[Aqualist] New membership system + 2012 membership fees now due

[Steven J Phipps]

Dear Quaternarists,

AQUA has now introduced an online membership system. The new system allows 
members to join AQUA, renew their membership and update their contact 
information via a web interface:

http://www.regonline.com.au/aqua_membership

This page can also be reached via the AQUA website.

Email invitations were sent to all our existing members earlier today, 
inviting them to register their details online and to pay their 2012 
membership fees. Written invitations will also be sent to those members 
for whom we do not hold a valid email address.

If you did not receive one of the email invitations, then either:

* You are not a current member of AQUA, or
* We do not hold a current email address for you.

If you did not receive an email invitation today but believe that you 
should, then please let me know and I will investigate.

However, whether you have already received an invitation or not, you are 
welcome to join AQUA or renew your membership using the above link.

Membership fees for 2012 have been held at the same level as last year:

Full		$50
Student		$35
Concession	$35

This year, we are trialling a new option whereby you can select to receive 
Quaternary Australasia electronically, rather than as a hard copy. In 
2012, there is no discount for selecting this option. However, if the 
trial is successful, then we anticipate being able to offer a modest 
discount on the membership fee in future years.

Some further information on the new membership system:

1. WHY THE CHANGE?

AQUA's old, paper-based membership system was inconvenient and cumbersome, 
and also made it extremely hard for us to keep track of our members. It 
was completely inadequate for an organisation as large as AQUA, and we 
suspect that we have lost many members over the years simply through 
failing to maintain accurate contact details for everyone. The new system 
will allow us to maintain a much larger membership base, ensuring a strong 
and healthy future for AQUA.

2. WHY DO I HAVE DO REGISTER FOR THE NEW SYSTEM?

It would have been possible for us to automatically import everyone's 
contact information into the new membership system. However, we are aware 
that the contact details that we hold for many of our members are out of 
date, often by many years. We therefore felt that a "clean sweep" approach 
was best, as it will ensure that we have up-to-date contact information 
for all our members. We apologise for this minor inconvenience, but 
registration will only take 1-2 minutes and you will only have to do this 
once. In future years, automated emails will be send out on 1 March to 
remind you to renew.

We will also run the old and new membership systems side-by-side for the 
rest of year, to ensure that no-one gets forgotten about during the 
transition. If we notice that any of our existing members have not signed 
up using the new system, then we will send out gentle reminders later in 
the year.

3. WHAT PAYMENT METHODS CAN I USE?

The new membership system accepts payment using Visa, Mastercard and 
American Express credit and debit cards. Payment via cheque, cash and bank 
transfer is no longer possible. If this is a barrier to renewing your 
membership, then please let me know and we will do what we can.

4. WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS?

We are aware of a very small number of members that do not use email. We 
will make individual arrangements for these members.

If you have any other questions, encounter any problems with the new 
membership system, or have any other comments or feedback, then please do 
not hesitate to contact me.

Steven Phipps
AQUA Treasurer