Video: The SYP Historic Vehicle Club’s Experiences With Using Member Jungle

We're based in South Australia on the York Peninsula, so a real country farming area and yeah, we've got members sort of the West Coast of SA, people in Victoria that have Holiday Homes over here, so yeah our members are widespread. 

I'm the Treasurer and Secretary, so of course, I immediately looked for a system that would help us. I was handed over these books and things for the secretary and treasurer roles. I thought, "I'd love to have this on a computer where I can just search for it," so that's where we initially started looking.

 

 

There were a few other options, but what really sold me on Member Jungle was speaking to Sammy. She outlined everything I wanted to be able to do in a program. Another thing was we had a couple of members who are part of more specific bike or car clubs. Their car clubs were already using Member Jungle, and they said it was great because they get updates.

They were able to show me on their mobile app, and I was like, "Wow." That really sold it for me, being able to see it like that.

You can read so much on the Member Jungle website. There was no question not answered by Sammy or the website. But being able to see an older gentleman, he would have been in his 60s, show me on his phone was amazing. He showed me his bike registrations, his garage on there, the updates, and events. He had a calendar, so there was no excuse that someone didn't know if an event was on because you sort of get pinged.

Emails are our main source of getting information out there, but you're not on there 24/7 like you can be on a mobile phone. If there were last-minute changes, some people would miss them. We're an elderly group, so not everyone has emails. It's really only phones or even landlines. Member Jungle using push notifications to ping information straight to someone's phone like a message is brilliant. Without the charge of an SMS as well, I use it all the time.

How Have You Found Running Events With Member Jungle?

We have an annual rally that we hold earlier in the year. That event, through Member Jungle, was so helpful to me because I had it all at my fingertips. We provide accommodation and food. So basically, you just set up the event as you would like it. If someone wanted two nights' accommodation and all the meals, Member Jungle just tallied it all up.

People were able to pay by bank deposit, which is the main way that we operate. They were also able to bring the correct cash to a meeting.

Like I said we've got members over in Victoria we have a lot of people from Adelaide which is sort of two and a half three hours away from us come to attend that rally because it's sort of on a peninsula we have nice beaches, it's in summer so lots of people come over for it. 

Just to have that be able to tally up. Whereas the old way, someone would have to give us a phone call. We'd have to write it all down, what they wanted. Whereas with Member Jungle, you could select the accommodation. You could just send them an email saying, "Hey, they changed." Like, you could just pick apart whatever you needed.

I really wanted Member Jungle in place before we had that rally because I just don't think, myself being of the generation that I am, could have coped doing it with paper and pencil. Adding up like that, I would have got something wrong.

The other thing was issuing refunds. We had some people that had to pull out. So, you basically just pulled up their total, and you just did a bank refund to them. It was just so simple. It was a real winner for me.

My favorite part of it was analysing it afterwards. You could really break it down. It was great.

As Club Treasurer How Have You Found Member Jungle? 

From the club's perspective, I suppose the treasurer and the secretary role after the event were able to filter down the searches. We could say, "Okay, Saturday night was that successful for us. We had X amount for dinner." Then, I could go back to my other books and say, "Well, dinner cost us this much, but we made this much back. So, let's keep Saturday night as it is because it's obviously a good fundraiser for the club."

There were other things like needing to upgrade the accommodation costs because we were losing on it. I don't think the rally for us as an event has been pulled apart and analysed like it was before. This year, we said we need more volunteers for certain tasks. If we could do some things ourselves, we'd save money. It really was the whole shebang.

Anything anyone wanted, like if there were any questions from the committee, such as "What did Tuesday night cost us?" I could just say, "Here, this is what it is." Whatever they wanted to know, I could pull up straight away.

What Made You Choose Member Jungle In The First Place?

I just have to give a massive shout out to Sammy. She didn't just sell it, but she answered everything genuinely. Coming not from a tech background but knowing what computers and software can do, she was very helpful. She said if I wanted anything in the future, she would put it to their tech guys. We could only ask, and they were happy to give things a try.

If there was something specific to our club that we wanted Member Jungle to do, she said to just ask. They are still like a family business here in Australia, not overseas, and they can give it a go. I really liked that. She was great to talk to, and the whole process has been really easy.

The calculator on the website was very helpful. Before I even settled on Member Jungle, I could get a quote or an idea of the level we would need. I could take that to a meeting and present it to the committee. I could say, "Look, Member Jungle is this price, the other brand is that price. We get the website with Member Jungle, but not with the other guys. This is support in Australia." It had all the pros and cons, and that transparency probably sold me a lot. You guys weren't hiding anything on the website.

How Have Your Members Taken To It? 

I should say, our president is a little bit computer illiterate, so that's my dad. We've had these meetings where everyone's shown up because they got the notification; they knew it was on. I try to send out a reminder about a week before.

There have been a couple of funny moments in meetings. Something happened in the background, and suddenly someone sends us a map saying, "The classic cars enter through this street, no other access," for example. I use that push notification and send it out. Everyone gets it, and the little map pops up on their phone.

So, Saturday morning when they're coming into town, the passengers say, "Oh, we've got to go to that road to get in to park." Then my dad would say, "If you could send that to everyone, that would be great." Everyone's like, "We've already got it." They're all over it.

There are some young people who aren't very involved with the club, but they have the app on their phone purely for meetings because everyone's busy; it's easy to forget. Then there are a few retirees, you know, 60-70 year olds, and they have it on their smartphone, and they love it. They absolutely love it.

They say, "I got the map," or "I got the uniform order. I'll have an XL hoodie," for example. They just love it because it comes in like a message; it's not hard for them to understand, and they know what it is now.

Where To Next? 

If you found this interesting or informative, you will likely find the full case study interesting too. You can check it out at Customer Story - SYP Historic Vehicle Club.