12 Beacon for Networks and Regions Training Guide

12.1 Introduction

This section is to assist Networks and Regions using Beacon. Any reference to Network below will usually apply to Regions as well.

It is assumed that readers have a good working knowledge of using Beacon. Therefore, detailed instructions on the Beacon operations are not included in this section. Further guidance can be found elsewhere in the Beacon Help Centre.

We are “bending” the standard Beacon to fit the different needs. No changes are possible to the software so the integrity is not compromised.

There are key differences between the way an individual u3a and a Network uses Beacon:

Members

• A u3a has Members who are individuals.
• Networks have Members who are typically post holders at u3a’s or are individuals that have signed up for Events such as Summer Schools.

Groups

A u3a has Groups that are Interest Groups.

Networks use Group in its literal meaning; a group/collection of people. This may be:

• The contacts or officers in a u3a
• A collection of post holders such as all Chairs, Secretaries and Treasurers
• Individuals who have booked to attend an Event

As we are trying to set each Beacon for Networks to the specific needs of that organisation, where practical this means there will be differences between Network sites. Therefore, some of the operations described in this guide may not be relevant to your site.

If you find others ways of using Beacon for Networks that you think may be helpful for other Networks, please contact the Beacon Team by raising a Support Ticket in the Beacon Help Centre so that this page can be updated.

12.2 Initial Set-up

Depending on how your Network intends using the Beacon site, some or all of the following set-up operations may be required.

12.2.1 Membership Classes

Add Membership Classes for roles such as Committee, Chair, Secretary, etc.

You can also add Membership Classes to manage one-off Events like Workshops and Summer Schools:

Having different classes for the types of Event bookings, such as “Day” and “Residential” and associating their "membership" fee with the appropriate cost is one way that you can record income.

Note: There are other ways of recording payments as described in12.4.

12.2.2 Finance Categories

Finance Categories can be added to help manage payments for Event bookings:

12.2.3 Venues

Venues can be added to show the month that individual u3a’s have their AGM. Pre-fixing with the number of the month sorts the list in a logical order.

After an AGM the office holders at a u3a may change and the u3a may forget to notify the Network of this change so communication goes astray. 

By looking at your Group List you can see which have recently had or are about to have an AGM and you can contact then to remind then to update you with names and contacts.

Note: an alternative way of recording AGM months is to use the When field in the Group Record. This frees up the Where field in the Group Record to be used for (say) the Venue that a u3a holds their General Meetings; see 12.2.5.

12.2.4 Faculties

Faculties can be added to help you filter your Groups List:

For example, when organising a Summer School you may wish to group some subjects under a Faculty. This could help with organising attendees and facilities for a subject.

12.2.5 Groups

Groups can be added to manage a number of things:

• Individual u3a’s within your Network:
  
  
  
• Posts/Officers within u3a’s, e.g. Secretaries, Chairs, Treasurers, etc:
  
  Note; an alternative way to search for Officers is by entering the appropriate Membership Class in the Quick Find box in the Members List, in which case you won’t need to create Officer Groups.
  
  
• Events such as Summer Schools, so you can record and communicate with all who have booked and record payments:
  
  
  
• Subjects within an Event, so you can track and manage numbers:
  

When adding a new Group enter the following:

• The name of the U3A - Group, e.g. St Andrews, u3a Chairs, 2022 Summer School
• A Faculty, if applicable
• A “Venue”, if applicable, e.g. the AGM month for u3a Groups
• If the Group is for an Event you may wish to add a Contact name/phone number. Adding Max members and Enable waiting list allows waiting lists to be managed.

Note: an alternative way of recording AGM months is to use the When field. This frees up the Where a field to be used for (say) the Venue that a u3a holds their General Meetings.

12.2.6 Polls

When organising Events you can set a Polls to identify attendees with special requirements such as Mobility Issues, Dietary Requirements, Hearing difficulties, etc. This makes it easy to select the Poll to identify those needing special attention.

You can also use Polls to record the sessions at an Event that a delegate wishes to attend.

12.2.7 U3A Officers

U3A Offices can be added for the post holders within your Network Committee to enable easy communication by email.

A single person can have several entries for different roles and different emails.   When someone with more than one email listed sends an email, they will have the option to choose which one is listed to receive any reply.

12.3 Adding Members

Depending on how your Network intends using the Beacon site, some or all of the following set-up operations may be required.

12.3.1 u3a Post Holders

To add post holders at individual u3a’s within your Network select Add New Member from the Home page and pick the applicable Type of Membership:

You don’t need to fill in most of the boxes on this page other than those in bold:

Forename and Surname should have an initial upper case letter.

As most communication is via email you should populate the Email field.

You may not have (or need) the member’s postal address, so the address fields can be populated with information that can be searched for in Excel downloads or when performing a “Quick find” Search from the Members List. For example you may wish to enter:

• The name of the member’s u3a in the Town field
• The member’s role in the No/Name field – while this would seem to duplicate the type of membership, it is helpful to be able to identify a person’s role when viewing the Groups List
• The Post Code can be a real one or something fictitious in the correct format, e.g. XX1 1XX.

In the Payment section add the Amount paid (0.00), before clicking Add Member.

