This autumn marked a major milestone for the Oral History Society: the launch of our brand-new, in-house membership system. On the surface it might look like a simple change but, behind the scenes, this was one of the most complex projects the OHS has ever undertaken. And it was achieved almost entirely by volunteers, led by trustee Beth Thomas.
Until now, our membership was managed by an external agency, Webscribe. We owe them our heartfelt thanks for many years of support and technical expertise as well as their gracious cooperation during the transition period. Moving away from that arrangement meant taking full control of our data, integrating it with our website, and setting up secure online payments through Stripe. This sounds straightforward, but it was far from simple.
Months of Planning and Problem-Solving
The work began in earnest in August, when our web developer, Sarah Tamsin, cloned our website to create a staging site for development. From there, the Membership Review Group faced a mountain of challenges:
- Data headaches: The dataset we inherited was complicated by missing or invalid email addresses and incomplete fields (a gentle reminder to our members to please update us when you change your contact information). Every problematic record had to be corrected manually. Up to date email addresses are essential for an online membership system.
- Direct Debit transfers: Moving hundreds of mandates from one provider to another required communication with affected members, precise timing and ensuring that different sets of data aligned exactly.
- Testing and troubleshooting: ‘Dummy’ memberships were created, automated messages checked and countless iterations tested to ensure everything worked as it should.
Even after launch on 6 November, the work didn’t stop. Some members experienced login issues, often because their old email addresses were no longer valid, and agencies needed clarification on new arrangements. Each query was handled patiently, helping us learn the intricacies of the new system.
Why It Matters
Bringing membership management in-house gives us greater control and flexibility. It means we can communicate directly with members, improve access to member benefits, and plan to develop them further. To complete the project, we are working on a further feature which will enable group memberships to manage their own sub-accounts. Named members of a group will have direct access to member benefits using their own email addresses. If all goes to plan, this phase will roll out in the next few months.
Work is still ongoing. Beth is now working with trustee Craig Fees to better align membership of the OHS with access to members’ discussion groups on the groups.io platform. We are also undertaking an independent data privacy review of our processes with the assistance of Simon Heron, a cybersecurity specialist.
A Huge Thank You
The Board of Trustees would like to express sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the successful development and launch of the new in‑house membership system. We are especially grateful to Sarah Tamsin for her exceptional technical leadership, data migration work and tireless troubleshooting throughout the project. Our thanks also go to Polly Owen for managing the financial transition to Stripe and her work with Rob Perks to set up a separate system for processing agency subscriptions. Camille Johnston has patiently managed the upheaval caused to training course bookings caused by the switchover. The team has also updated policy documents and restored website content lost during the staging period.
Finally, we thank our members who have supported this transition with their understanding and patience during this period. If you are a member and haven’t yet set yourself up on the new system, then please go to the Member’s Area to reset your password. You will then be able to see and edit your account details.
