About this role
Description of Voluntary role – Honorary Membership Secretary for the British Naturalists’ Association
This is an unpaid role operating from home, around 10 hours per month.
The BNA is a national Charity deriving most of its income from annual membership subscriptions and donations.
The Membership Secretary will be a Trustee of the Charity.
The primary role of the Membership Secretary is to collect subscriptions and manage the membership database. This requires an understanding of the use of spreadsheets and good administrative ability.
The main duties and responsibilities of the Membership Secretary include
Collecting annual subscriptions from new and existing members.
Banking cheques when required.
Updating the membership database
Printing and posting annual membership cards
Sending annual reminders where necessary
Chasing overdue payments where necessary
Preparing and posting welcome packs to new members
Preparing mailing lists for member publications
Encouraging new members to join
Encouraging existing members to renew.
Answering membership queries
Attending regular Council meetings (online or hybrid) and providing updates on the membership situation of the charity, and any membership-related projects or issues.
Future Plans
The membership database is currently maintained on a spreadsheet which requires manual intervention to operate. The organisation also has a membership database on its website which has been set up to collect and record data from members who join and renew online using a bank or credit card. However a significant proportion of members pay by standing order, direct bank transfer or by cheque and the system has not yet been configured to apply its functionality to those members. Consequently, the spreadsheet database is maintained as the master document and used for most of the activities below.
The membership secretary would be expected to be involved in a future project to develop a more productive and comprehensive solution to eliminate this duplication of data.
Current Schedule of Activity
Weekly/Monthly
Record all paypal subscriptions on the database.
Record any subscriptions received by post on the database.
Check the bank statement and record any standing order/bank transfer subscriptions.
Print and file all ‘gift aid’ declarations and record on database.
Print and post membership cards for all renewals.
Prepare and post welcome packs for all new members.
Send renewal reminders to members who pay by cheque.
Check for members who have not renewed and update to ‘overdue’ or ‘lapsed’.
Send ‘overdue’ reminders where necessary.
Monthly/Quarterly
Prepare ‘up to date’ mailing list spreadsheet for Publications Editor as required (quarterly).
Prepare analysis of data for report to Council.
Annually
Provide data to Hon Treasurer for preparation of annual ‘Gift Aid’ claim to HMRC.
The Membership Secretary will require a PC, laser printer and internet access. And storage for stationery and a supply of BNA publications
Requirements
As detailed above
Skills
Causes
Location
This opportunity allows you to volunteer from home
Available from home