SSA Club Workshop @ Royal Victoria Recap

See the full article for the report on the session held on the 5th of February at Royal Victoria Yacht Club.

SSA Club Workshops - How Software Can Increase Participation

Royal Victoria YC 5 February 2015, with Royal Solent SC, Gurnard SC, and Yarmouth SC.

Record of Main Points Raised

• Smartphone access to systems is important and needs to be made more prominent. For example most members do not seem aware of the DutyMan smartphone web app.
• SMS for reminders and announcement of duties and events should be considered again (few clubs showed interest in past). Drawback of SMS is cost of few pence per message, perhaps instant messaging eg Facebook Messenger would be better.
• A sailor's 10th session is very hard to define, more guidance from RYA would be useful. Also more advice on how the gathered data is stored and used.
• Environmental data could be stored about events, eg weather conditions. Relevant to levels of participation.
• Credit card handling fees (eg PayPal ~3%) are an issue for some clubs. Others see the % charge as a more efficient option than cheque or BACS handling. Some have found DD too costly and difficult.
• Payment methods must be easy, for members and clubs.
• Logins are a challenge for many members. We all need a lot of IDs and passwords these days but there is often little incentive for members to log in to their club's systems.
• Smartphone Apps could help but there would need to be a benefit to the member for using them. Ideas include entry in raffle for prizes, reduction in pricing, other free stuff.
• Important for membership systems to be able to work with access and till systems. WRS and Stockade seem popular.

Source

This record was compiled from notes taken by the presenters. See also the slide-pack here:

http://goo.gl/S1L11Y

Contact the Sailing Software Alliance here:

http://sailingsoftwarealliance.org/

Attendees

Keith Walker RVYC

Michael Hook RVYC

Steve Sheridan RVYC

Peter Eddis RVYC

David Fox Royal Solent YC

Adrian Hudd Royal Solent YC

Mike Peddar Gurnard SC

Mike Acton Gurnard SC

Chris Hobday Gurnard SC

Nick Measor Yarmouth SC

John Barber Sailing Club Software

Jeremy Pocock Sailing Club Manager

Jon Eskdale Sailwave

Richard Creer Sailing Club Software

16/2/2015 13:41