BMFA renewal

[Martin McIntosh]

At my club AGM I presented the secretary with my usual cheque for subs and BMFA but he refused it saying that it was just making extra work for him and I should do this on line now. I refuse to do on line banking having had my account hacked into in the past.

However, I decided to renew the BMFA and CAA on line. Simple eh? No. Every time I clicked on `finish` it came up that my portal was incomplete and that I should fill in everything with an * but nothing is marked with those. I eventually found a box to allow my details to be shared with whoever and this worked. Why do they make simple membership renewal so difficult? I would have thought that entering my membership No. then pay would be sufficient.

An email to the BMFA has not been replied to.

[Dickw]

The BMFA (or anyone else) are not allowed to share your details with anyone,  e.g the CAA,  without your explicit permission. 

 

Dick

[Graham Bowers]

I had trouble doing it online, so phoned them up and did it that way.

[RottenRow]

1 hour ago, Martin McIntosh said:

he refused it saying that it was just making extra work for him

 

Sounds like a helpful chap...

[Frank Skilbeck]

1 minute ago, RottenRow said:

 

Sounds like a helpful chap...

Depends where you are, with all the banks closing the treasurer might have had to drive miles to deposit the cheque. We do process members BMFA/CAA for them if they wish, but as last year we only had one cheque we've asked everybody to pay the club via bank transfer which 97% of members were already doing. But we are a club of 30 or so, it would quite time consuming to process a club of 100.

 

But if the secretary is unhelpful then you could always stand for the position next year.

[Peter Jenkins]

If he uses his mobile for banking then there is usually a facility to photograph the cheque and provided the scan is readable then that constitutes banking the cheque.  Very simple and easy but not if someone's handwriting is like the proverbial drunken spider!

[Geoff S]

My wife's just retired after being the local cycle club treasurer for the past 34 years.  It is certainly getting difficult to get into the bank to pay cheques in.  It's also tedious having to fill in by hand the paying in slip.  It's just so much easier to do a bank transfer (for a new transfer just set up, I usually pay a nominal amount first to make sure I have the right acc no.  I used to organise the bookings for quite large continental cycle events and paying in cheques (as was the norm then) was a very tedious exercise.

 

I'd be very reticent to use a banking application on a mobile phone (too easily lost or stolen) but we've been banking on-line for many years through our desk top PCs.  The only problem we've had is when someone tried to use our credit card to buy airline tickets (I assume simply by using s/w to eventually find a number that worked because I only use the credit card for on-line use). Bank of Scotland reimbursed us and were very helpful - in fact I've no idea what the PIN is for the credit card.  That could have happened if you banked on line or not.

 

I paid my BMFA subs and the CAA 'surcharge' on line last week and it was very easy and straight forward. I even managed to get my membership card onto my phone!

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Geoff S

[RottenRow]

Many bank accounts allow cheques to be banked via post, or at a Post Office. I usually use the postal option. I've never been near a branch of the bank we use since I've been doing this.

 

Not everyone has a computer / internet / suitable mobile 'phone or the ability or wish to use online banking. The club of which I am treasurer / membership secretary (of approximately 60 members) has two such members. Both of those, plus a few others, pay by cash at the AGM (which was earlier this week) whilst several others still pay by cheque. The cash received is retained as petty cash and gets used up pretty quickly in paying for hall hire for our meetings, petrol for the mower, etc.

 

The option for members to pay their BMFA and CAA fees at the same time as renewing their membership is convenient for them and at the same time we (the club committee) don't have to separately check that they have renewed their BMFA membership, which I do have to do for all Country Members.

 

As far as the actual renewal process goes, the Membership Portal has a Bulk Renewal facility where one just ticks, on a list, the members who are being renewed at that time, then they all get renewed in one go. It takes little longer than an individual renewing his/her own BMFA membership.

 

I suppose it is a matter for each individual club or committee how much of a 'service' they wish to offer, but at a time when numbers are dropping I personally don't mind helping our members in this way.

 

Brian.

 

 

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Only on Thursday, our membership secretary was saying how simple the process is for him these days.

[Peter Jenkins]

21 minutes ago, Geoff S said:

I'd be very reticent to use a banking application on a mobile phone (too easily lost or stolen) but we've been banking on-line for many years through our desk top PC.

 

It's the Club's bank account not your own surely.  If the Club get's scammed  provided you have not been silly in the wsy you used or allowed your phone to be used banks will usually refund funds that have been stolen as a result of fraud.

[Engine Doctor]

Regardless of whether banks refund monies we must respect the wishes of treasurers and secretaries who will or  won't use bank transfers . Its their decision as they do the job unpaid . Please dont give them a hard time as finding new members willing to do the necessary club jobs is I feel getting harder. 

Our clubs experience of using bank transfer for renewals seems to have worked very well but nobody was forced into it . Over a three year period approx 95% of members have moved to the bank transfer payment for renewals. 

[Peter Christy]

I had a problem this year with the CAA renewal on the BMFA portal. For some reason, the CAA "box" refused to render correctly (Firefox browser on Slackware Linux) with multiple lines superimposed. I could just about make out the checkbox but it didn't matter where I clicked, I couldn't put a tick in it.

 

The rest of the page(s) rendered perfectly, and I've had no problem in previous years, so something has changed.

 

I notified the BMFA and got no response. Eventually I found another web browser (Falkon) that did manage to render the page and allowed me to complete my renewal, but what a kerfuffle!

 

--

Pete

 

[Peter Jenkins]

1 hour ago, Engine Doctor said:

Regardless of whether banks refund monies we must respect the wishes of treasurers and secretaries who will or  won't use bank transfers . Its their decision as they do the job unpaid . Please dont give them a hard time as finding new members willing to do the necessary club jobs is I feel getting harder. 

