Member Simple Membership FAQs

Some devices, notably iPads and iPhones do not refresh the page after you have logged in.  This makes it look as if the login hasn’t worked, when it actually has.

All you need to do is refresh your web page and the login button will clear.  You can do this by pressing the little circular arrow, which you will find at the right hand edge of the website address bar at the top of your screen, as shown below.

If you enter an incorrect password three times, the system will automatically lock your account as a security measure,  If you find you have been locked you you should email websupport@southportu3a.org.uk and ask us to unlock your account.

Once your account has been unlocked, unless you have found out what went wrong you should reset your password.  You will find the ‘Create/Reset Password’ link on the login page, which you can access via the red button labelled ‘Click to log in’.

On the reset screen, you will be asked for your membership number.  Once you enter this and submit it you will receive an email with a reset link in it.  Click the link and follow the instructions on the page which will open.  As you enter your new password the red crosses will turn to green ticks, showing your password satisfies all of the requirements.

After resetting your password you will be able to log in.

Tip: Write your new password out somewhere first, then you can make sure you type it in the same way each time.

Our membership card can be downloaded as an image, to your device.  Unless you have changed your default settings it will be saved into your Downloads folder.

Once on your device you have a number of options available:

Android: Google Wallet will allow you to add an image to your wallet, using the card type of ‘Everything Else’.  From the main screen, tap the ‘+’ button, select everything else, choose the media button (to the left of the button which takes a picture) and select the downloaded membership card.  Once you have added the image, Google will ask for a category and various other information and will then add the card to your wallet.

Apple: Unless you live in North America there is currently no facility to add an image to an Apple wallet.  However, you can add the image to the Books, Notes or Photos apps.

Simple Membership is totally integrated into our website.  When you visit the group or event pages, or view anything under the ‘Member Zone’ menu, you are accessing the information held within Simple Membership.

If you are not logged in when you view one of these pages you will see a red button, with the label ‘Click to log in’.  Clicking this button will take you to the login screen and, once logged in, you will be returned to your original page.

Please note:  You do not need to be logged in to browse the site, only to join groups/events or otherwise interact with the membership system (e.g. to pay for an event).

If you are not logged in when you view one of the member related pages you will see a red button, with the label ‘Click to log in’.  Clicking this button will take you to the login screen and, once logged in, you will be returned to your original page.

Please note:  You do not need to be logged in to browse the site, only to join groups/events or otherwise interact with the membership system (e.g. to pay for an event).

A Smartphone is a very small device on which to view the Simple Membership screens, however if you turn your phone sideways it is possible to use it for most things.

If you find that, when you turn your phone sideways, the screen display just stays as it was, you need to turn on the ‘auto-rotate’ function.  The location of this depends on your phone and how you have it set up, but more often than not it will be in the same ‘quick settings’ area as things like turning WiFi or Bluetooth on/off, or turning your torch on/off.

If you cannot find the auto-rotate setting on your phone, use the search function in your settings (if you have one).  Failing that use Google and failing that ask for help at a group or monthly meeting.

The password requires at least one ‘special’ character, such as a £.  When you create/reset your password the form will show a series of requirements with a red ‘X’ agains them.  As you satisfy each requirement the red ‘X’ will change to a green tick.

This sometime happens when your browser is set to ‘Request mobile website’.

In Safari, tap on the ‘aA’ in the address/search bar and select ‘Website settings’, then ‘Request desktop website’.

In other browsers, such as Chrome, you will find the Desktop site selection in the ‘three dots’ menu at the top right of the page.

When you wish to book an event on behalf of yourself and a partner, there are a couple of things you need to be aware of:

Group Events

• Even if you have a joint membership, the system will not just assume that you are booking for yourself and your joint membership partner.  It has been designed to allow you to book for yourself and any other member of the group, as your linked partner may not wish to attend and you may be taking a friend.
• If you select the option to book for yourself and a partner you must select a partner from the dropdown list.  If you do not, the system will assume you really just wanted to book for yourself.

Events Available For All Members

• When you want to book on an open event, the only partner available in the drop down list will be your linked partner in a joint membership.
• If you do not have a joint membership, the option to book for a partner will not be available.

The reason behind this is that it would be impractical to provide a dropdown list containing every single member of our u3a.  It would be too long to scroll through and the performance of any search would likely be unacceptable.

If you wish to be linked to another member, not your partner, on an open event, you will need to email the Event Organiser and ask them to do the link on your behalf.

Under the ‘Events’ menu on our website, you will see two options.  The first is for events which are open to all Southport u3a members and the second is for group related events.

In order to open events from these lists you will need to be logged in.

From the ‘Events’ menu, select the option labelled ‘Events for all Southport u3a members’.

You must be logged in to the membership system for these to be visible

You must be logged in to the membership system for these to be visible

You do not have to have a PayPal account in order to pay via the Simple Membership PayPal option.  However, if the email address you use is registered to a PayPal account it will expect you to log in to your account.

If you are on a small screen device, you may be asked to enter an email address before going to the screen on which you enter your card details.  This is needed in order to send your PayPal receipt.

If your payment card is registered to an existing PayPal account you must sign in to that account in order to pay with it.

PayPal security restrictions prevent a single credit/debit card being used on multiple accounts.  If you do not want to sign in to a PayPal account you must use a different debit or credit card.

In addition, PayPal occasionally and at random does not offer the guest checkout option.  If this happens, simply cancel out of the screen and then click the Pay with PayPal option again to restart the process.

If you are being given a fee of £0.00 it is because you are signed up to a joint membership and you are shown as the partner.  Your partner will be shown as the primary member and responsible for paying for both of you.

If you wish to change this please contact the Membership Secretary via our contact form.

The image below shows how the payment screen looks when this problem occurs.

This happens occasionally when you are using the card payment options from our payment screen.  If you experience this, cancel the form, select the ‘Pay with PayPal’ option and then choose the option to check out as a guest, without creating a PayPal account.

To avoid our emails being treated as Spam, please add ‘simplemembership@southportu3a.org.uk’ to your contact list.

If you stop receiving emails about groups, events or membership, there is a chance that your email provider has flagged a message as spam.  Please get in touch with us as soon as you can, at websupport@southportu3a.org.uk, and we will look into it for you.