Convincing Your Board of Directors -- Trial Mode
We've heard from many club and association webmasters and officers who love ClubExpress but worry about how to explain it to other Board members. After all, ClubExpress changes and improves the jobs of almost every board member, including the Membership Director, Treasurer, Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Technical Adviser, Chapter Coordinator, Webmaster, and yes, even the President.
So, to help you out, we're delighted to introduce ClubExpress Trial Mode
Trial Mode allows you to create a complete web site and membership database for your club or association using ClubExpress. There is no setup fee or monthly fees and your web site can use almost all of the features of ClubExpress. (For a list of restrictions, see below.) The trial period lasts for 60 days, which should be enough time to build out your web site and the other features of ClubExpress, let the Board members explore, and discuss it at the next Board meeting.
Of course, during your trial period, we will gladly answer any questions you might have. Just call or email our Customer Support group.
Once your trial period is over, you have two choices.
- If your Board decides that it likes ClubExpress, call us and we will activate your account and all of your original work will be retained. We will then charge you the setup fee and you will begin paying monthly fees from the end of the current month. We will also import the rest of your members into the ClubExpress membership database.
- On the other hand, if you decide that ClubExpress is not right for your group, do nothing and your trial web site will be deactivated. We may call you to understand your decision and see if it's something we can change or improve.
There are a couple of restrictions with ClubExpress Trial Mode:
- There is a maximum of 10 members in the membership database, and these names must be entered manually. If you decide to go forward with ClubExpress long term, we will gladly import your complete membership database for you.
- You must specify real contact information, no pretend email addresses or phone numbers.
- Credit card processing is disabled. You can still test the member signup and renewal wizards and the event registration wizard, but the payment page will not allow credit card transactions to be processed.
- You can only access your web site using the "ShortName" that you define when you register. It's in the following format: ShortName.clubexpress.com. If you decide to use ClubExpress long term, we will gladly configure your web site to use the Internet Domain Name(s) owned by your organization.
- Listserver mode in the discussion forums will not work. Listservers require that a domain name be configured to point to the web site, which, as noted above, we will only do once you become a customer.
- Bulk importing names and contact information into the built-in non-member database (mailing list) is disabled.
Just sign up for ClubExpress in the normal way, using the following link:
The signup wizard has three screens, prompting for basic information about your club. It also creates the first administrator account. One of the screens is our Subscription Agreement which you must accept in order to proceed. So the signup wizard should be completed by an officer or authorized representative of your organization.
Once it is complete, you will be asked to log in and will then be taken to the Check List screen, which lists a series of tasks which must be completed before you can activate your site. Until you complete these tasks, you are in Setup Mode logging into the system will take you to this screen. You should complete every task on the Check List except the Bank Information; just leave that one.
Then call us and we will switch you over to Trial Mode manually. This removes the need to specify Bank Information, and allows you to activate your site.
Once your site is ready, you can publish the domain name for your board members to review it. A ClubExpress Trial Mode web site is open and available to the public as well as to the small group of members who will log in and evaluate the product. But since it uses a special address, no-one will know it's there except the Board members who are told the address.
Once you decide to use ClubExpress long term, it's a simple matter to add and verify the bank information and then we can switch you from Trial Mode to Active Mode.