CLIENT STORIES

Northwest Hydroelectric Association

Client Spotlight: Northwest Hydroelectric Association

We are delighted to count the Northwest Hydroelectric Association as one of our clients.

We have been working with this membership organization since August 2013. According to their website, “The NWHA provides a regional voice for the hydropower industry, representing the needs of its membership since 1981. NWHA is dedicated to the promotion of the region’s waterpower as a clean, efficient energy while protecting the fisheries and environmental quality which characterize our Northwest region.”

The association puts on several conferences, seminars and other events throughout the year for their membership.

We recently spoke with Jan Lee, NWHA’s Executive Director, to find out more about her association and how she is using Regpack to manage her membership and events. She has really appreciated the automatic email functionality

Regpack offers as well as the reporting, which makes the time she spends on ‘admin’ and registration much less than in the past. This has freed up time for her to spend MORE time on her event planning and enriching the quality of the association’s events and offerings.

Your events change lives. Let us change yours.

Tell me a little bit about northwest hydroelectric association.

A number of our members are utilities in the Northwest, other members are small generators who are not utilities, and then manufacturers of equipment for the industry and consultants of many clients. We have 120 companies that are members and that includes states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Northern California and British Columbia.

You began working with Regpack in August of 2013. What method of registration and payments did you use before switching to Regpack?

We were running payments through our bank’s credit card system. I did registration manually. The companies filled out registration forms and emailed them to me, or faxed them to us. And then I had to use the bank’s online system to enter the data.

What was the reason for seeking out a new way of registration and payment management?

We were looking for a software and checked out some sister organizations first to see what they were using.

What were the main features you were looking for in a registration and payment software?

Something that was flexible, not too expensive. A lot of the software we looked at were integrated packages for associations that were very spendy and we didn’t need a lot of the pieces that were in those packages.

What is your favorite feature Regpack provides?

The automatic receipts is very nice for payments.

How has using Regpack improved your work flow?

It frees up time from having to manually input every entry. We can develop spreadsheets from what’s posted online and use that for making up our name badges and our networking lists, that sort of thing.

What have you done with the time you’ve freed up from your manual process?

Putting more involvement into planning events. We’re seeing more people attending. I feel like my time is spent doing what I want to do instead of towards registration.

Would you say the cost of Regpack, compared to other softwares/your previous method, is worth the cost?

Yes! It was also on the cheaper side of softwares I considered!

If someone asked you to recommend Regpack, would you? Why would you tell them to consider us for their registration needs?

Yes! I think because the company offers flexibility and continuously updates the system. Regpack takes into consideration the needs of the individual people using it. As a membership organization, the way the information is collected is important, Regpack makes this easier.

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The automatic receipts is very nice for payments.

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We’ve included some important tasks all event planners need on their event checklist, including:

• Event Goals
• Event Budget: ticket costs, sponsorship, etc.
• Transportation / Parking
• Sub – Contractor Lists
• Staff / Volunteer Selection
• Creating an Event Marketing Plan
• Create an Event Website
• Develop an Event Schedule