Opportunity to volunteer as Membership Secretary

Our current Membership Secretary, Brenda Tonkin, will shortly be standing down and we urgently need to find another member willing to volunteer for this critical role.

You probably already know that the Membership Secretary is the first port of call for new membership enquiries. They make sure the club’s membership database is constantly updated, which means that everyone – old and new members alike – has access to the court booking system and club communications. Perhaps the biggest responsibility for the role is providing the full back office for the annual membership renewals process, including communications, and tracking and reconciling members’ subscriptions. Throughout the year, the Membership Secretary monitors membership trends, from which recommendations can be made for subscription rates for the coming year and advice can be provided to the committee on the likely implications, such as our ability to fund planned improvements and potential pressures on court availability, etc.

The duties of the Membership Secretary include:

- dealing with all matters relating to annual membership renewal;
- maintaining the membership database;
- keeping the website up-to-date with current membership rates;
- processing membership applications;
- preparing reports to support committee meetings and the AGM;
- responding to emails;
- maintaining the wait list.

Currently, fulfilling these responsibilities takes around four hours a week on a routine basis and something like 10-15 hours a week during membership renewals (which could be reduced if all members used the automatic payment system!). There is probably some scope for further automation of routine tasks but one of the attractions of the role is the high degree of personal contact it affords with the club’s members.

Brenda will be available over the next few months to support a successful transition.

If you are interested in finding out more, please email me at shepherdclive@me.com or speak to me or Brenda if you see us at the club.

Clive
Secretary