GMO

Manage Your GMO’s Essential Functions? There’s an App for That

What can a customer-relationship management (CRM) system do for your club? A lot!

By Penny Hawes

USDF group-member organization (GMO) board members put in a lot of hours. They need a simple way to keep up with their regular “housekeeping” chores, such as tracking membership status, volunteer hours, and year-end awards standings. For many GMOs, a simple spreadsheet just doesn’t cut it any more. Fortunately, there is a better way to

manage your club’s data: by using a customer-relationship management (CRM) platform. What CRM Does (and Doesn’t Do) A CRM system is a type of cloudbased software service, also known as an SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. A CRM system has a much higher level of functionality than a basic spreadsheet. Platforms offer dozens of features, from event management and website hosting to e-mail marketing and even e-commerce capability.

What a CRM system doesn’t do is run itself. Once purchased, it needs to be set up. Most companies offer extensive documentation and customer service to get you started, but you still need to put in the time.

Once you’ve set up the system, then the automated actions will begin to streamline the workflow, but getting from purchasing the system to having it up and optimized for your GMO can be a long process. Begin with the End in Mind If it’s time for your GMO to look into CRM, your first consideration should be the needs of your club.

“It’s really important to identify the problem you’re trying to solve in the first place,” says Dawn MacKenzie, membership coordinator for the New England Dressage Association (NEDA). NEDA, USDF’s largest single-chapter GMO, has been using YourMembership (yourmembership.com) for years to track the organization’s thousands of data points—but before your GMO runs out to purchase its own subscription, MacKenzie cautions, know that CRMs are not one-size-fits-all.

Consider: “What data are you going to be trying to get out of it (and into it) to serve these stakeholders?” MacKenzie says. “What are your constraints in terms of both financial and human (work hours) capacity? Who are your most important stakeholders, and what information will they need from you? For example, we have to coordinate our data with what the USDF needs from us, so there’s a need for matching and searchable data fields—our member numbers and the USDF’s, as well. We also take data in from show secretaries for year-end awards, so making sure those inputs flow smoothly without a lot of manual tweaking is vital for an organization that’s volunteer-run.”

Other CRM criteria for NEDA included easy mailing-address updates for its “snowbird” members, automatic event attendance tracking, and giving members the ability to print certificates for attendance or for volunteer hours worked, the latter of which is “popular and very low-levels of work on our end, as well,” MacKenzie says.

TECHNOLOGY WORKS: Customer-relationship management (CRM) software can streamline many of a GMO’s membership and management tasks

In the long run, investing in a dedicated CRM platform may be cost-effective for your GMO. If your club is currently paying for an e-mail provider, a website host, and accounting software, bundling these services into a single platform may provide some savings. Most CRMs have the capacity to: • Generate financial records and invoices, and to integrate with financial programs, such as

QuickBooks • Offer custom website creation and hosting, or plugins to work with your GMO’s existing website • Provide an integrated e-mail service to send newsletters without the need for a separate e-mail marketing provider (e.g.,

MailChimp or Constant Contact) • Accept online payments, which can be useful for both members and your GMO’s membership chair because it enables online membership renewal • Create a digital shop—perfect if your GMO offers sweatshirts, caps, water bottles, or other clubbranded items for sale.

A CRM for Every GMO We asked several GMO representatives to tell us which CRM system they’re using and why they chose it.

The Lehigh Valley Dressage Association (LVDA) uses Google Sheets (google.com/sheets/about/). “All the show managers and committee chairs can access it to add volunteer hours as needed,” says LVDA vice president Sherry Morse. “That way, it’s done after each show or event, so at the end of the year it’s very easy to see who has enough hours for awards. Much easier than using paper forms.”

A spreadsheet is sufficient for the Central New York Dressage and Combined Training Association’s needs, as well, says membership coordinator AJ Torelli. “Being ‘old school,’ he says, “I use an Excel spreadsheet to aggregate and manage our membership list. For those smaller GMOs, using Excel is a good way to go because so many people have a basic understanding, and the database can be handed off from one person to the next seamlessly.”

Sarah Szachnieski, president of the St. Louis Area Dressage Society (SLADS) in Missouri, loves how easy it is to use ClubExpress (clubexpress.com). SLADS, which averages 90 to 150 members, was looking for a platform that would not only track memberships, but also be able to handle online event registration.

