Hi
Ok i'll try and answer a few questions, knowing half of nowt about computers, but a fair amount about club admin and a bit about people i'll give it a go!
Firstly the folk doing this are just members like you trying to do their bit - putting something back in I know we all do - just this is a little more complicated than putting the track out at the club
Your membership subs don't buy you a service Clubs don't work like that, just somebody has volunteered to do something on your behalf, as effectivly we're all responsible for all of it.
But some of it is down to YOU to do - this is a Club, read on..
Anyway onto the 'Website'
Well firstly it's not, not really.
What it actually is is a Membership Management System and take it from somebody who's a total technophobe it does it very well indeed for the vast majority.
There are litterally hundreds of people using it every day with no problems what-so-ever.
So i'll try to give you some help on why there's obviously a few of you having problems.
Firstly
EVERY current member has a ID already, you just might not know what it is.
So if you were a member in 2011 and don't know your ID & password don't try and creat a new profile it won't let you as it'll think you're a duplicate and say 'No'.
Do drop the website an email and ask for your details and they'll be sent across -
this is in the instructions BTW.
Secondly
If you have sent an email and not got a response, get in touch by a quick phone call. We all know how much junk we receive into our inbox's well multiply that by a thousand and you get the idea of what lands with the membership secretary.. add onto that the spam that some of the email providers insist on taking onto the stuff we send and you can (or should) understand why email can go adrift.
(to give you an idea as Treasurer I get around 100 emails a day..)
Next bit
The systems built into the admin tools check all the data submitted for accuracy and duplicates, and will dump anything that it can prove is wrong, having spent a bit of time with the membership secretary there are numerous ways that folk get this wrong, but to give you an idea:-
People don;t know where they live.. honestly... i've seen imaginary counties, non-existant postcodes, addresses with entire lines missed out, you would not belive the duff info sent in.
Hand up the people who gave some dosh to their club secretary and said 'same as last year'. Is it? Is it really? Did they ask? Did you check?
There are numerous people who's cards will go to their old address because it's not been altered.
Finger trouble - things get transposed wrong, people change, handwritting that's perfectly legible to person A is totally different to Person B..
Lastly you would not belive how many people lose their logon info - use something easy to remember for heavens sake and do remember it's case specific..
So assuming we're now logged onto the website!
Click on 'View Account' and check it.
Is the address right?
Is the pin in the right place on the map?
Is the transponder number correct?
Is the email address right?
It's YOUR responsability to do this check.
The membership secretary will quite happily help you if you can't alter something.
The website isn't perfect - Yet - it will definatly require you to do the tiny bit of work making sure your personal data is right to make it work for you and then your club too.
The sectional information is down to the person voted in at your section conference to do it, if you're not happy with it (and I wouldn't be for some of them..) then talk to your section rep and get something done about it, be willing to help out is a good start..
Don't forget your clubs information while you're at it - do make sure that's up to date and correct as this is how folks will find you..
Hope this helps a bit.