Changing your club’s software: a committee’s checklist

Before you look at anything new

• Write down the ten jobs your office does most often. A new system is judged on those, not on its feature list.
• List every place member details are kept today: the main system, spreadsheets, the email tool, the booking sheet.
• Find out who holds the logins and the administrator password for each one.
• Check what your current contract says about notice, and the date it renews.
• Ask your federation what it needs from you each year, and whether that depends on any particular system.
• Agree who decides. One person leads, the committee approves.

Get your records out first

• Export the full member list with membership type, start date, expiry date and family links.
• Export payment history for at least the last two financial years.
• Export future bookings and any that repeat weekly.
• Save copies somewhere the committee controls, not on one person’s computer.
• Note anything that cannot be exported. Decide whether to retype it or leave it behind.

Questions to ask every supplier

• Who brings our records across, and what does it cost?
• What does it not do? Ask for the list.
• What do we pay in total in a year, including payment fees and add-ons?
• If we leave, what can we take with us and in what form?
• Where is our members’ information kept, and who can see it?
• Who do we ring when something is wrong, and when are they there?
• Can we talk to a club like ours that uses it?

Choose your moment

• Avoid the six weeks either side of renewals.
• Avoid finals, the club championship and your busiest function month.
• Allow a month where both systems run side by side.
• Plan for the person leading it to be available for that month.

The month you change

• Check ten members you know well in the new system: fees, family, expiry date.
• Check the total owed to the club matches the old system on the same day.
• Have two office people and one committee member do their ten jobs before members are let in.
• Tell members twice: two weeks before and on the day. Say what changes for them in three lines.
• Keep the old system readable for a full year. Someone will need to look something up.

Afterwards

• Close the old logins and cancel the old contract in writing.
• Write down how the new system is set up and who the administrators are.
• Put it in the committee handover pack so the next committee inherits it.