“Online registration became a huge asset when COVID came around, as we were able to quickly offer virtual schooling shows,” Szachnieski says. “One of the coolest things about the platform is the ability to put out requests for volunteering, which allows people to sign up online, and it also allows you to send out reminders to each type of volunteer. It has made coordinating volunteers much more simple, as we host a Level 2 show each year. [

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Because our software is so sleek now, we have offered our volunteers and our online sign-up platform to the National Equestrian Center [a large St. Louis-area event facility] as part of the [Great American/USDF] Regional Championships for 2022.”

“Just recently we started expanding some of our educational outreach activities, and we’ll be saving them on our website under the members-only section, where a login and password is required for access.”

ClubExpress also houses the SLADS website, and the platform was a one-stop shop for the GMO’s virtual schooling shows, handling everything from creating prize lists to collecting entry fees.

The Northern Virginia chapter of the Virginia Dressage Association (VADA/NOVA) also uses ClubExpress. Board member Anne Harrington likes the platform for many of the same reasons that SLADS’ Szachnieski cited. Using ClubExpress, VADA/NOVA can collect required information when a member registers for an event—emergency contact information, Coggins documentation, annual waivers, and horses’ vaccine records. Harrington also appreciates the ability to list volunteer opportunities on the site at the beginning of the year so that people can plan ahead.

Nicole Miller, president and webmaster of the Louisiana-based Southern Eventing and Dressage Association (SEDA), has high praise for MembershipWorks (membershipworks.com). As its membership grew, the GMO decided that it needed more than just a spreadsheet app and searched for an easier way to track everything. According to Miller, MembershipWorks had solutions for practically all of SEDA’s needs.

“It’s a plugin, which means it can be added onto a website based on WordPress,” Miller explains. “It integrates with MailChimp, the platform through which we send out regular e-newsletters to our members: Our e-mail list is automatically updated, so no extra steps are required. It’s pretty seamless.

“Online payments are integrated into it via Stripe and deposited right into our bank account,” Miller continues. “Most people join or renew online. We still accept checks, of course, but this has streamlined the process exponentially. The amount of information we collect on each person can be customized to a degree, and we can easily track memberships— who joined when, or who has not renewed. This is important because qualification for our year-end awards program hinges on the join/renew date of the member. With everything done online with a time/date stamp, we can validate that someone was actually a member when they earned their scores or points.”

Miller commends MembershipWorks’ product support—“which is important since the board member in charge of it can change every couple of years. There needs to be access to ‘how to do X’ in case a question arises.”

MembershipWorks is also scalable should your GMO grow, Miller says. But even at SEDA’s subscription level (the 150-member club pays a modest $29 a month), the platform provides ample services, which also include scheduling membership-renewal reminders and exporting data for mailing lists and other purposes, she says.

Wild Apricot (wildapricot. com) is a big improvement over the spreadsheet-with-website-plugin system that the New Jersey-based Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association (ESDCTA) previously used, says membership chair Gary Maholic. “The way our club does its membership required a bit of customization, and as we needed to make changes, the customizations became super-buggy and it was causing way too much work for our membership.”

The ESDCTA continues to process certain functions outside of Wild Apricot, Maholic notes. The platform doesn’t integrate with the GMO’s website; the club doesn’t track volunteer hours or point standings; and the ESDCTA isn’t able to use Wild Apricot to issue refunds. Although “reporting is a little bit limited,” he says, “it hasn’t really been a big problem for us.”

Wild Apricot works well for the 700-plus-member Georgia Dressage and Combined Training Association (GDCTA), according to webmaster June Brewer. The club previously used the CRM included with Wix, its website host, but found that it became unwieldy with its large number of members. Now, using Wild Apricot, GDCTA members can sign up for events and the information is recorded in their membership files.

“Everything’s recorded and tagged to a member,” Brewer says, “and reminders go out. You set them to go out automatically, and they go out! We’ve got so many events going on—so many programs and so many things that we’re trying to do for the membership. And this is a way to manage it a little bit better.” Helping Your GMO Work Smarter, Not Harder If your GMO board thinks it could benefit from new or improved CRM, evaluate the many options against your club’s needs and budget, and consider the time and effort required to get a new system up and running. Shop wisely and your club may find that, as the ESDCTA’s Maholic puts it, “All in all, it was a great move for us. The membership chair loves it, and I think our members do, as well.”

“GMO” columnist Penny Hawes is a coach, writer, and experienced GMO board member. She lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and a plethora of cats, dogs, and horses. Visit her online at thehorseylife.com/usdf.