Greetings, Friends of MASF!

This past year we celebrated our Golden Anniversary and are moving forward towards our next 50 years. As part of this process, we are revamping our technology systems. Currently we are running on very old and unsupported systems. They were created years ago by very talented programmers designed to meet our needs at that time. However, our needs have changed, in part due to your very inspired recommendations and in part due to our desire to make MASF more responsive to our membership.

Initially, we have been focusing on creating a membership application which will enable you to fill out information online rather than printing out a form and mailing it in. This will automatically create a database for better communication of our activities and avoid errors due to manual entry off of paper forms.

At the same time, in response to a number of requests, we are offering a secure online payment system, not only for membership renewals but also for our annual exhibition, donations, and workshops. This system will enable you to pay by credit card or ACH debit, and for membership, you can set up an automatic annual payment. It will also track payments and will deposit funds into our account without having to deal with checks. Of course, if payment by check is your preference, you have that option.

We will be using Zeffy for our financial transactions because, since MASF is a non-profit, we will receive 100% of the funds without credit card fees and no fee for using the platform. However, Zeffy does request an additional payment to provide this service. They automatically add 17% charge but give you the opportunity to set the amount to a lower %, including $0, when entering your payment information at the end. Implementation of this system is being pilot-tested this summer and will begin to be used in August for membership, donations, and exhibition entry.

For the forthcoming year, we will be expanding our system development to include a reworking of the exhibition entry form and the creation of a workshop registration system. The modular database created by this automation as well as the training of multiple individuals to use the disparate components will enable more personalized service and outreach to expand our activities.

Thank you for bearing with us while we go through this process. If you have any questions, please contact me or our systems developer. Have a great summer.

Cheers, Julie

Julie J McGowan, President                                                               Kim DiVito, Systems Analyst
President@miniatureartsocietyflorida.org                                        IT@miniatureartsocietyflorida.org