As with many organisations, it is essential that we adapt to changing expectations and modern working practices. The previous Slough u3a membership‑joining process had become outdated and required a significant amount of manual effort. It was therefore agreed that improvements were necessary. While traditional methods would remain available, it was felt that the majority of new memberships could be handled more efficiently online. A straightforward system allowing members to pay by credit or debit card was required. Fortunately, the national u3a already offered an online payment facility integrated with their membership database, Beacon, which Slough u3a was able to adopt.
To implement this improvement, the Treasurer and Web Manager worked collaboratively over several weeks to integrate the Slough u3a website with the Beacon system. Beacon serves as the national membership database (and more) and is administered by the u3a head office. The integration process involved complex financial arrangements with two banking organisations - made unexpectedly challenging by Slough u3a’s status as a registered charity. In addition, substantial updates to our website were required, along with the creation of electronic links between the site and Beacon. After thorough testing, the new system was launched and has operated smoothly from the outset. New members can now pay online by debit or credit card, and their details are automatically added to the Beacon database.
Beyond the considerable time saved for the Treasurer, the new system also enabled us to automatically send a welcome email to new members. This presented an opportunity to gather valuable information. The welcome message now includes a short form inviting new members to indicate which Groups interest them, suggest additional areas of interest for potential future Groups, and express whether they might be willing to support the running of Groups or the u3a more generally. While this form has been extremely useful, it initially created additional manual work, as the responses needed to be reviewed and forwarded to the appropriate Group Convenors.
This repetitive task - extracting information from forms and sending emails - was an ideal candidate for automation. The Web Manager first developed a complex Excel spreadsheet to process each form and extract the relevant details. However, because all interest selections were stored together, notifying individual Convenors required intricate formulas and still could not fully automate the process.
It soon became clear that a more robust solution was required. With persistence, many cups of coffee, and - dare we admit it - a little assistance from AI, a bespoke automated system was developed. This system reads incoming form data, validates it, checks each member’s interests against our list of Groups, and automatically generates and sends an email to each relevant Convenor. Even if a new member expresses interest in several Groups, the system handles all notifications instantly and without human intervention.
The benefits of this new process are significant. When joining, new members are already engaged with Slough u3a and are therefore more likely to complete the interest form promptly. Convenors are notified quickly, enabling them to make timely personal contact, introduce themselves, and welcome the new member - striking while the iron is hot. This approach has already proven effective in encouraging new members to join our Groups.
The fully automatic system is now being utilised to make Slough u3a much more efficient.
Feb.2026