ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS
Some members may not be receiving all emails sent to them from Canvey Island U3A, via the Beacon system; they may instead be going to spam or junk folders. To ensure that this does not happen to you, please go to your email account and enter us (noreply@u3abeacon.org.uk) into your trusted, safe senders /allowed email addresses and contacts lists. This should ensure, as far as possible, that you always receive emails sent by Committee Members and your Group Liaisons. Full Details Are Here
Beacon is a web-based system that can offer us much more than just a membership database. All U3A members' records, such as email addresses, phone numbers and addresses, are kept securely in one place. Restricted areas of the records can be accessed by relevant committee members and Group Liaisons, for example, to send emails to members or group members.
The system has the possibility of enabling members' subscriptions to be paid online. There is a simple built-in accounts system that will allow Treasurer's a simple option to manage the U3A accounts. These accounts are acceptable for yearly submission to the Charity Commission.
Membership cards are printed by the Beacon system and include a bar-coded membership number. Members will be required to use their cards to scan on entry to main meetings. This will give the committee and future committees valuable data on members attending meetings and the capacity at meetings. There will no longer be a need for members to sign in at AGM meetings, etc.
Group Liaisons have now been given access to Beacon. This will enable them to keep an accurate record of their group members, easily send emails to their members, enter the dates of their group meetings via the "Schedule" option, and enter or change forthcoming group meeting dates. If Liaisons need to collect money for any reason, there is a simple ledger to help.
If you have any questions or queries about the Beacon system, please contact Website/Beacon, and I will try to answer them.
Links in Emails
Some Committee members and Group Liaisons are now using Links in their Beacon emails and will be doing so even more in the future.
If you receive an email that includes a link (the link text will normally be Blue and Underlined), it means that there is more information to be seen on the link. All you need to do is click (or tap in the case of a mobile phone or iPad) on the Blue underlined text, and you will be taken to that extra information.
Apologies to the computer-literate amongst you, who know this already. However, it appears that there are many of you out there who do not know this basic facility. This basic rule usually applies to any document that you may come across on the internet. If there is text that is underlined and usually blue, in colour, then click on it to see other information. There are examples of this in various places in the text of this page.
For Group Liaisons and Committee Members
If you are a registered Beacon user, you would have been allocated your login details to be able to use the system. The only way to log into the Beacon System to update your "Group" or for any Committee purposes is via the dedicated Beacon sign-in page, which can be found on the following link: BEACON USERS SIGN IN PAGE. You will need your allocated user ID and password. PLEASE NOTE: THE WEBSITE THAT YOU ARE ON NOW IS THE CANVEY ISLAND U3A WEBSITE, IT IS NOT BEACON.
If you are a Group Liaison, please make sure that you fill in the "Details" section and "Schedule" sections of your group, as these details will be reflected on this website to allow all of our visitors and members to have an up-to-date version of your upcoming group events.
Help and instruction on how to use the Beacon system are available to users if needed. In the first instance, the Guide A Useful User Guide for All Beacon Users should be studied, and you are expected to have basic knowledge of your own computer systems. Unfortunately, help is not available in basic computer skills. If, as a Liaison, you decide that you do not want to use Beacon, our Groups Coordinator will look after it for you. If this is the case, it is most important for you to inform the Groups Coordinator as soon as possible when changes happen regarding your group. i.e. members (new and to be deleted), meeting dates, times and venues.
Please see A Useful User Guide for All Beacon Users for an easy-to-follow guide through the system with screenshots.
IMPORTANT
As a Liaison, when you get a request from a Member to join your Group, please make sure that, as well as their name, you make a note of their MEMBERSHIP NUMBER.
You will not be able to enter them on your Beacon group list using their name; YOU CAN ONLY USE THEIR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER. We have configured Beacon this way as we do have members with identical names.
Also, when sending an email to more than 50 recipients, it is a requirement to add a disclaimer at the bottom of the email. This will help to ensure that your emails are not seen as spam. The required text can be found if you Click Here.