After many months of technical work on our website server, on January 1st we switched to a new membership management program. So now when you go to our website, www.sidecar.com, and click on “Join/Renew/Login” you will see a new way to manage your membership.
With this program we are joining the 21st century in enabling our members to manage the information in their own account. Generally, it functions like most other websites that you join: advrider.com, bmwmoa.org, www.harley-davidson.com, www.goldwingowners.com, etc.
At any of those sites, and many more, you have an account that you log into where you can see your profile with all your information. Now, the USCA is implementing the same benefit for all our members.
When you renew your membership you will create a new account and enter all your contact information. But don’t worry, your old USCA membership information is still there with your original membership number. With the new system in place I am still running the old system as a backup until everyone is caught up and established.
With the old system when you joined or renewed you filled out a form online and made your online payment using the Paypal payment processor. The membership information was kept in a single file on a single laptop managed by a single person. Not very secure or efficient.
The new system is on our website server. It is highly secure, can be managed by more than one person, never needs to be backed up and can’t be broken into by hackers. And we have moved away from Paypal to a new, global, corporate payment processor called Stripe.com. It is much easier to use and the fees we pay are about the same as with Paypal.
Members will receive automatic email reminders several times when their renewal is due. If there are no changes to a member’s information and the payment is made on time the membership manager never has to do anything. It will be completely automated, allowing the manager to spend more time helping people and reducing the workload.
Of course we will still accept paper forms mailed in with a check. We hope more people will use the online system as the paper forms and checks are a very manual, time-consuming, and error-prone process. Sometimes handwriting can be very difficult to read!
We hope our members will find the new system quick and easy to use (especially after the first time). Give it a try when your renewal time comes and let us know how it goes.
As always, if you have any issues or questions, I am always happy to help!
Jerry Matson
Webmaster and Membership Manager
ad***@*****ar.com or me********@*****ar.com