Membee Users Group Conference 2017

Posted on June 7, 2017 in Associations, Chambers, Feature Updates, Membership, Nonprofit

On this week’s Latest Buzz blog post we recap Membee’s annual User Group Conference that took place June 1st and 2nd in Burlington, Ontario. Check out the main highlights of the 2-day event, and if you did not attend, read up on why it’s such a valuable experience for Membee and it’s users. It’s time to get the most you can out of Membee, join the User Group today and plan on attending in 2018!

On behalf of the entire Membee team we would like to thank all of the enthusiastic Membee users that attended this years Users Group conference!

The Annual Membee Users Group Conference took place June 1st & 2nd in Burlington Ontario. We had 17 Membee users attend representing 13 different organizations. They were joined by Membee team members Kathy, Julie and Cory. The attendees enjoyed a beautiful stay right on Burlington's waterfront, in the fittingly named Waterfront Hotel.

The attendees enjoy a jam packed two days of discussion, training, brainstorming, and networking! They of course leave a bit of room for some fun and enjoy an (optional) group dinner on the Thursday, and enjoy the Waterfront Hotel’s; pool, hot tub, and fitness center!

If your interested in how this conference is structured check out this years Agenda

Come on down, meet some new friends, have a few laughs, and learn a bunch!

Why You Should Attend

This is a very exciting event if you are able to attend as it is a massive learning opportunity for those new to Membee, AND those more experienced with Membee! With the constant release of new features and updates in Membee there are always new ways to use Membee more effectively. Your time would be anything but wasted and the contacts you make in two days are invaluable as a Membee User.

Some specific perks of being an attendee are:

Face to face training directly from Membee’s support and development team

Presentations from the Membee team – Invaluable training opportunity

Recap of all features released since previous meeting
Sneak peak of new Membee features and updates
Discussion groups with fellow Membee users

Creating personal contacts – tips, tricks, and support!

Multiple chances to share ideas for updates, new features, or any improvements directly to the Membee team
And most of all, leaving feeling more confident in Membee’s features and abilities

Attendees from this year and years past discover Membee’s full potential and what it can do for their organizations!

“It was great to see so many of our users in person and have face-to-face discussions. There was so much enthusiasm brought forwards from everyone there and I enjoyed hearing feedback on newly implemented features, as well as ideas for what should come next!”

– Julie Katayama (Membee’s Implementation Specialist)

“As a brand new Membee user and first time attendee, the conference was an amazing experience and I found it very helpful. The presenters did an amazing job with explaining and teaching us new information and practices with Membee, as well as taking time to reinforce past practices for those who are newer Membee users – questions were able to be asked and were answered well throughout the presentation – I left the conference having gained knowledge in all aspects of Membee, and would definitely be interested in attending the conference again next year.”

– Katherine Marino (Administration Coordinator – Oakville Chamber of Commerce)

“I am glad I could attend my first Membee User conference in Burlington. It was a valuable, stimulating and enjoyable couple of days, particularly for making contacts with other Membee users. The two days were very well planned with new and interesting information shared. It was a great opportunity to update our knowledge of the software, take advantage of one on one learning and at the same time addressing our concerns to the team of experts. I look forward to attending the conference next year.”

– Saba Shafiq (Member Relations Management Lead – Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce)

Back to Basics – Recap of Membee Features

This years attendees all got an in depth recap of all features Membee released this past year, as well as some of Membee's older features. They have the chance to ask any questions directly to the Membee team and learn about some new features that they may have missed or overlooked.

This “Back to Basics” style presentation is not only helpful to make sure Membee’s users are learning about our new features, but making sure they are getting all they can out of every aspect of Membee.

Psst!!! It’s not just for the newbies! Long time Membee users learn new ways on how to use Membee more effectively every year at this conference (hence their repeat appearances).

Features covered included:

Card Vault
Card Vault checkout improvement (update card data and still checkout)
Major Profile updates one, and two
Color code events in the calendar
Override whom an eBill goes to
Events responsive design
New Member responsive design
eBilling responsive design
New Events report
Event participation visible both on participant and organization
French translations update for Events
Support for Stripe payment gateway
Two new tax reports
Thank You For Renewing automation
Format a picture that is added to an event description
New Additional Item options for the eBilling widget
and more…

Check out the corresponding blog post for each feature linked accordingly above!

Time to Get Excited!

At this years users meeting Membee announced a few exciting things to come in the next half of 2017! The Users whom attended got an in depth look at how these features will work and how powerful they will be!

A New User Dashboard

With the new Dashboard, all users will land on their own personal dashboard page after they login to Membee.

A series of information panels in the new Dashboard that include;

My Report Favorites
My Outstanding To Dos
My Shortcuts
Recent Notes to File and completed To Dos
At a glance synopsis Year to Date Activity
Work Smart Index (WSI)
Membee News
And many more!

New Member Signup enhancements

New member signup is often all about conversion. Making it as easy as possible for the new member to join your organization is fundamental to your ability to grow and thrive. While getting the new member is key, this enhancement will eliminate even more work for Membee users as Membee does more things automatically for you.

Some of the new features include:

Assign values to a specified parameter field automatically on signup
More control of which Welcome Email is sent
Assign Membee Access Roles on signup
Greater control over how Profile Maintenance Rights are assigned
A new membership dues proration option to accommodate an increasingly popular scenario
Ability to Sell a “Lifetime” or a “One Time Only Fee” membership
A type-ahead capability has been added to the Organization Name

Membee 360: New Graphical Reporting

The purpose of this powerful tool is to answer the all important “how is our organization doing?” question.

Some of the key features of Membee360 include

Create membership and event performance targets for your organization
Choose from preexisting or create custom graphs to compare your actual performance to these targets
From your personal dashboard, you will access your own personal analytics page where you can
Automate reporting to key constituents using External Analytics pages where you can
Graphically compare your performance to previous periods
Compare your performance to similar organizations based on

First Come, First Served

Every year the attendees break off into small discussion groups and share ideas on how they think Membee can improve. They write down their ideas, fleshing them out with fellow Membee users and Membee staff. All the ideas are posted, and each attendee has the chance to vote for their top 5 ideas. This is always an extremely awesome tool for Membee to get direct feedback in what are users want to see implemented!

The ideas with the most votes come back to the Hive and are discussed in great depth and in most cases added directly to the “to-do” list! SO if you have some ideas and want to discuss them in more detail bringing some life into them, the users conference is a place for you!

C’mon, Get Involved!

A great meeting like this just doesn’t pull itself together. On behalf of all of the attendees and Membee staffers, a quick shout out to the Membee Users Group chairperson, Kathryn Newell. Membership Service Coordinator at the Burlington Chamber of Commerce by day, and meeting planner extraordinaire by night, her efforts to create a truly personalized experience for all the attendees is deeply appreciated by all.

Thank you, Kathryn and to your organization and community for showing everyone in the Hive so much love.

Click here to join Membee’s Users Group!