Case study: Australian Acoustical Society (AAS) | Membes

The Australian Acoustical Society (AAS) were looking for a reliable solution to help manage their database, operate their website and streamline their communications. The Membes system was able to deliver on all these points as well as offer great reporting tools to give a comprehensive view of the association.

What were the original reasons you were looking for an Association Management System (AMS)?

AAS were looking to digitise some of their processes by making it easier for members to renew and make changes to their profiles. Reliability was a key need of the new system as they’d previously had issues with software down-time, updates disrupting their service and links breaking, etc.

The team needed something that would support across all areas of their organisation including membership management, website development, event management, communications, financial management and reporting. Membes was able to deliver all of these things.

How has the Membes system been able to address some of the challenges you faced?

The Membes system makes everyone’s job so much easier as a lot of the processes are automated and they now only have to manually assist on more complex requests from members. It is super easy for new staff to be trained up on the system and AAS utilise the ample educational resources to ensure they are set-up to use the system correctly.

The interface of Membes is more user friendly and easier to navigate which was a challenge for AAS with their previous systems.

The reporting dashboard is great with it easily identifying membership spikes, workloads and distribution across the world. They also love being able to download various charts and graphs which saves a significant amount of time when putting reports together.

What are some of the change, growth or operational objectives that Membes has now helped you achieve?

The renewals process was previously quite manual and caused some issues for AAS members with the team often having to individually chase up renewals. With the Membes system this process was automated so members could pay their bill with a credit card online and/or forward the email to their finance team to pay without needing to log in.

This saw the percentage time of getting bills paid significantly rise. In the past 50% of members usually paid by the renewal due date however, in 2022 AAS achieved 80% member renewals paid by the due date, highlighting just how much easier the renewals process is with Membes.

Julie Sobolewski, General Secretary says, “The system is great – it ticked away on its own without me needing to manually manage it.”

“Compared to other association software, Membes is simple and straightforward, without sacrificing function. It is perfect for NFPs that rely upon volunteers unfamiliar with association software, as it allows admin to restrict access/provide access only to what is necessary.” Julie Sobolewski, General Secretary, Australian Acoustical Society (AAS)

Membes features utilised by ACSNSW:

• Membership Management
• Communications
• Event Management
• Integrated CMS (website)