myClubhouse

Pros: Easy to use and feature rich.

Terrific support from myClubhouse from the initial set-up and importing of historical data to very responsive day to day help.

New members can sign up easily on-line

Auto renewal and on-line payment means that in most cases the process is automated saving the Membership Secretary a huge amount of time and avoiding the need for club mailings.

Included website functionality provides a one stop shop for members.

Event Manager with on-line sign-up and payment.

Cons: There is a steep learning curve initially and on-line help screens and FAQs would help. However, as mentioned previously, the support provided through the service desk is very good.

Overall: After looking at many alternatives it was decided to use myClubhouse as the database for our sailing club.

We have been using the software for 18 months now and have just completed our second renewal period. Renewal notices were sent out automatically and members renewed noticeably quicker than in the past with 80% of these paying on-line, the fees being automatically credited to the club bank account. Fantastic!

Relevant data can now be made available to specified club officers - not only useful for the day to day management of the club but also to provide the committee with valuable information for use in monitoring and planning future developments.

During the second year we migrated our website across to myClubhouse. This was very easy to do and has been very successful.

We have just used the Event Manager for the first time to enable members to sign up for the Annual Dinner. Once again this was very easy to do. Members were able to pay on-line and during the sign-up process were able to select their menu choices. A terrific help to our Social Secretary.

During the coming year we will be piloting the use of the Club Shop for the sale of club merchandise.

myClubhouse is extremely flexible and can be adapted to fit any club set up. They really do seem to have thought of everything. I have no reservations whatsoever in recommending myClubhouse.

Pros: Allowing our members to manage their own registrations, then use MyClubhouse for us to mail individual or bulk emails to them in a way which complies with GDPR requirements.

We also like the fact that different officers of the club, such as a membership secretary and a treasurer, can both access the system to handle both the logistical and the financial aspects of taking on a new member or renewing a membership.

It also allows all our member emails to be logged in one place, accessible to all committee members with the appropriate level of Admin authority.

Cons: The layout is very standardised, with each MyClubhouse home page for different organisations looking similar, with photos occupying a large part of the screen on some displays. It means that it is harder to put simple shortcuts on a convenient part of the home page.

Although about two thirds of our existing and new membership applications have come through the site, about a third seem to have struggled with it and have reverted to sending us hard copy membership forms through the post.

It's our first year, and it's still too early to tell whether this is just teething problems, or will settle down.

As our membership cards are emailed to most members as a PDF it would have been very helpful to have this functionality automated within MyClubhouse, but at the moment I have to edit the card in Word, do a Save as PDF, with MyClubhouse only being used as the vehicle for sending the PDF via email.

Overall: We selected MyClubhouse on the basis of a personal recommendation from an officer of another club, who have used the product successfully for several years. The support team were very helpful with migrating membership data and have been very responsive to any problems I've logged.

We've only been using the system for a couple of months now, and at the moment are still wondering whether or not the benefits of the system were worth the cost we've paid - mainly because of the number of members still opting to apply for membership renewals manually rather than via the system.

After the effort we've already put in to get the system up and running we will persevere, but we may need to give serious consideration whether or not to renew for a second year.

I recognise that in a month or two, once most members have renewed, I may be feeling a lot more positive about MyClubhouse.

Pros: The system is excellent at managing members, and in being flexible enough to be able to mould its processes to suit our organisation. Many other systems that we reviewed did not fit with our registration process or membership model, and were very rigid. myClubhouse enables us to tailor everything exactly the way we need it to be.

An additional key point - not specific to the software, but the customer support is unbelievable. Every request I have ever made to the team at myClubhouse has been picked up immediately and dealt with thoroughly. I wish every software tool that I use was backed by such a dedicated team.

Cons: The one issue we have faced with the system is that making payments for their memberships by our members is not very intuitive. It does successfully deal with some complex challenges, for example grouping payments for totally separate members into a "Family Group" so that a parent can manage all of their children's memberships in one place. However, this has proved to be the one major area where we find ourselves having to give a lot of technical support to our members.

Overall: The myClubhouse tool provides everything we need to enable our not for profit children's football Little League organisation to:

- manage our members in a GDPR-compliant fashion, removing our old paper-based systems

- streamline our registrations process

- provide a much more reliable audit of payments made by members

- dramatically improve our communications to our members

Pros: It's extremely easy to navigate from one section to another e.g. from the events section to the member directory. The screens are uncluttered, making it easy to use the menus and drop down functionality. Searching for peoples' names is very easy even when you don't have the full name or aren't sure of the correct spelling. The event management functionality is great. It's easy for the end user to book on a course or event and to see who else has also booked. It's equally easy to set up and manage an event and apply restrictions, different pricing, set maximum/minimum numbers etc. The software also works well when you need to add some news or flag up an event on the front page of the site.

