Our new Membership Website is live!
ASAB Secretary, Dave Shuker, and out-going Membership Secretary, Sue Healy, have built a new membership website hosted by WildApricot. This company provides a wide range of facilities and functions for self-building and running membership websites, and Sue and Dave have created, what we hope will be, an easy and successful platform that will be a significant improvement on our previous website.
What does this mean for me?
We launched the site for all of our members who were due to renew on 1st January 2017. This means that although we have imported all member records, including those of you who are life members or pay by standing-order (or who have already paid for 2017), the website has sent out renewal notices only to those – we hope! – who were due to renew on the 1st. If you receive a renewal email in error, please contact us.
What will I receive?
For those renewing for 2017, you will receive an invoice email detailing the membership dues that are outstanding, and also an email inviting you to visit the website to make an online payment. Importantly, this email will also contain a link to obtain a new password, which you will need to follow first, so as to be able to log-on to the membership website to make your payment. Once you have successfully logged-on, follow the payment instructions, which we hope will be easy to follow. We are using PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account. Instead, click checkout as guest, put in your payment details – and click no to registering with PayPal if you wish – and then press accept. You should be forwarded to an acknowledgment page, and you will also receive an acknowledgement email from PayPal and also from us.
SUMMARY:
(1) An invoice email will be sent from ASAB@wildapricot.org
(2) Concurrently, an email also from ASAB@wildapricot.org will be sent inviting you to renew and also providing details of how to obtain a (new) password. Please obtain a password first.
(3) Follow the link in the email above to log-on, or log-on to the website.
(4) Follow the links to the payment page, and check-out as either a guest or using your PayPal account, whichever you prefer.
(5) You will receive acknowledgment emails from PayPal and ASAB@wildapricot.org.
Are there any possible glitches I should know about?
Possible glitches we do know about following data transfer include:
(1) A few members have accounts as both student and ordinary members. We have tried to prune out those where we can, but if you receive two renewal requests, please ignore the irrelevant one and let us know, so that we can get rid of the old account.
(2) A few names were corrupted during transfer, in particular if umlauts or other diacritics were present. We have tracked down some of those, but I suspect we will have missed others. Please correct your details if there are any mistakes, and please accept our apologies in advance.
(3) A few members do not have correct emails! As such, they will not receive this email! If you know of an ASAB member who has not received this email and the renewal notices, please ask them to contact Anna. This process has reconfirmed to us how important it is for all of us to keep our contact details correct and up-to-date, so if you move institutions, please log-in and update your profile.
What happens if I forget to renew?
If you have not renewed, a reminder email will be sent after 28 days, and after 56 days an email will be sent saying that your membership has lapsed (but can be rescued!). In the future, you will receive two notification emails prior to the renewal email on 1st January 2018, then 2019 etc... and you should be able to renew once you have received those emails. We are looking forward to a more successful programme of automated emails, all being well.
Who is my membership secretary?
Your new Membership Secretary is Dr Anna Wilkinson, who can be contacted here. However, during the transition to the new site don’t be surprised if queries addressed to Anna get answered by Dave Shuker, Sue Healy, or all three of them!