Switching membership software: a checklist for the secretary

1. Decide what it must do

Ten minutes, on one sheet. A product that does the jobs you actually do beats one with the longest list.

• Write down the jobs you do in a year: record joins and renewals, chase dues, send the newsletter, publish dates, take bookings, give members a login.
• Mark each as must have, nice to have or never used. Never used is a reason to pay less, not more.
• Decide how members will pay: card online, a link to your own account, bank transfer, cheque. Not every product does each of them.
• Name who will do the work and who is the back-up. A system only one person understands is the next problem.
• Pick a date for the move that is just after a renewal round, not in the middle of one.
• Shortlist two. Try both with your real list before you pay either.

2. Export first, before anything else

Nothing in this guide can be done safely until you hold a copy of what you have.

• Export the member list as a CSV file with every field the system offers, not only the ones you use. Add the contacts who are not members if you want them.
• Export separately: event lists and who registered, payment and invoice history, newsletters you have sent, the list of people who unsubscribed, and any documents or photographs. They are often not in the member file.
• Take a screenshot of each page of the old site and of the settings pages. A screenshot is a description of how it was set up.
• Save the files with the date in the name, in two places, and mark the originals read-only. Never work in the original.
• Note the date and the number of members on the old system's own screen. You will compare against it.

3. Check the export before you trust it

Open the file and look at it. Ten minutes here saves a month later.

• The number of rows matches the number the old system shows, less the header, and there is no total row at the bottom.
• Find five people you know, and read their rows: name, email, join date, level, renewal date, notes.
• Dates: look at one that could be read two ways, such as 03/04/2011, and work out which order the file uses.
• Names with accents and apostrophes read correctly, and a cell with several lines, such as a list of groups, is still in one cell.
• Count the rows with no email address and the rows that appear twice. Decide what to do about each before you import.

4. Check the consent columns

Who agreed to be written to is part of your roll. It must arrive intact. This is plain advice, not legal advice.

• Find the columns that say who subscribed, who opted in and who unsubscribed. Names differ: look for words like subscribed, opt-in, emails, newsletter.
• Import a yes only where the file says yes. If a value is blank, or you cannot tell what it means, treat it as not agreed.
• If the file has no such column at all, import nobody as subscribed, and ask your members to confirm. Do not guess.
• Carry over the list of people who unsubscribed or whose address bounced. Load it before the first message goes out.
• Keep a note of how and when people agreed. Your regulator's own guidance says what a record of consent should hold; read it once.

5. Try the import on a copy

A first import is a rehearsal. Do it in a trial or empty workspace, and read the result like a proof.

• Use a preview or a dry run if the product has one. If it does not, import a copy of the file into a trial account, never the only copy into the real one.
• Rows in must equal members added plus rows skipped plus members updated. If the numbers do not add up, stop.
• Spot-check the same five people against the file: names, dates, levels, renewal dates, balances.
• Check the people who opted out are still opted out, and that nobody who was blank has become subscribed.
• Read the list of columns that were not used. Anything you need that is on it has to be carried another way.
• Find out whether the import can be undone, and for how long.

6. Run both for two weeks

Keep the old system until the new one has done a whole round of work.

• Day 0: choose which system is the one you change. From now on make every change there, and only there.
• Day 0: put the old system in a state where it cannot send, if it will let you, so that members are not written to twice.
• Day 1: send one real message from the new system to the committee only, and have each member of the committee confirm it arrived and read well.
• Day 7: compare the two lists. Any difference is a change you made in the wrong place; fix it now.
• Day 7: record a real payment and check it shows in the dues book as you expect.
• Day 14: decide. If the new system did every job you listed, go on. If it did not, stay, and you have lost a fortnight and nothing else.

7. Tell your members

A short, plain notice, sent before the first message from the new address.

• Say what is changing and from what date: where to log in, where to pay, what the emails will look like.
• Give the new sender address and ask people to add it to their contacts, so it does not land in junk.
• Say who to write to if something looks wrong, and answer within a day for the first month.
• Leave the old way of paying open for one full round, and say so.
• Update every place the old address is printed: the noticeboard, the leaflet, the bank reference instructions and the committee's emails.

A notice that does the job: “From 1 March our membership list, newsletter and website move to a new system. You do not need to do anything. Messages will come from the address below; please add it to your contacts. Pay your subscription the way you always have until we write again. If anything looks wrong, reply to this email.”

8. What to keep afterwards

Put it in one folder, with a note of what each file is and the date it was taken.

• The dated exports from step 2, untouched.
• Financial records, for your treasurer and your accounts. Ask the treasurer how long the club keeps them.
• Event history and attendance, if you will ever want to know who came.
• Minutes, constitutions, and any documents stored in the old system.
• The unsubscribe and bounce list, and your record of how people agreed to be written to.
• Copies of your old terms and privacy notice, with the dates they applied.

9. Cancel last

Not before a full round of renewals has run on the new system.

• Ask the old vendor, in writing, what happens to your data and to any time you have prepaid, and keep the answer.
• Download your data again on the day before you cancel. It is the freshest copy you will ever have.
• Put the cancellation date in the club's calendar, with the name of the person who will do it.
• After you cancel, check that the old site no longer shows members' details, and that nobody is still being charged.

Questions