The Post Code and Last payment can be blanked out after the Member Record has been created, leaving a completed record like this:

12.3.2 Event Attendees

To add a new member who will be attending an Event, select Add New Member from the Home page and pick the applicable Type of Membership:

You don’t need to fill in most of the boxes on this page other than those in bold. Forename and Surname should have an initial upper case letter.

As most communication is via email you should populate the Email field. The address fields can be populated with information that can be searched for in Excel downloads or when performing a “Quick find” Search from the Members List. For example you may wish to enter:

• The name of the member’s u3a in the Town field
• The name of the Event in the No/Name field
• The Post Code can be a real one or something fictitious in the correct format, e.g. XX1 1XX.

In the Payment section add the Amount paid and select the Payment method before clicking Add Member:

The Post Code can be blanked out after the Member Record has been created, leaving a completed record like this:

Note: if an event attendee is already on the system as an officer at a u3a or because they have attended a previous event, you do not need to create a New Member record for them.

One option is to “renew” the member into the applicable Membership Class that you have created for the new Event.

Or, depending on how you are managing payments you can record their payment by adding a Transaction in the main Finance Ledger (see 12.4.2) or in the Group Ledger (see 12.4.3).

12.4 Managing Groups

After adding a new Member, they will probably need adding to one or more Groups. This could be an individual u3a Group with an associated Officer Group, or an Event Group.

The Groups that a member belongs to and any related Transactions are shown at the foot of the Member Record:

If a Transaction is related to an Event, associating the Transaction with the Group [A] and/or changing the default Finance Category of Membership to something more appropriate [B] will help keep track of payments for the Event:

12.4.1 Managing Group Members

Adding Members from the Group Record

You can add Members to a Group on the Members page of the Group Record, either one at a time by Name from the drop-down list [C] or in batches by Membership Number [D]

A difference from standard Beacon is that the Add Convenor/Add Leader option is called Make Contact. You can use this to specify the main contact(s) for a u3a; usually the Chair and Secretary.

Adding Members from the Member List

Another way of adding Members to a (u3a) Group is to search for the u3a name in the Quick Find box on the Members list. After ticking all the Members, select Add to u3a – group in the drop-down list at foot of page. Then select the name of the u3a before clicking Do with selected.

12.4.2 Managing Group Payments in the Main Ledger

When a new Member is added and when a Member is Renewed, a Transaction is automatically added to the main Finance Ledger (even if there is no fee associated with the Membership Class).

Associating Transactions with a Group (as described above) enables you to view the Ledger for the Group:

Other payments (both in and out) can be added to the Ledger using the Add transaction operation.

12.4.3 Managing Group Payments in the Group Ledger

There is the option of recording payments (both in and out) in the Ledger page of the Group Record:

Note: the Group Ledger is not linked to the main Finance Ledger, so doing it this way could entail a certain amount of duplication.

12.5 Sending Emails

Emails can be sent from a number of places within Beacon as described below.

When sending an email it is recommended that you Tick to receive a copy as Beacon does not keep a copy of sent emails.

You can check who emails were sent to and whether they were successfully delivered by selecting Email delivery on the Home page.

12.5.1 Emails to the Network Committee

From the U3A Officers page, some or all of the boxes in the left column and then select Send E-mail at the foot of the page:

Note: the use of Tokens to personalise your email greeting is not available from the U3A Officers page.

12.5.2 Emails to Group Contacts

From the Groups List page, tick some or all of the boxes in the left column and then at foot of page select Send E-mail to contacts and press Do with Selected:

Note: when sending emails to u3a post holders you can use the #MEMCLASS Token to personalise your greeting as (say) “Dear Secretary”.

12.5.3 Emails from the Members List

From the Members page, filter the list according to your requirements, e.g. on a Membership Class such as Secretary or on a u3a by using the Quick find box. Tick some or all of the boxes in the left column and then at foot of page select Send E-mail and press Do with Selected:

12.5.4 Emails from the Member Record

From an individual Member record select Send:

12.6 Maintenance

12.6.1 Renewing Members

Beacon sites are set for u3a membership to renew annually. In theory you could ignore this and then the individuals would show in Red in the Group list of members.

It is strongly recommend that each year you set a renewal time and renew all members with the exception of any put in specifically for one-off Events. For these you may wish to Delete or Lapse in line with GDPR policies.

12.6.2 Changing a person in a u3a role

When a post holder in a member u3a (e.g. Chair, Secretary) changes, the name and contact details need to be updated.

First locate the existing member in the Members List or in the appropriate Group.

Open the Member Record and replace the existing Forename, Initial and Surname with the new post holder. The email may need changing well.

Now select Save and the new post holder will be across the system with no more changes required.

12.6.3 Inactive Groups

When a Group has been created for a one-off event you may wish to hide the Group after the Event so that the Groups List doesn’t become too lengthy. This can be done in the Group Details page by changing the Status to Inactive:

By default the Groups List only shows active Groups, although this can be changed by unticking Show Active Only:

Revision History

4	2022-09-03	Graeme Bunting	First Published version
5	2022-11-09	Graeme Bunting	Contents of attachment copied into web page