Monday, January 23, 2012

How To Keep It All Straight

Today I got an e-mail notice telling me that this was my last chance.  Apparently I had not responded to several e-mails telling me my membership dues were overdue. (Except that I have been cleaning up all those e-mails from last year, and there were no notices from this group.) I digress.

One of the things on my goal list was to check my memberships to see if they were all up to date. This would not be an issue if I could just check my bank statements or check book and see when I paid for aforesaid memberships. But that would be too easy, right?

See the problem is with hundreds or maybe thousands of members (depending on the group and whether or not it is local or national) who join at various times. It's a bookkeeping nightmare. You wonder why nobody ever volunteers to be the treasurer? So in answer to the problem most (if not all) organizations just note that you have paid and you are a member for "their year." That means if they designate their year as running from June to June your membership is good from whenever you paid till the next June. So if you paid in January, your membership is good till June. If you paid in October, your membership is good till June. If you paid in March your membership is good and paid up till June. Catching on?

Problem is, unless they pro-rate the dues, you pay the entire membership cost and are only paid up for 5, 8, or 3 months (respectfully.)

I don't have a problem with the math. I'm ok with supporting my societies and professional organizations. My problem is that then I don't know when I'm due to re-up. Every society and professional organization has a different due date. How to keep track?

There are a lot of organizations to remember to pay dues to:
Genealogical Speakers Guild
Association of Professional Genealogists
National Genealogical Society
Utah Genealogical Society
Sacramento Genealogical Society (Root Cellar)
Genealogical Association of Sacramento
California Genealogical Society
Southern California Genealogical Society
Lafayette Genealogical Society
Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Society

They all have different due dates.

How do you keep track? Anybody have any ideas on how to keep track? Is there an app that will alert me to due dates? You know like a alarm or something? Come on Techies, help a girl out.