Youmie Crash Course: how we help new boards get started

In many clubs, the committee changes every year. This means that new people are constantly getting to grips with the app. It isn’t always immediately clear how the previous secretary or treasurer had set things up. And you only discover many of the handy features when you happen to come across them by chance.

That’s why we’re organising the Crash Course: a free online training session for Youmie customers. Participation is voluntary, and other board members are welcome to join. The session is aimed at new boards and anyone who works with the app, but even experienced board members can use it to refresh their knowledge. In a short space of time, you’ll learn what would otherwise take months to figure out bit by bit.

This year, we ran the Crash Course twice, so that anyone who missed the first session could still join in. There’ll be another session halfway through the society year.

We’ll start with a brief refresher and show you which new features, modules and integrations have been added. We’ll then split into smaller groups based on board roles. Secretaries, communications officers and administrators will sit together, as will treasurers and board members responsible for business development and sponsorship. This way, we’ll focus on the issues relevant to your own role.

A few topics that will be covered:

• Getting new members started: how new members gain access and quickly find their way around the app.
• Preparing for the new year: clearing out old information, committees and events, so that the app is ready for a new society year.
• Communication and engagement: using news and push notifications to keep members informed and encourage them to take action.
• Finding answers yourself: where to find explanations, inspiration and instructions in the Youmie Wiki and the handbook.

We’ll also highlight features that clubs often overlook. Think of a duty rota where members can swap shifts themselves and receive automatic reminders, an induction environment for prospective members, an in-app shop with iDEAL payments, or sponsor banners and job vacancies that offer visibility to your partners. Not every club needs everything. The aim is for a committee to be able to choose what suits its own plans.

There were 38 participants at the first session. Eleven of them completed the evaluation afterwards, and all eleven respondents would recommend the Crash Course to their successor. That’s great to hear! Participants found the smaller groups, the product updates and the explanation of the Wiki and support particularly valuable.

Some clear requests also emerged: more practical examples and more in-depth coverage. We’ll be working on that. We want to show the admin portal and the app side by side, so you can immediately see what a change means for members. We’ll start more often by addressing a familiar club-related problem, provide more guidance when introducing a new app, and work through sponsorship options using a concrete calculation example. The opening session will be more concise, and we’ll divide participants into groups in advance so you can get straight to the content relevant to your role.

The Crash Course is one of the ways in which we continue to support clients even after the project has been delivered. This means a new board doesn’t have to start from scratch, but can build on what their predecessors have put in place. Youmie creates apps for associations and communities whose communication and activities are currently spread across separate channels, and then helps boards to make the most of the app.

Curious to find out what this could mean for your association? Get in touch with us and gain access to the free demo environment.