The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

So what's the big deal about being a third of the way through the year? Well, there are a significant number of long-time Antique Phonograph Society members who have not yet joined up for 2017.

I am surprised each year by how difficult it is to convince many of our members to simply RENEW. Over many months our volunteers send out emails and eventually paper mailings (consuming hundreds of dollars in funds) to simply remind our members to RENEW.

The March 2017 issue of The Antique Phonograph has been out for some time, and the June issue will be on the way in a few weeks. If you're a serious collector, do you really want to miss out on the 52-page full color quarterly journal and the Members Only section of the APS website?

http://www.antiquephono.org/join-us-home/

Best wishes to all!

George Paul - President

The journal alone is worth the dues!

Hi George,

If I may I'd like to make the following suggestion about dues renewal.

When someone joins or renews their membership it should be stated that their membership will automatically be renewed each year using the credit card or bank account on file unless notified prior to the renewal date that wish to cancel their membership. This would solve all this problem and is how most subscription services work.

Rich Gordon

Thanks for the testimonial, Hearse, and for your suggestion, Rich.

The idea of multiple-year renewals has been floated in the past, and automatic renewal sounds like a wonderful idea to me. It all comes down to execution, of course. The APS takes the privacy and security of its members very, very seriously (which is the main reason it doesn't have a membership directory). The Society won't take a step until it's sure there is no risk involved for its members. I for one am hoping that either multiple-year memberships or automatic renewals can be arranged for those who want them.

Thanks again - and especially to those who have already responded to my reminder!

Best to all - -

George P.

I fully understand the privacy concerns of the APS. Automatic renewals would require the APS to not only process, but store credit card information, which means to fall under PCI (Payment Card Industry) security requirements. To become PCI compliant is complicated and expensive, so even large companies decide against processing cards themselves and rather use a service (like Paypal or similar) instead. I think APS uses Paypal as well to avoid dealing with cards themselves.

One option could be to send members who are interested in automatic renewals a "PayPal.Me" link every year as reminder. Not fully automatic, but a bit more convenient than the manual renewal on the site. Just a thought...

Andreas

I agree with Rich - in this busy on the run world we live in automatic CC renewals would be a real plus !! A member can always op out.

The APS definitely does NOT want members' credit card numbers, so going through something like PayPal (as we already do) would be the way to accomplish automatic/multi-year renewals. The "how to" is being discussed by some of the best minds at the APS. Naturally, I'm not part of that brainy group, but I'll report results here, as always.

Sincere thanks to all who have responded to yesterday's reminder. Please keep them coming!

Best to all,
George P.

phonogfp wrote:The APS definitely does NOT want members' credit card numbers, so going through something like PayPal (as we already do) would be the way to accomplish automatic/multi-year renewals. The "how to" is being discussed by some of the best minds at the APS. Naturally, I'm not part of that brainy group, but I'll report results here, as always.

Sincere thanks to all who have responded to yesterday's reminder. Please keep them coming!

Best to all,
George P.

I'm not sure of the specifics, but PayPal does have a subscription / billing agreement / recurring payment feature. I have a few things that auto renew annually as well as monthly using PayPal. Might be worth looking into.

HisMastersVoice wrote:

phonogfp wrote:The APS definitely does NOT want members' credit card numbers, so going through something like PayPal (as we already do) would be the way to accomplish automatic/multi-year renewals. The "how to" is being discussed by some of the best minds at the APS. Naturally, I'm not part of that brainy group, but I'll report results here, as always.

Sincere thanks to all who have responded to yesterday's reminder. Please keep them coming!

Best to all,
George P.

I'm not sure of the specifics, but PayPal does have a subscription / billing agreement / recurring payment feature. I have a few things that auto renew annually as well as monthly using PayPal. Might be worth looking into.

This could help you avoid a lot of headaches. To the extent I have delayed my renewals in the past, it's due to forgetfulness, despite the reminders having been sent. I'm sure this is the same for others. As does HMV I have some subscriptions that automatically renew via payPal including the City of London Phonograph and Phonograph and Gramophone Society.