Detailed notes covering the 2022-2023 season membership renewal process:
Payment of membership fees via credit card online is now required. Given the limited common usage and hefty merchant fee impost of some credit card options (e.g. American Express in particular) we are only able to accept Mastercard and Visa credit card payments.
If you are finding this online payment process intimidating or you are having difficulties please don’t hesitate to contact the Membership Secretary, Chris Gaskell, via the “Contact Us” page in the menu bar above.
Follow these simple steps to complete your online renewal:
1) Access your GFS Membership Home Page
Navigate online to your familiar GFS membership system home page here and login using the same credentials you used last year. If you have forgotten your username, click the “Forgotten your login name? Click here.” link to have it emailed to you. If you’ve forgotten your password you can reset it by clicking the “Forgotten your password? Click here.” link, fill in your email address and then follow the instructions emailed to you. Remember that the email address you insert here must be one set in the membership system or this password reset arrangement won’t work. If you’ve forgotten which email address you have set in the system you will need to contact the GFS Membership Secretary to have it reset for you.
Note: that once you reach your home page the Member payments details shown will still be those relating to last year’s 2021-2022 Sailing Season. These figures will only be updated after you complete this year’s online membership renewal.
Once you reach your home page you will notice a prominent Blue button in the upper middle part of your screen. Clicking this Blue “2022-2023 Season Membership Renewal” button will reveal the membership renewal Fees & Charges page.
2) Complete entry of the 2022/2023 Season Membership Fees & Charges options
Within the Fees & Charges page you will be shown a row of membership category options for yourself and any family members who may be associated with your family grouping (if applicable). Please check the membership category appropriate to the member within each row listed, then click the blue “Next” button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the credit card payment Registration page.
Note: if you chose a Full Member category and within the membership system you have already assigned yourself Skipper status for a particular boat, a light green coloured event options row will have been revealed immediately below your name. If you are a Skipper of a boat and your coloured boat events options row is not listed on this Fees & Charges page please press the ‘Cancel’ button at the bottom of the page to return to your Home page where you can assign yourself a boat by choosing the “Add new boat” menu item from the left hand side menu bar. Proceeding further with your renewal without assigning yourself your boat will result in you not being registered for participation in a racing events. In this case it is highly likely you may miss out on important pre-season email correspondence from Club officials concerning safety audit arrangements and Skipper briefing alerts etcetera.
Note: you will need to select at least one membership category for each member row on your Fees & Charges page and at least one event for each boat listed before you will be permitted to proceed to the payment Registration page. If you have extraneous extra boats associated with your membership, again please press the ‘Cancel’ button at the bottom of the page to return to your Home page where you may delete unwanted boat assignments by pressing the orange “Remove” button associated with those boats.
3) Enter your credit card details in the Registration page
On the Registration page please enter your credit card details in the form provided and press the blue “Confirm” button at the bottom of the page after checking that all your membership and credit card details are all correct.
Note: if you are not familiar with what the “Card verification value (cvv)” field means, for Visa and MasterCard credit cards this refers to the 3 digit number located on the back of your card on or above your signature line. See card back images shown here for the location of these CSV numbers.
Note: if you do discover you have made an error with your membership categories or other options choices (e.g you’ve neglected to select one or other of the Clubhouse dinghy or boat storage options, if applicable) simply press the orange “Back” button at the bottom of the page to return to the Fees & Charges page.
4) Receive payment confirmation
If your payment is successful you will be returned to your home page where an alert banner will confirm your payment success status. You will also receive an email confirmation confirming receipt of your payment as well as your financial membership status.
If your payment is unsuccessful you will be returned to the Registration page in order for you to check and re-enter your credit card details again or to enable you to enter an alternative card if need be.
Note: if you are unsuccessful after three separate payment attempts the membership renewal process will be cancelled and an alert email will be issued to the GFS Membership Secretary whereupon he will attempt to contact you to provide assistance or you may commence the renewal process again having clarified what might be the cause of the payment rejections. You will also receive an email alert that the process was cancelled.
Note: that if your payment renewal was accepted and you have been returned to your home page, the Membership fees and payments details set out in your home page will now reflect those applying to the new 2022-2023 Sailing Season. Plus the green financial status flag should also have been reset.