Burton Mutual Angling Association
KEY BENEFITS
Allowed club secretary to process ~2000 memberships on their own, streamlined printing & shipping of ID cards, no longer using several different systems to manage their club.
Burton Mutual AA - Our Story
Burton Mutual Angling Association is believed to date back to 1884; our oldest records date back to a committee minute book in 1892. This makes us one of the oldest existing angling associations in the country. We have a long pedigree in providing first-class angling venues and facilities for the use of all types of anglers in coarse fishing, carp fishing, river fishing and of course the future of our sport the juniors.
We were left with a faulty system collecting renewals incorrectly.
Before we started using Clubmate, running the club had become disjointed. We used a system that was created by a former member, but once they left we were left with a faulty system and no support on how to use it. Plus there was the job of organising, printing and shipping ID cards which is a headache-inducing task in itself.
We used a membership plugin on our WordPress website to manage memberships & accept payments, but we had no training, no support and no professional help setting it up. It worked okay to begin with, but then the system started collecting renewals incorrectly. This was frustrating for our members and ended up giving us more work instead of less. We had limited visibility over who had paid for their membership and who hadn’t – so we had no idea how many members we had. This resulted in us needing to offer over 800 of our members an extra few months of membership for free since we had no way of ascertaining who’s payments were due.
Everything had become disorganised and we had no technical support whatsoever; it was very much a case of fighting a fire without the appropriate gear!
I needed a solution that was going to significantly reduce my workload and make things more efficient for the committee and our members. The committee needed insight so that we could have a high-level view of what was going on at the club. Perhaps the most important need was a reliable system to collect payments because this was causing frustration for our members.
We had a broken DIY system with no idea on how to fix it and nobody around to help us, so we needed a solution fast.
Why we chose Clubmate.
We were drawn to Clubmate because they were able to provide a solution for every one of my needs and more. Payments, membership management, communications – even an ID printing cards service which would be a massive help for a club of our size.
Payments are automatically reconciled and the fact that the system can be accessed by multiple people meant that we were no longer dependent on one person to tell us how many members we’ve got and how many of them haven’t paid.
Most of all, I liked that each feature of the software is specifically geared toward the angling community; something I haven’t seen from a management system yet.
The one barrier I faced was getting the committee to approve the costs, but the level of control and insight Clubmate gave us far outweighed the price.
Running Burton Mutual AA is more efficient than ever.
Now, running the club is more efficient than ever and we’re no longer using multiple systems for different things because everything can be done from within Clubmate. It’s flexible enough to cover all of our needs, including Bailiffing, night permits and fly section cards – it takes care of it all. I was able to successfully process approximately 2000 memberships on my own during the pandemic while working a full-time job!
We can now see that we have thousands of members, and that number continues to grow. 2000 members sound like a lot of people to deal with, but Clubmate makes it so easy. I can contact specific individuals or the entire membership base in a matter of clicks. Payments are collected on time and members can even manage their own renewals through their Angler App (which was free as part of the service!).
We took full advantage of Clubmate’s website building service too, so now our members can find us online and all the information one could need about Burton Mutual AA can be found in one place.
Best of all, Clubmate are always happy to provide telephone support when required. It really makes a difference when you’re able to speak to a person when you have questions. Their team are very knowledgeable on both angling and managing a club (some of their staff are on fishing club committees themselves) so they’re always happy to share their advice on how we can do things better, which was something we needed prior to getting started.
Would we recommend Clubmate?
If you’re thinking about getting started with Clubmate, just do it. It’s been one of the single best decisions we’ve made in our 130 years of running. It’ll give your volunteers the help they deserve and managing payments will be so much easier. You won’t regret signing up.
If you’d like to learn more about Clubmate and how it could benefit your fishing club, please get in touch (we don’t bite!):
0333 987 4677
or click Book a Demo, leave your details and we’ll call you!
CLUB NAME
Burton Mutual Angling Association
CLUB MEMBERS
2000+ members
CLUB WATERS
14 stillwaters plus stretches of the River Dove, River Trent & Trent & Mersey Canal
MAIN CONTACTS
Andy Gibbs
WEBSITE
KEY CHALLENGES
Were using a faulty management system after the individual that created it left the club
Had to use several different systems to manage memberships and collect payments
No secure member database
Collecting payments incorrectly
No insight into the club’s performance
Interested in becoming a member of Burton AA?
To become a member, visit their website below.