As the new membership season approaches, we want to give you advance notice on new features and benefits to be launched for the 2016 season. With membership finishing at c. 28,000 this year and looking like c.30,000+ in 2016 we hope that the additional features and benefits will make your renewal experience an enjoyable one!
New Membership Webpage:
We are remodelling our membership webpage to be more informative making it easier for new members to select the correct licence. We will be listing all the benefits of the various membership types and a clear graphic display of the various licences and costs, with easy access to the relevant renewal section for existing members and a simple join button for new ones.
New Non-Cycling Membership:
The main purpose of this membership is to recognise and reward long standing members, who may no longer be active cyclists, but who have and continue to contribute a lot of time and effort to the whole organisation particularly helping out at events. This membership will carry no cycling insurance and will be priced significantly lower than the leisure licence. There will be some terms and conditions attached which will be agreed at the forthcoming AGM.
Anniversary Renewal:
In order to provide more flexibility to our new Leisure members whose cycling activities perhaps start later in the year, we are offering all new leisure members the option to join at any time of the year and still benefit from a 12 month licence (unfortunately, due to UCI rules, we cannot offer this to competitive members). New leisure licences will expire 12 months from date of issue rather than on 31st December. We will gradually offer this option to all leisure members in the next couple of years.
Direct Debit Payment Option:
This will be an alternative, and a more competitive one, to Paypal and allows your club to set up a direct debit facility using the club’s own bank account to get your club fees paid by members or to pay Cycling Ireland for club affiliation and group membership. There will be a facility to avail of single DD’s or the traditional recurring Direct Debit. All this can be set up in the existing club portal without having to visit a third party site. We will have more details about this closer to launch date.
Perpetual Licence:
In conjunction with the above recurring DD facility, we are offering Leisure members the option to set up a recurring direct debit to ensure their membership is paid on time every year. If availing of this option, members will receive a high quality credit card style Membership card which will be valid for 5 years along with a yearbook. They can also avail of discounted membership fees when choosing this option.
Group or Family Membership:
We have promised this option in the past and we are finally delighted that it will now be available from the beginning of 2016. This will allow families to register their children without the need for multiple e-mail address.
Club e-mail:
We are finally ready to offer an integrated e-mail service option* via the portal so that clubs can contact all their members conveniently by group e-mail.
* There is a small third party fee payable for this.
Refined Renewal Process:
There will be a number of refinements made to the registration process to make it easier to register, mainly by reducing the number of required steps. e.g. An Un-attached existing leisure member can renew by logging in and proceeding straight to payment in one short visit. And if you have auto approval ticked, club leisure members can avail of the same short cut!
QR Codes:
During 2016 we will be launching a major upgrade to the online event registration system with particular emphasis on streamlining the sign–in process at larger events. All cards issued in 2016 will carry a QR code (similar to a bar code) with an option to be read by scanners to determine a member’s eligibility status to enter a particular event with. These QR codes can be read by a smart phone so hardware requirements will be minimal.
Members Only Area:
As mentioned above, we are revamping our website and moving some of the more sensitive information such as Insurance documents and other key documents to a Members-Only area whereby you will be required to log in using your portal details to gain access to them. This is to prevent non-members from downloading this information.
New Event Calendar:
We have recently launched a new Event Calendar format, 4 in total, which can be viewed here with greater detail such as individual race/route lengths and access to your clubs webpage plus the ability to exactly locate the event on Google Maps as well as the facility to register for the event, if open. Updating your event with the new Eircode will ensue even greater location accuracy.
Outsourcing of all Licences Fulfilment:
In 2015 we successfully outsourced the distribution of Leisure licences and in 2016 all competitive licences will also be outsourced. While this will have little impact on your members, we are endeavouring to ensure that all licences (that are eligible for distribution) will be in the member’s hands no longer than 3 weeks after registering from 11th Jan 2016 onwards. We will of course be continuing to offer a PDF version for your phone. One outcome of this is we will need 2 days’ notice to print off one-off licences for special purposes such as international events.
2016 Yearbook:
For 2016 we are offering a yearbook to any member who requests one. They simply have to tick the appropriate box on their renewal screen during registration to avail of this option.
Introducing Homestay:
Homestay is an accommodation hub similar to Airbnb. We have teamed up with the creators so that members can offer accommodation to other members during large events within a secure and semi-private environment at mutually agreed rates. This Hub will be going live before the New Year (Note: CI will not be taking any commission from these bookings).
New Bike Insurance Scheme:
We have also teamed up with a major household insurer to offer extremely competitive bike insurance combined with house insurance. An example of this is if you move your house insurance (your parents’ house, if you don’t own a house) you will get free bike insurance up to €1,500 with very few restrictions! Bikes valued higher than this can be covered for a small additional premium.
We hope your members will enjoy their renewal experience and the additional benefits on offer. We will be releasing further details soon but, in the meantime, if you have any questions please let us know via contactus@cyclingireland.ie until further information comes on stream.
Regards,
The Cycling Ireland Team