I'd like to take this opportunity to update you on progress with the England Athletics registration scheme.
The registration scheme is a vital ingredient in England Athletics' mission to grow our next generation of champions from the grassroots of a vibrant and dynamic sport. It underpins our mission in two key ways: raising the funds to invest in the development of excellent club, coach and competition structures; and providing the vehicle through which our regions, clubs and competition providers can communicate with athletes, officials and volunteers at all levels.
Before I outline our plans moving forward, I would like to apologise to those of you who experienced delays in receiving membership cards or have received multiple cards. Whilst all of your competing members will have enjoyed the benefits of registration, including the rights to compete in closed events and inter-club competitions and save money on road race entry, we fully recognise that the process hasn't been smooth and that club membership secretaries have been inconvenienced by extra administration work. We have taken a close look at the causes of the problems, the most significant of which has been our over-flexibility in collecting clubs' data; in many cases our Athletics Services staff have been required to re-key data, a process that is both time consuming and inherently inaccurate. Whilst we can't turn back the clocks, we can learn from our mistakes to make things work going forward.
New club membership module
To this end, I am delighted to announce that we will be launching a new club membership module in May 2008. This will enable you to:
1. View and export a complete roster of your club members, including competing members, officials, under 11's, social members and club officers
2. Update your club contact information and build a detailed club profile that will appear on the England Athletics website
3. Add or delete members in a few clicks
4. Allow your members to update their own details and profiles through their own personal login, and opt-in to eNewsletter updates
5. Keep track of whose England Athletics registration fees you have paid
6. Automatically calculate the registration fees due to England Athletics and produce a remittance advice for simple payment
Individuals will receive email confirmation as soon as we receive payment (£5.00 for 2008/9 each over-11 competing member), confirming their membership status and login details. Membership cards will be sent through the post to each individual member within a few weeks.
Transition period
Once the club membership module is launched, we will ask that all clubs use the system for adding members and making payment. The obligation on England Athletics is to ensure that the system is easy to access and very easy to use, and we will be delighted to offer help to clubs in using the system. If you do not have internet access, our regional offices will be available to offer advice.
To facilitate the smooth transition to the new system, there will be a period through which we will not be able to process new member applications, from March 14th until the system goes live. We will use this period to undertake essential database management work, and we would encourage you to ask your members to ensure their own details are fully up-to-date, in particular their email address and their date-of-birth, which is the field, used to distinguish different people of the same name. Existing members will automatically retain their status throughout the duration of the transition period.
What's next?
We will post regular progress updates on the England Athletics website. Once the new module is ready and thoroughly tested, we will write to each club secretary with further details including login information and simple user instructions.
Once again, I would like to thank you for your continued support as we work through this challenging yet exciting transition in our sport and I look forward to supporting you in your club development goals over the coming months and years.
Yours in sport
John Graves
Chairman
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