UKC

I help run an MOD climbing club with its own climbing wall. I'm looking to move away from our very paper-heavy membership system. I've looked at the likes of RockGymPro but they're a bit expensive for our very small membership. 

Are there any cheap/free alternatives for simple tasks like adding members and checking dates members have climbed?

Would it be possible to make something similar on MS Access?

I wrote a system called climbTIME when the Climbing Works first opened, and it's still in use there as well as at the Foundry and a few other places, having grown into a fully functional entry logging system. Contact me on john@climbtime.net or via my profile here and we can talk about whether it could be a good fit with your requirements.

Cheers

John

Yes, we asked John to write us a database for the Works back in 2006. It was a bespoke system based on what I asked John to create (he added a few things of his own). It has creaked quite a lot under the sheer volume of stuff we put through it (50,000 members over 11 years and 100,000 visits a year) so we are working with John to create a SQL server database (whatever that means!).

But value for money compared with RGP. Wow, a ridiculously low one off fee plus support and development charged by the 1/4 hour. We have often contemplated moving to RGP but their price rise in 2016 (or whenever), combined with the very personal support from John (yes, I have known him pretty well for quite a long time) meant we didn't jump ship. And to be honest we are going to stick with John at least until we see if his SQL server option works.

I can only comment from 'the other end' eg as a customer but I think Rock Gym Pro is a pain. I'm often asked to update my details at infrequently used walls and when I inevitably moan about it I always cite The Works as an example of how it should be done.

That makes me popular*

I'd like to be able to take some credit for this, but alas I'm pretty sure it comes down to management decisions rather than software. climbTIME certainly gives you the option to require periodic registration renewal but it's up to the wall management to implement that switch, to specify the expiry duration and to choose how that renewal should be achieved in practice for each individual. At its simplest it could be just "Are these details still correct?" "Yes." Click.

We use Membership Tills which works for us.  richard@membershiptill.com 

If you are introducing an electronic system then any of them will do. I have looked at RGP (this was a while ago) and concluded it would have been a step backwards in certain areas. These may have been addressed.

As a customer Rock Gym Pro is horrid.

But if you do use it please please install PCs with keyboards for signup, not iPads.  It’s truly nasty to use on a touch screen.

https://membermojo.co.uk never used it myself but the person I know who has seemed to like it.

Howdy all. I don’t want to come across as spammy, but I’ve wrote and maintained the database software that’s been in use at Eden Rock Carlisle (and now Eden Rock Edinburgh…) for the past 5 years. It works really well.

I haven’t made it commercially available yet, but I’m planning to start working with a handful of UK walls soon to roll it out. Something along the lines of 6 months free use (and support!) in exchange for lots of your feedback on how to make it ‘perfect’.

If this would be of any interest, drop me a note and we’ll work something out.