On 11/16/13 9:08 AM, Marvin Johnston wrote:
It is possible that the comments I've heard about being able to join or pay membership fees online are wrong. If so, please correct or ignore some of the statements below.
There is nothing obvious on the home page about joining SBARC, a somewhat careful reading is required to find that link. The Donation/Membership button is somewhat confusing as to why it is there, or who it is for.
So I try to join online, and first thing I see is the Membership Button labeled donation with no dollar amount for joining.
Things aren't often as easy as they seem. Consider the different classes of membership, price drop after 6 months (but just for new members), capturing areas of interest, and the like. There are lots of corner cases -- someone joining in July as a family member at the same address as an existing member (who, how to cross-reference), someone becoming licensed who wasn't (change of membership class with no money involved), changes of mailing address, etc.
There are also specific requirements for taking payments online (search "PCI compliance" for the gory details) which can usually be handled with a hosted service such as PayPal or similar.
A simple shopping-cart system could probably handle a lot of this but there are many variables and the Secretary and membership chairman need something usable that integrates with their needs. It's more complicated than a simple website tweak.
Fillable PDF forms in my experience are close to but not ready for prime time as a universal cross-platform tool, often because of incompatibilities with some PDF renderers and plug-ins.
Thanks for volunteering to improve it! :-)
-- Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay@impulse.net Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/ Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV