Depending on the club modality, registrations and deletions will be temporary or timeless . What do we mean by this? For example, in a football club, the most common is that when the season ends, several athletes leave the club, while when the new preseason begins, many others sign up. In a triathlon team, on the other hand, there are constantly ups and downs and although it is true that there are times with more movement, you will never be sure of having the “definitive” team.
Managing a membership in a club is a very simple task. All you need is to collect the applicant’s data, receive their express request to want to register with the club and that’s it. In case you have to pay fees, you may need their account number, but as we said, it is something that anyone can do.
Now, the problem is not that it is a very complex task, only within the reach of the brightest minds on the planet. The problem is that, if the process is not well automated, a lot of time can be wasted on each new membership registration . Believe us, we have lived it in our own flesh; Loooong time!
HOW DO MOST CLUBS DO IT?
The club has a document that it sends to the applicant after a previous contact. Email, phone, you knew each other before … whatever. The thing is that there has to be a submission of documentation through an agreed channel.
The applicant must first download the document. Usually in pdf or text document format. Then you have to print it. “And what if I don’t have a printer?” Aaaah, friend, ask your neighbor or go find the nearest stationery store.
Once printed, you have to fill in the documentation manually. “The IBAN? How was it? Pff, I have to go into my online banking to verify it. And what was the password like? ” – Do not think that this is an exaggeration. It is the daily bread.
Fill it up, add a signature and voila! Well not really. “Now I have to scan it. But I don’t have a scanner! ” In these cases there is a trick that I use that works great. There is an app called Camscanner where you can easily scan and create a pdf from a photo you take with your Smartphone.
And finally, once we have it scanned, we have to upload the document, and send it to the club, again, through an agreed channel and which may not be immediate. A form on the web? Email?
The process is over, but only for the new athlete. The person responsible for managing the registration of new members has to receive the documentation, probably print it to have it on file and now the really funny thing begins. You have to fill in the database (usually an Excel file) with the new athlete’s data. By hand! And with a high probability of making a mistake when typing. As if that were not enough, you will probably also have to register the IBAN code to direct the fee or dump the data in some other file apart from Excel itself.
A process that could have lasted 2 days, it has been possible to lose the opportunity for the athlete to register since it is easier for him to do it in another club and it has taken time and effort do what. If this happened one day, nothing would happen. But, when this process is constantly repeated in your day to day, wouldn’t it make more sense to have this process optimized?
Know the typical problems in the registration of members of sports clubs in this post.
HOW DO WE RECOMMEND YOU TO DO IT?
What we suggest is that you have a membership registration form with all the fields required for it. This form can be either on the club’s website, on social networks, or it can simply be shared when there is a request for registration. Remember that it is in digital format and the documentation does not need to be downloaded, printed, scanned, uploaded and resent. Just fill it in and click on “send”.
In this way, the process for the athlete is much faster. However, it does not exempt you, the club manager, from the responsibility of entering all the data manually in each of the documents and platforms that you need for the management, administration and collection of fees.
This problem is solved using Esportter . You can design a form to your liking, adding or removing all the fields that you deem appropriate. Once the new athlete fills in the form, a document will be generated that you can print and this athlete will also be added to your database. In addition, if you have previously established the amount of the fees, the defined amount (For example, € 20 / month) can be automatically charged through the platform.
In this way, you forget about the entire process of registering a new member , that is, adding the data manually and ensuring that each payment is made correctly every month. Esportter charges it automatically and will send you a notification in case any payment is returned or canceled. It’s that simple.
And this is not all. Since the new LOPDGDD (Organic Law on Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights) came into force on December 6, the protection and management of your athletes’ data is more restrictive than ever. Did you know that, for example, without the express consent of each of the athletes in your club, you are not authorized to put them in a WhatsApp group and send them messages? Risking criminal offenses and offenses.
By filling in the form with Esportter , you comply with the new law from day one, since you collect express consent for this purpose, and any other in which the data of your athletes is involved. In our post about the LOPD we tell you the 8 keys that you should know to apply it in your sports club
Optimize your club’s processes. Save time and effort, and add value to athletes. Try it for free at Esportter.
