ClubExpressions

When your members or prospective members go to your website, what do they see? Does the website, especially your home page, portray the right image and show to everyone how great you are? If you were not a member and came across your website, would it be inviting to join? And how can you manage all your club’s functions and have a welcoming, beautiful website?

How many times have you done a Google search and found something interesting only to open the website you find that it simply doesn’t look good? I know that when that happens to me, I close it and open the next one the list.

A good website design can help grow your organization. A poor one can stagnate it. There are plenty of website building tools, but they don’t offer the ability to run your club or association without multiple plug-ins which only complicate your ability to manage and to lead. When club/association management system (AMS) is hard to use, I’ve seen groups go back to manually processing memberships, events, donations, emails, etc. This would only keep your focus away from improving your organization and force you to spend more time on clerical activities.

And, there are plenty of companies that offer club and association management systems. Yes, some are better than others. Your specific needs will determine which one is best for you. Consider what it means to have your website separate from your management system. Some AMS companies offer very limited website options, forcing you to look for a website builder and often a consultant to put the systems together. Then, every time you want to make a change to your design, you must reengage your consultant. This costs you money you could use elsewhere.

Some systems offer a website integrated directly with the backend tools you need to create it. These companies have taken time to program website building tools so easy that a novice can create a pleasant design. And, of course, most of these companies also offer professional design services if you want your website to really “pop”. 

In these cases, you don’t need to engage a consultant when you want to make a change. Built-in website design tools can change colors, menus, images, and content, all with the click of a few buttons. This saves you and your organization both time and money.

And, the changes are immediate. If you change your branding, you click a few clicks keys to upload a new logo and change your color scheme. This make updating content, adding pages, inserting calendar entries easy to do and keep everything in sync with your overall design. The key here is: even someone with little or no experience should be able to learn how to design a nice website quickly and to maintain it easily.

If you think you don’t have the skills or even the time to learn these and make changes, take another look. AMS systems have improved significantly over the past few years. Understand your needs and requirements and make sure the companies you look at can support them. The right system will allow you to easily make changes “on the fly”.

There are websites that help you find the right solution. Do a google search on “the best Membership Management Systems”, “Club Management Systems”, or “Association Management Systems”. You will find companies out there who research systems and allow actual users to post reviews. A few examples are Software Advice, Capterra, G2 Crowd, and others. 

If you want to see how easy website management is when you use ClubExpress, this link will take you to a tutorial of how to maintain your website design in ClubExpress.