products:

  • a renewal reminder letter that is printed and (e)mailed in July, and
  • if the Board so chooses: printed free dance certificates for members who join or renew at or before the first contra dance of the membership year. These are usually created and mailed by early October.

In addition to the annual products, the membership coordinator must produce a roster tow to four times a year and name badges as needed throughout the year.

It is recommended that a copy of the roster, renewal letter, and dance certificate be placed in the HATDS DropBox Membership subfolder for future reference. Previous years’ documents are available for review, and may be used as a guide or template for future years.

Membership Roster

The membership coordinator produces the roster as a PDF document, makes it available to the mailing list volunteer, and puts a copy in Dropbox. The listmaster will upload the PDF to a secure storage area and email the link to the members.

The roster

  • includes address, phone and email information for all adult members, except as requested by the members at registration.
  • must exclude any information that the members have elected not to have published. This information is stored in the database.
  • excludes members under 18 years of age.
  • includes a statement that the roster is for personal, non-commercial, and non-political use only.

The first roster of the new membership year is usually created and distributed in October. Others follow every three or four months after that or whenever the board decides.

The following sections may no longer apply. Until a firm decision is made by the board, they remain but are grayed out.

Membership Renewal Packets

The membership renewal packets are mailed to current members at the beginning of August. One packet is sent to each membership address. The packet content must be developed and sent to the HATDS Board with enough lead time for proofreading, review and approval prior to being assembled and mailed. Each packet contains the following items:

  • Renewal Letter: A brief, friendly letter to the current members, reminding them to renew their membership. This letter should:
    • Remind the members of what HATDS brings to them
    • Give instructions for available renewal methods, including web instructions and the HATDS mailing address. (P.O. Box)
    • Remind members of HATDS volunteer needs and opportunities
    • Include a listing of the HATDS Board of Directors (names and positions)
  • Membership Form: A paper form that may be filled in by hand and either mailed in with payment or brought in person to a dance.
    • No longer the preferred method of registration, but is still in use.
    • Indicates the amount of the dues to be paid.
    • Members should be encouraged to enter their own data using the online registration form, even if they pay with cash or check. That way the coordinator will not have to read and manually enter handwritten information into the HATDS membership database.

Free Dance Certificates

The Board sometimes elects to issue a free dance certificate for each member whose registration is received at or before the first regular contra dance of the new membership year. Typically we issue one certificate per adult member. Each certificate admits one adult to any one regular dance during the current membership year. This may be a contra dance or an English country dance. The certificates are transferable, i.e. they may be used to admit any adult, not just the member to whom the certificate was issued. These may not be used for special events such as Bayou Bedlam.

These certificates are to be generated and mailed by early October. This allows ample time for all mailed registrations to be taken into account, while still allowing members most of the membership year to utilize them.

It is suggested that something simple, such as a sticker, be affixed to each certificate mailed. This will help ensure that a copy is not accepted for entry. This helps with accounting as well.

Name Badges

The Membership Coordinator must create, in as timely a fashion as possible, name badges for new HATDS members, as well as replacement badges for current members as needed. HATDS owns a laminator and supplies for such, and this equipment is entrusted to the coordinator.

To create name badges:

  1. Using the HATDS nametag template found in the DropBox folders and your word processor's Mail Merge feature, create a document with a nametag for each member who needs one.
  2. Print this document onto business card paper.
  3. Separate the cards and laminate each badge.
  4. Let laminated cards cool before affixing magnet.
  5. With a 2-piece magnetic badge holder affix the metal strip portion to the back of the laminated badge. The magnetic portion will cling to the metal strip.

Advise the Supplies Manager when additional laminating supplies or magnets are needed.

Ongoing Responsibilities

The Membership Coordinator must perform some simple tasks on an ongoing, as-needed basis, such as:

  • Maintain the membership database.
  • Make name badges for new members, as well as any needed replacement badges for current members.
  • Work with the Treasurer to ensure that dues paid by cash or check are handled correctly.
  • Maintain the HATDS laminating machine and supplies.

Membership Database Maintenance

The Membership Coordinator must enter and edit member information as needed to keep the HATDS membership database up to date. The bulk of this will be done during the months of August and September at the beginning of the membership year, but the coordinator should be prepared to handle new memberships throughout the year.

Online Registration via PayPal

Most membership registrations are performed online, and the dues are collected automatically via the PayPal service. In these cases, the coordinator receives an email notification, and no additional work is required.

Register Online, Pay in Person

In some cases, members complete the online registration form, but pay in person. In these cases, the information is stored separately on the HATDS server, and can be retrieved later by the coordinator via the online tools. Once payment has been received, the coordinator must:

  1. Retrieve the pending data.
  2. Record the amount and method of payment along with any other details such as donation amount.
  3. Submit the record to the database.

In-Person Renewals

In the case of in-person membership renewals, the procedure is similar to the above, except that the data is pulled from the previous year’s record. Also, sometimes minor changes, such as a new phone number or email address, may be indicated by the member.

The steps are:

  1. Retrieve the previous year’s data for the member.
  2. Make any changes that the member requested.
  3. Record the amount and method of payment, et cetera.
  4. Submit the record to the database (for the new/current membership year).

Handwritten Registration

In the case of new memberships with fully handwritten registration forms, the coordinator must be very careful to correctly enter the data provided. The steps are:

  1. Manually type in the membership data provided
  2. Record the amount and method of payment, et cetera
  3. Submit the new record to the database.

Changes and Corrections

Occasionally there are changes to emails, phone numbers, addresses that should be reflected, or typographical errors to be corrected in the membership database. These changes can be simply applied using the online editing tools.