Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra: Membership and Dues Management with Join It

Overview

The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is a long-standing community orchestra based in New York, composed of 60 to 70 active musicians who rehearse regularly and present five concerts each year at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization has grown into a dues-paying membership community supported by a volunteer working board and today maintains nearly 300 total memberships through Join It.

BSO first joined Join It in September 2018 and currently uses the Total package (annual), with a membership cap set at 500. With an active account indexed in Join It's sitemap and crawled by Google, BSO benefits from stable infrastructure, ongoing product improvements, and a platform aligned with their administrative needs.

The Challenge

With 299 total memberships and a rotating roster of performers, BSO manages a large amount of operational detail:

• Tracking dues for active, prospective, and lapsed members
  
  
• Keeping an accurate roster of current players
  
  
• Following up on payments and renewal cycles
  
  
• Communicating with members through integrated email channels
  
  
• Managing data across multiple tools, including Mailchimp, Salesforce, Eventbrite, and Give Lively
  
  

Before utilizing Join It more fully, identifying who was due to pay, who was current, and who needed follow-up required manual lists and cross-checking between spreadsheets and paper notes. For a volunteer board of 12 people, this created avoidable friction and slowed down routine operational work.

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The Big Win

A clear, accurate roster in seconds instead of hours

As BSO refined its use of Join It, a single improvement unlocked major value: using a custom field to create a definitive roster of current players. By adding a simple Current Player field, Mo Barrett was able to unify member statuses and generate an accurate, real-time list of 60 active musicians.

This solved a long-standing visibility gap. The board can now quickly:

• Identify current members
  
  
• Check dues status
  
  
• Ensure communications and reminders are targeted
  
  
• Support section leaders with accurate rehearsal insights
  
  

“I’ve been able to go in and easily query different members to see their status and follow up with an email. It has been a very useful tool.”

This new workflow has replaced manual updates, prevents errors, and gives BSO a reliable operational snapshot every time they log in.

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How Join It Supports BSO’s Operations

Reliable membership and payment oversight
BSO uses Join It to monitor dues, send targeted reminders, and collect payments through a streamlined interface. The last recorded payment took place on September 16, 2025 for the current membership cycle.

Smooth integration with Mailchimp
Every new member record is synced to BSO’s mailing list, ensuring communications stay accurate without double entry.

Website alignment and easy onboarding
Join It integrates cleanly with the BSO website, allowing new members, prospective players, and supporters to sign up or join email lists at:
https://www.brooklynsymphonyorchestra.org/

Member-friendly experience
Renewing membership or signing up takes only a few clicks. As Mo noted, members rarely raise issues, and the platform makes it easy for new supporters to join the community.

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Future Opportunities

BSO is now exploring additional functionality to strengthen operations further:

• Digital membership cards included in their Total package
  
  
• Smart attendance tracking for rehearsals
  
  
• Enhanced filtering dashboards for quicker access to member segments
  
  

Join It’s development team regularly reviews customer requests for beta testing and feasibility, giving BSO a direct path to new features that support their mission.

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Outcome

Since deepening their use of Join It, BSO has improved administrative efficiency, gained reliable control over member visibility, and strengthened the experience for both performers and supporters. With nearly 300 active memberships and capacity to grow to 500, they now have a scalable foundation for continued artistic and community impact.

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