Most Europa Club members should by now have received EF44 and seen my
piece announcing my retirement as Membership Secretary. Unfortunately
it got a bit truncated, so I am posting it here in its entirety, to
help anyone who might be considering volunteering as my successor.
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY JOB
With the intention of devoting my time more single-mindedly to
getting my Europa finished and flying, I have decided that it is time
for me to retire as Membership Secretary. I have been in the job
since Autumn 1995, when I took over from founder members Ron & Kath
Swinden. I was still in full-time work, although anticipating
retirement the following year. The biggest and most tedious part of
the job then was stuffing the newsletters into envelopes, addressing
and posting them. Now, that is all delegated to a professional
printing house. The job has become much more varied, with time spent
on keeping track of Europa-related matters and people worldwide, as
well as banking and posting stuff. My database for maintaining all
the information has grown from the 3 tables that Ron sent to me (not
as an e-mail attachment - direct modem-to-modem using XMODEM!) to a
complex system of over 30 tables inter-related in many complex ways.
I have set myself the task, by the 2005 AGM, of improving the human
interface so that it can be run by anyone, without any special
database programming knowledge. As an earnest of my faith in its
robustness, I will undertake to carry out any future maintenance
needed on the database.
The Membership Secretary needs to be a signatory to the Club bank
account, and so will need to be a UK resident. I believe that a
minimal level of computer and internet competency is also a
pre-requisite. From my own experience, it might be easier for a
retired person who is already flying their Europa to do this work -
but we won't turn away a young firebrand in full-time work looking
for a challenge! As with most people in the Committee, the job has
become what I have made of it, and I have taken on or created some
aspects that may not need to be done, or at least may not need to be
done by the same person. To help members consider whether they should
think about volunteering for the job, here are the aspects I consider
to be central to the Membership Secretary job:
Maintain the register of paid-up members, ensuring that address and
other details are kept up-to-date, and that memberships are lapsed
when subscriptions are not paid on time.
Maintain records of payments received by cheque, credit card or
standing order, keeping them associated correctly with the paying
member.
Pay into the Club's bank account, or pass to the treasurer, all
payments received.
Send a welcome pack (including Hints & Tips, list of Members,
newsletter index, latest newsletter(s), membership badge and form
confirming all details) to each new member upon joining.
Provide addressing information or labels as required to the printer
of the newsletter, and to other Committee members wishing to
communicate with the Club membership.
Create membership renewal reminders to go out with the March
newsletter each year.
Maintain the Members-only access mechanism on the Club website.
Keep the stock of newsletter back issues and sell to members as required.
Respond to requests about joining the Club by sending an information
pack (including a brief description of the Club and its Officers, a
copy of the current Constitution, an application form and a Rescue
Service form) by e-mail or on paper as appropriate.
Distribute the list of Rescue Service volunteers to all Committee
members at least 4 times a year.
Report to, and attend, the 4 Committee meetings required to be held each year.
Report to the Club AGM.
Keep records of expenses incurred in connection with Committee duties
and submit claims to the Treasurer.
Many of the above tasks are handled completely, or at least
supported, by automated aspects of the membership database system. I
am hoping soon to incorporate online clearing of credit-card
payments, thus reducing the need for physical visits to the bank. If
you think that you could tackle the work listed above, then please
get in touch with me (or any Committee member) to discuss it in more
detail without obligation. I intend to prepare fuller descriptions of
the tasks to help potential candidates assess the scope of their
commitment. Prior to the AGM, the Committee will be discussing the
list of other things that I presently do, to see which might be done
by other people, or which might be discarded altogether without
detriment to the operation of the Europa Club.
I have enjoyed being your Membership Secretary. I volunteered for not
entirely altruistic reasons, thinking that being in this position
would ensure that I had good access to information that would help me
avoid mistakes on my own project. That has certainly proved true, but
I have tried to be unselfish, and to ensure that no member is at a
disadvantage because of lack of information. There have been some
"exciting" times, and I have had the chance to meet and talk with
some very significant people in the worlds of aviation and
engineering. The Committee has always supported me and kept me on the
rails when I was in danger of going off at right-angles to
everything. I hope the new incumbent will find that it's interesting,
it's fun (well some of the time at least), and that they will make as
many friends as I have in the doing of it.
regards
Rowland
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| Rowland Carson Europa Club Membership Secretary - email for info!
| Europa 435 G-ROWI (750 hours building) PFA #16532
| e-mail <memsec@europaclub.org.uk> website <www.europaclub.org.uk>
|