Our clubs experience of using bank transfer for renewals seems to have worked very well but nobody was forced into it . Over a three year period approx 95% of members have moved to the bank transfer payment for renewals. 

ED I was merely pointing out that the risk is to the Club account not a personal account.  I do know what it's like to have to adopt electronic banking when I was Treasurer of my local RAeS Branch.  It took a bit of setting up but turned out to be a great time saver for me.

[Martin McIntosh]

I was merely following the procedure which has been used over the years to renew. In fact, shortly after the AGM a club newsletter came out saying that we could pay subs, BMFA and CAA by cheque. With the spate of postal strikes taking place it is now too late to send a cheque in time and I doubt if the sec. will be at the field in this weather.

[Cuban8]

I've been our club's memb sec for 25 years and have seen the process go from a totally paper based system to an almost all on line renewals and payments process. We have around 95 members at this time (nearly 150 back in the 90s) and both myself and the club sec welcome not having to deal with stacks of paper and thankfully a decreasing number of cheques, which to be honest are a nuisance. We've managed to wean the members off of cash payments over the last couple of years. Our members simply transfer the appropriate fee to the club account and we take care of the club portion, bmfa and caa. I can process all this sitting on my sofa with my laptop. The bmfa membership portal is absolutely brilliant to deal with all the club and membership admin. Why make your life more difficult?

[Denis Watkins]

It has already been suggested, but I do the cheque banking by iPhone on my banks Photo App, and these cheques go on the account 2 or 3 days later, without going to the bank.

Fraudsters would need to access my hand to get into the account as my fingerprint signs into the bank.

Edited December 10, 2022 by Denis Watkins

[Martin McIntosh]

Because as I said above my accounts have been accessed/scammed in the past. The only other cheques I ever write are to pay off my credit card each month, that way I have control should I not wish to pay it all for some reason. However, Barclays are very good at spotting any fraudulent dealings before I even know about them.

[Cuban8]

1 hour ago, Denis Watkins said:

It has already been suggested, but I do the cheque banking by iPhone on my banks Photo App, and these cheques go on the account 2 or 3 days later, without going to the bank.

Fraudsters would need to access my hand to get into the account as my fingerprint signs into the bank.

I never knew such a facility existed. Presumably, you are using your own personal account rather than a dedicated club account as we use. Not sure I'd be happy to mix up club and personal funds if that is the case. Think I'll still encourage folks to move to on-line.

[kc]

3 hours ago, Denis Watkins said:

 

Fraudsters would need to access my hand to get into the account as my fingerprint signs into the bank.

Means you need to be even more careful than usual about catching your fingers in the prop........

I wonder if your fingerprint still works for banking when you have been using cyano a lot!  

 

 

[kc]

Whilst I understand the treasurers wanting to minimise work, I feel that persuading us to use online banking rather than accepting cheques is just one more thing helping the fraudsters .   There is no way I would do online banking using a laptop or mobile phone.   Nobody has a computer that is completely secure online.   

[Cuban8]

12 minutes ago, kc said:

Whilst I understand the treasurers wanting to minimise work, I feel that persuading us to use online banking rather than accepting cheques is just one more thing helping the fraudsters .   There is no way I would do online banking using a laptop or mobile phone.   Nobody has a computer that is completely secure online.   

Nothing is 100 per cent reliable - including cheques and cash. You can only take precautions to protect yourself using the tools and advice that are available. Consider the number of on-line transactions that are made world wide every day - many millions of them probably and I'd guess that only a tiny few are subject to fraud and then because of carelessness with passwords and not being alert to dodgy phone calls allegedly from banks and the police. I wonder how that compares with forged cheques and counterfeit currency and straightforward old fashioned robbery?

[Martin McIntosh]

Thanks KC, I entirely agree.

[Ron Gray]

1 hour ago, kc said:

Whilst I understand the treasurers wanting to minimise work, I feel that persuading us to use online banking rather than accepting cheques is just one more thing helping the fraudsters .   There is no way I would do online banking using a laptop or mobile phone.   Nobody has a computer that is completely secure online.   

That’s why we have 2FA!

[Nigel Heather]

Just renewed mine.  Went okay but I found the BMFA poorly implemented in place - the biggest issue was that when you have finished and dare to click the button requesting a PDF invoice it locks up the application.

 

One mistake I may have made purely down to my misunderstanding is how I have handled the Operator registration.

 

I decided to do the CAA test for Flyer ID rather than the BMFA one and I assumed that meant that I would have to pay my £10 direct to the CAA.  So when it came to BMFA renewal I did not check the ‘pay CAA’.  I now suspect that I could have checked it and paid the CAA  through the BMFA even though I did the test with the CAA.  But it seems that it is too late now because as far as I can tell the BMFA app does not allow me to go back and pay the CAA fees.

 

I assume now that somehow I will be contacted by the CAA to make payment to them when my Operator ID expires.

[gangster]

Personally as a membership secretary I would be happier to do the BMFA/CAA for the whole club as that gives a confirmation that everyone complies. As far as the renewal portal is concerned that has evolved well and I find it very user friendly. Someone on here mentioned the bulk renew fir a club. How does that work? Not everyone rejoins and now there is the added complications of plastic cards and CAA. Yes the closure of banks is an issue but paying in cheques is possible via the Post Office. We do not have internet banking at the moment, it’s a Luddite hobby and I suspect less than half the club would pay by transfer and setting anything up with a bank for a club seems to be a tedious process. Sadly members do not realise the sheer amount of work involved the membership secretary role. Like life in general those who think it simple are always those who sit on their hands at the agm when the jobs come up. 
 

Another plus for the BMFA. Who remembers the old sticker system? That was brilliant for its time way easier to use than the method used by another similar sized governing body in another sport