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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Take Your Club to the Web

If the idea of a crafting or collectors club makes you think of dusty community centers and corny newsletters, you’re stuck in the wrong century. Today, even small clubs can look professional, run smoothly, and grow membership at the click of a mouse.

“Access to the Web makes some club paperwork obsolete, and geographical barriers easy to break,” says Dan Ehrmann, co-creator of ClubExpress ( http://www.clubexpress.com/ ), Internet-based software to help manage and expand associations and clubs. “Most Americans belong to at least one membership organization, and today everybody has access to a computer.”

That means Teri in Tucson can start a Schnauzer club with Peter in Poughkeepsie, even if they don’t share the same zip code.

ClubExpress has a straightforward, streamlined sign-up process, so anyone can register a club in five minutes or less—easy enough for Grandma’s knitting circle to try. And Grandma gets a customized website, too, with easy member sign-up, communications tools, dues collection by credit card, event calendar, unlimited photos, even the ability to survey members.

Online club management makes running a club almost as easy as belonging to one. Treasurers and secretaries can spend less time on paperwork and more time building model airplanes or reading book lists like every other member. “Officers can go back to enjoying the club they joined,” says Ehrmann. “As we say: more passion, less paperwork.”

Less paperwork means more members volunteering to organize committees and special projects.

ClubExpress has helped improve clubs as diverse as the Fairlane Club of America (a car club with 3400 members worldwide), mothers’ play groups, sporting clubs, realtor associations, plus local, regional, and national professional and trade groups.

Today’s technology is at your fingertips. Any service club, association or fraternity struggling to increase meeting attendance, or losing touch between monthly newsletter mailings needs to take this step into the 21st century.

Photos

ClubExpress provides unlimited storage for digital photos, at no extra charge! Any member can upload photos taken at club or association events, or photos of their collectible items (if this module is enabled) or photos which are attached to discussion forum messages.

Photos are automatically stored in three resolutions:

• Full resolution of the original digital camera. An uncompressed image from a 5 megapixel camera generally uses between 2.5 and 3.5 megabytes. This image is suitable for printing, even at poster sizes.
• Reduced and compressed image, suitable for display on a computer screen.
• Thumbnail version, suitable when multiple photos are displayed in a grid.

Photos are organized into libraries which you define. Each photo is stored with a title, caption, photographer’s name and date the photo was taken. You have the option of allowing or blocking the download of hi-res photos.

About ClubExpress:
ClubExpress is powerful Internet-based software to help manage and grow a club, association or service organization of any size. ClubExpress was developed by Gembrook Systems, LLC, a software development firm that has been in operation for 20 years. ClubExpress is located at 5005 Newport Dr. Suite 203, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008. For more information, please call 866.457.2582.