Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Web Site Size and Capacity

How big can my web site be?

There is no limit to the size of your web site. You can create and upload as many pages, documents or photos as you need.

How many members does ClubExpress support?

Again, there is no limit. We support clubs from 20 members up to any number of members. The largest club using ClubExpress has 5900 members and we have many clubs with membership in the thousands.

How many administrators and coordinators can I have?

ClubExpress has eight separate levels of security and you can have as many as you need at each level.

How many committees, interests, news items, chapters, events, contacts, benefits, discussion forums, etc., etc. can I define?

As many as you want. There are no limits for any of these!

Web Site Content

How is the web site designed?

ClubExpress gives you a built-in designer to create a custom page header. There is also a designer to create a custom home page, which can display separate information for members or non-members only. ClubExpress includes many modules that have their own designers. If you need pages for club News, Benefits, Events Calendar, Interests, Documents, Donations, Surveys, etc., these are all built-in. And we're adding new modules all the time.

Finally, ClubExpress includes any number of custom pages that you create and link together into a fully-realized web site. Pages are built using our customized page designer, which provides a simplified way of creating web content. If you know how to use a word processor, you can use this designer. It supports:

Clipboard operations (cut, copy, paste);

Undo and redo;

Alignment (left, center and right);

Indent and outdent;

Tables (including table and cell properties and merged cells);

Text style, font, size and attributes (bold, italic and underline);

Foreground and background colors;

Numbered and bulleted lists;

Inserted graphics, images, and rules;

Inserting photos as a link, thumbnail or custom-sized image;

Spell checking;

Links to other ClubExpress modules, external sites and email;

Bookmarks and links within a page.

How easy is it to change the content?

An administrator or module coordinator can modify the content at any time. There is no need to take the web site offline and no need to have us or a consultant do the work for you. This is your web site and you can change it whenever you want and as often as you need. All changes are immediately live.

How easy is it to change the look and feel of the site?

The overall layout of the site is controlled by a template which can be changed by an administrator at any time, even while the site is running. ClubExpress includes multiple templates and we plan to add more in the future.

Within each template, you can select a theme which represents different colors, fonts and styles used consistently throughout the site. Each template includes multiple themes which can also be changed at any time.

If you want a different look and feel, perhaps to match an existing web site or your logo, call us. We can create a new template and theme to match your needs, and it would be for your club or association only.

Can I control what information is shown to members and the public?

ClubExpress gives you complete control over which modules can be accessed by members only and which modules are available to visitors. Within each module, there are also options that can be further restricted. (For example, individual documents can be flagged as being available to members only.) You can also add members-only content to the Home Page.

Can members control what personal information is displayed?

Members have extensive control over what information is shown in the Member Directory, which is normally available to members only.

What if my club or association has a special need that's not provided by ClubExpress?

The wishlist of features we're planning to add to ClubExpress runs more than 40 pages long, and we welcome submissions and ideas for enhancements to the platform. So the first thing to do is ask! We may already be planning to add the feature you need and we'll certainly consider adjusting the development schedule to get your business.

If the desired feature is unique to your club or association, we can probably add it on a custom basis. ClubExpress was designed to allow custom modules to be installed for just one customer; no-one else knows that it's there. We'd work with you to define your needs, then prepare a specification and quote for the custom functionality that needs to be developed. Once we obtain your approval, the work will be scheduled and usually completed within a few weeks (depending on complexity and how much other custom work we have.)

Internet

Will ClubExpress work with any browser?

ClubExpress is guaranteed to work with any recent browser from Microsoft (IE 6.5 or greater) Firefox, Netscape, Mozilla, Chrome, Safari or Opera. It works on PCs, Macintosh or Linux machines and should even work on the newest cell phone and PDA browsers, including the iPhone.

Do I need a more powerful computer to use ClubExpress?

No. ClubExpress requires very little from your computer and will work properly even on computers that are 5-6 years old. For PCs, we recommend a screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels, Windows XP or later, and enough hard disk space for normal operations. ClubExpress also works fine on a Macintosh or Linux-based machine.

Is ClubExpress compatible with my Apple Macintosh?

ClubExpress is fully Mac compatible.

Do I need any special software to use ClubExpress?

Users will get by with just an Internet browser. We recommend that club administrators and coordinators download and install a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free. This program is required to view reports.

Do I need a high-speed connection to the Internet to use ClubExpress?

No, a high-speed connection is not required. Most users will be fine with a 56KB dialup connection to the Internet. A faster connection will certainly make screens more snappy, especially screens with multiple photographs, but performance should be more than acceptable at the minimum speed.

What about members who don’t have an Internet connection or email?

Members without an Internet connection or email will continue to interact with your club or association as they always have, by attending events and receiving a printed newsletter. If they want to connect to the system, they can do so at any library or Internet café.

ClubExpress sends welcome letters and renewal notices to members without an email address using regular mail. They send checks to the regular address and an admin can then record this information in the system.

We already have an Internet domain (www.myclub.org). Can we use it with ClubExpress?

Absolutely! The ClubExpress Control Panel allows you to enter one or more domain names that you own and we will set things up to point them to your ClubExpress web site. (You will also need to work with your registrar to specify new Internet Name Servers to handle your domains. There is no charge for this and it’s a simple configuration change.) Full instructions can be found in the ClubExpress administrator manual.

We don’t have an Internet domain but we’d like to get one. Can you help?

