The Newcomers Club is off to a strong start in 2020 with the Chili Cook-off completed and the winners bragging till next year; stay tuned for the Chef’s and People’s Choice winners. Next event is the May 30th “Whisky Tasting” hosted by Ken Kastner and Eva Kosztarab on Waterway Drive (no worries, there’ll be wine too). Other events under consideration by the board for 2020 include a Poker Night, Raft-up-and-Swim, a Halloween Party, and the return of the famous (or infamous) Barge Party!
As of late February, the Newcomers Club numbers 63 households, totaling 110 individual members and GROWING! For the last several years, the Board, made up of volunteers, managed the membership database and event ticket sales using a combination of spreadsheets, Gmail, Evite, and PayPal. For 2020, the LBNC board unanimously decided to embark upon a trial of an all-in-one membership management software. The Wild Apricot software we chose is a cloud-based solution that promises to help us develop a more accurate membership database, automate membership renewal notices, integrate invites and ticket sales for our events, and provide a mobile-friendly website for the club. Our new website can be found at https://lakebarcroftnewcomersclub.wildapricot.org.
We migrated our membership data into Wild Apricot and sent all current members an email welcoming them to the LB Newcomers Club site and providing instructions for setting up their new password. This email came from LakeBarcroftNewcomersClub@wildapricot.org; please check your spam filters if you are a current member and did NOT receive the invitation email. While we tried to scrub our membership data for accuracy prior to migration, we are sure there are errors or missing information. Fortunately, the Wild Apricot system provides a capability for members to correct their own contact information. Once logged in, members can view their profile by clicking on their name at the top right of the page. If corrections are needed, simply click “Edit profile.”
The Wild Apricot system allows us to continue our practice of offering Household memberships through a feature called “Bundles.” Each Household membership is required to have a bundle administrator. We designated a bundle administrator for your household based on our past interactions with members. We are happy to change the administrator for your household, but this feature can only be performed by a club administrator. Simply send an email to LBNewcomers@gmail.com and we will change your bundle administrator.
We appreciate the patience (and very helpful feedback) that everyone has shown as we migrate to this new software and continue to learn how to use it. We used the new site for ticket sales to the Chili Cook-off and so far, found it to be a time saver for management of RSVPs and ticketing. We have also had several new members successfully join the club via the web application. The option for PayPal and/or check payment is available as a fall back until we are all more comfortable with the new system. As always, for questions about the Newcomers Club, events, and opportunities to volunteer with the club, please email LBNewcomers@gmail.com.
