Frequently Asked Questions About VGEC Membership

Several questions were asked about membership during the 2015 Annual Conference Business Meeting in St. Louis

By Cheryl Cantrall FVGEC, All Saints' Episcopal Church, Lakeland, Florida, VGEC Membership Chair, [email protected]

There have recently been various membership questions brought to the attention of the VGEC Membership Committee. We will attempt to answer a few of those questions.

I have moved, have a new phone number or changed parishes, so how do I update my information for the Vergers Guild?

Any personal information such as an address change, new phone number, fax number, work number, spouse/partner change can be updated quite easily by visiting the verger website at membership.vergers.org. You will first be asked to enter your email address and password. Don’t have or remember your password? No worries – Membership Management System will prompt you to access a new password. Once you are logged into MMS all your personal information will be there. MMS will allow you to update any of the information listed. After the information is changed you must select the submit button and MMS automatically updates the information and sends you an email showing the corrected information. If you forgot something or need to correct an error just repeat the process. If all else fails, email the information to [email protected] and we will help with the changes.

We have a new verger in our parish and we want to register them under our Parish Membership.

Have the new verger go to try.vergers.org and sign up for the "Free 6-month" trial membership. After they join as a trial member, please send an email to us at [email protected] and include their name in the email. After receipt of the information, their membership type will be updated to "Parish Membership" and their membership expiration date will be updated to match the parish's date of expiration.

We have vergers who are no longer vergers and we want them deleted off our parish roster.

We don't delete any records in MMS. We inactivate any person who no longer wishes to be a member of the guild or who is no longer a verger in a certain parish. Their name will stay on the parish roster but in an inactive status and are not updated when the parish membership is renewed. If you are removing a person who is no longer a verger it is helpful to give a reason, if possible, so we may track why someone is no longer active. Such reasons could be: moved, no longer interested, currently in school, etc. If you have a verger who is deceased and can provide a date of death they will be listed in the "Remembrance" section of our online Membership Directory. That directory is available at membership.vergers.org.

I tried to submit my dues and it rejected my credit card.

We occasionally have members who cannot get their credit card information in the system on the first try. Try a second time being sure to just use numbers (no dashes or spaces) and also that the number, expiration date, and security code are absolutely correct. If that does not work, you may contact us at [email protected] and we can process the card for you. Send membership an email stating MMS would not accept the credit card and include a good time to make contact with you.

I don’t trust online transactions and want to submit my dues via check.

Our site is very secure and uses PayPal for all secure credit card transactions. Using online transactions save the VGEC a considerable amount of time and effort required to collect funds using alternate methods. If you must use a check, make the check out to "Vergers Guild of the Episcopal Church" and mail the check to VGEC, PO Box 280, Round Rock, TX 78680-0280. Regular renewal is $40, Parish renewal is $200 (for 5 or more members) and Retired (means retired from verging) or student memberships are $20, and LifeTime memberships are $500.

I want to take the Training Course for the VGEC or have other questions regarding training.

Questions regarding training should be directed to our Training Course Advisor, Duke DuTeil at [email protected]. Complete information on the course is available at vergers.org/training where the course may be easily purchased online for $65.

The VGEC Membership Committee hopes these tips are helpful. If you have more questions membership can be reached at [email protected].

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The 2017 VGEC Annual Conference in Atlanta is coming soon on October 12th to October 15th. Registrations made through Thursday, August 31, 2017 are $225.00 per person. Registrations made after August 31, 2017 are $275.00 per person. The deadline to register is Monday, October 2, 2017. We cannot accept on-site registrations!

Editors note: Send ideas for Vergers Voice blog topics to [email protected] or submit your own manuscript for consideration.

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Abstract: Many membership questions and situations can be addressed by using the Membership Management System (MMS). Here are suggestions from the Membership Committee for handling common problems.