Certainly. You can register for your own name using any registrar. (We use www.GoDaddy.com for our own domains.) Or we would be happy to help you find the right domain and set it up for you. Just call us. Note that there is a small fee payable to the registrar (generally less than $10 per year) to own a domain.

We don’t have an Internet domain and we don’t want one. Can we still use ClubExpress?

Yes, you don’t need an Internet domain to use ClubExpress. When you set up your domain account, we ask you to specify a “short name” for your club. This name can be used to access your ClubExpress web site. For example: myhikingclub.clubexpress.com

Members

Can members join through our web site?

Your ClubExpress web site includes a member signup wizard which allows new members to join with via credit card or check. This wizard can be customized in a number of ways to match your club’s needs.

How do members renew their membership?

Based on a schedule which you determine, members will receive an email notification that their membership is about to expire. They can click on a link in the email to log into the site and display the renewal form where they can change options if necessary. If the credit card is stored in the member’s account, clicking the Renew button will immediately renew their membership. If the credit card is not stored, clicking the Renew button displays the payment screen which prompts for the credit card information.

Members can also print a renewal invoice to mail in with their payment (by check or credit card.) Renewals are sent to you or, optionally, can be sent to ClubExpress where we will process them for you. (This is known as a "Lockbox" service.)

How do memberships and renewals appear on the member’s credit card?

ClubExpress includes a merchant account to process credit card transactions. Members will see “ClubExpress.com” on their credit cards (Most credit cards also include our toll-free member support number, in case the member does not recognize the transaction.)

You also have the option of configuring your own merchant account with any merchant provider, as long as the payment gateway is Authorize.Net, one of the largest and most respected payment gateways in this industry. Note that you must have your own merchant account if you want to activate the Storefront module in ClubExpress. Also note that membership-based businesses must have their own merchant account.

If you want help in setting up your own merchant account, we have established a partnership with our merchant processor to offer merchant accounts to our customers at the same rates as we pay. Click here for more information.

We already have a credit card processing account. Can we use it with ClubExpress so that members see our name on their monthly statements?

Yes, as long as the payment gateway is Authorize.Net. Many merchant processors can use Authorize.Net, so if you're not currently using them, check with your merchant processor to see what would be involved in switching.

Fees and Expenses

How are member signup fees and renewals delivered to us?

When we collect payments from new and current members using the built-in merchant account, they are processed by the credit card system and deposited in our bank account two business days later. Then, three times a month (on the 10th, 20th and the last day of the month), we make an automated funds transfer from our account to your account. This transfer requires another two business days for processing by the Federal banking system.

If members paid by credit card, we deposit the gross amount and will then separately withdraw the actual credit card fees charged by our merchant processor, at cost. We don’t add any kind of markup to these fees. We do this as two separate transactions for accounting reasons.

If you have your own merchant account, the funds are deposited directly into your bank account.

Can we review the details of the transaction?

Absolutely. Club administrators have access to detailed reports showing every deposit or withdrawal. We designed this module so that each line item on the screen matches a transaction on your bank statement. Users can then click on each transaction to drill into it and view the individual items grouped into that transaction.

Security

How secure are credit card transactions through ClubExpress?

ClubExpress is fully PCI Compliant.

We don't store or retain credit card numbers unless the member explicitly tells us that they want the data stored, and only members can make this decision, not admins. Credit card transactions are performed, from end-to-end, fully encrypted, so the transaction itself is secure. When members want us to store the number, it is stored fully encrypted in the database table, using a scheme called Triple DES, which is the highest possible type of encryption.

How secure is my member data?

ClubExpress is a shared platform. All of our customers (clubs and associations) run on the same servers. So there is one set of database tables behind the scenes which contain all the data for all clubs using the platform. But the platform was designed to rigidly separate club data; you will never see data from other clubs and they will never see your data. No club has a higher or lower level of access than any other club.

The server itself is located in a high security data center, operated by one of the most respected hosting companies in the business. No-one gets physical access to the servers, even us; we have to manage them remotely. The servers are behind multiple firewalls which are locked down tight; we don't let anything in except what is specifically permitted by the platform. The servers are fully backed up every night and the actual database files are backed up every six hours. They have redundant, hot-swap hard disks and power supplies so that if a hard disk or power supply goes down, the server keeps running while it's replaced. The hard disks use a technology called RAID5 for multiple redundancy.

Member and admin passwords are fully encrypted using one-way algorithms. Even we cannot read them.

As a final layer of protection, as soon as a member logs in, the whole interaction from that point forward is done as a secure session, using the highest level of SSL 3.0. This is a significant burden on our servers but we feel that it's worth it for the additional protection provided. Member and admin interactions with the server cannot be sniffed or intercepted.

Finally, our subscription agreement makes clear that we will never sell or distribute your data to any third parties. Legally, we are what's called a Common Carrier: we provide a platform that you use to host your data. You retain ownership at all times and we have no rights to this data. We will never contact your members for any purpose except official business (for example, it's time to renew your membership.)

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ClubExpress Platform

What is ClubExpress written in?

ClubExpress is written using Microsoft ASP.NET, one of the most advanced Internet application development tools available. The database runs Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and our operating system is Microsoft Windows 2003.

Where does our data reside and how is it connected to the Internet?

The ClubExpress servers are located in a highly secure commercial data center. The servers are located behind an industrial-strength firewall that has been locked down as tightly as we can make it. The firewall is connected to the Internet through multiple independent high-speed channels, to ensure maximum performance.