Cons: The fact that some functionality e.g. the member directory only works with Chrome and not Internet Explorer.

Overall: I was Club Captain for 7 years and used the software in many different ways including managing the club's policies and procedures. Documents are extremely easy and quick to load and also to edit which made my life much easier. The introduction of GDPR could have made caused the club some issues but the developers were quick to make the necessary changes to the software.

Pros: The modern look, the support and ability to add your own content. Easy to get up and running, and talk to the developers to make adjustments.

Cons: It works for those with a 'database' mindset while others struggle so getting others to use it has been a stretch at times. Sometime the terminology can confuse, this is two way and would be a feature with other providers. A user guide or flow charts, for people who like manuals might help. Bulk changes can be a challenge, I.e a block change of a coach.

Overall: Using my clubhouse has enabled us to better manage and track our member subscriptions, allow them to pay on line, automate renewals. Very helpful with feedback and offering new additions.

Pros: The software product is extremely configurable, and has a plethora of options for a vast majority of sporting clubs and activities. Aside from the product, the customer service provided is absolutely second to none!!

Cons: Along with the vast configurability, the application is complicated to set up and takes a while to find where things are in the menus. Although any questions are very promptly answered by the support, it is sorely lacking in any documentation as sometimes a reference guide would be better than having to raise a call for each question.

Overall: Keeping all the members of the club in one place is a huge advantage. Having a portal where members can control their own profile is a huge advantage along with the ability to catagorise Emails automatically. For instance being able to Email people in a certain age range. As member's ages move in and out of the range they are automatically placed in the category.

Pros: It takes away the time consuming drudgery of chasing subscriptions and worry I have forgotten someone. We run quite a few events and the event manager is my favourite feature - I set it up then the attendees do all the rest. We can all simply and clearly communicate status, updates, any restrictions etc.

Cons: navigating from one function to another - I'd like to see a more simple one click additional navigation based on the member

Overall: Excellent. The support staff is so easy to work with and other support staff is always there behind the scenes

Pros: The software does all we want it to do ... and a lot more besides.

It has every feature that you could think of ... and many that you have not thought of.

We use it for pretty basic functions and have not got into all the details (yet).

Best bit - friendly and amazing support - always on hand to help you - quick and friendly.

Cons: I did find it a little hard to get my head around it - always the case with new software - and as this is only a 'part time' thing for me (volunteer members club) the learning curve was as expected. Best bit was the great support.

Overall: EXCELLENT - could not ask for more

Pros: Enabled us to eliminate cash payments for training sessions

Centralised our membership management databases and processes

Simplified the task of setting up bulk events over a long period of time

Made it much easier to start the annual renewal process of our membership

Cons: None really. We might find the odd bug but they are typically fixed very quickly on discovery.

Pros: I like being able to go to specific areas to set up events eg ladies team matches including adding information about dates, times, type of event, whether the event is open to visitors. The system also allows you to check other events happening on the same day.

The way that personal information is stored is useful when needing to contact members eg to promote an event or contact particular members with the system taking you immediately to the email site link tinforma

Cons: Due to the number of steps/levels it sometimes take time to get onto the right page ie more than 3 clicks but this may be due to the way the system was originally set up at the time of its inception

Overall: I use the my clubhouse for tennis club business and it makes arranging events and matches very easy to manage as all the information needed is in one place

Pros: Ease of use. The options are logical and the screens are not too cluttered with small print.

Cons: Can't really think of anything that bad.

Overall: Some members choose not to have their details displayed, so the ability to send them messages from the members area is a very useful facility when arranging matches or events.

As a treasurer it is useful to be able to customise reports from the subscriptions area and export the output into a CSV file for use in a spreadsheet.

Pros: It allows you to easily manage the membership of your club: you can search for individuals, categories, you are reminded when renewals are due, you get alerts when potential members ask for information

Cons: It can have temporary glitches but the executives are always helpful

Pros: Everything you need relating to the club and its organisation is all in one place. The software is easy on the eye and the features are comprehensive.

Cons: Sometimes the number of features is too comprehensive!

Overall: myClubhouse makes all the admin tasks we committee members have to do so much easier and more organised.

Pros: Easy to use and the support has been great, willing to change or edit as well as train us.

Cons: Our site is developing so any aspects that we are not happy with we look to improve.

Overall: A really important asset to a sports club, making it easier for club members to organise events, as well as sharing and communicating with the members.

Pros: Easy and straightforward to use. Can see upcoming events at a glance. Lots of useful features such as being able to pay directly for events, and with a clear history of what events I've attended. Easy to change your communication preferences. Good club directory so I can easily contact other members. Good to have all documentation in one place for everyone to be able to access.

Cons: I haven't encountered any problems as a user of the software or any features that I feel are lacking.

Overall: Super easy to use.