Stapleton Master Community Association maximizes facilities, saves money and automates operations with web-based, hosted association management software solution

Background

The Stapleton Master Community Association (MCA) is a 501(c) 4 non-profit community organization whose mission is to create and sustain a sense of community at Stapleton through comprehensive management of parks and recreational facilities, community events and cultural programming. Stapleton, a large master-planned community in Denver, CO, has over 10,000 residents and continues to grow.

Challenge

Until fall 2008, the Stapleton community was outsourced and ran by an aquatics management company that utilized ActiveNet, a hosted association management software solution from Active Network, to automate its operations. After discontinuing contracts with the third party management company, the Stapleton MCA faced having to purchase its own system.

Solution

In the interest of due diligence, Keven Burnett, Executive Director of the Stapleton MCA, evaluated other association management software packages, but ultimately decided to purchase ActiveNet. “We chose ActiveNet because it was going to fulfill all of our needs and it could be customized to fit our specific circumstances. ActiveNet ensured that our data would be protected on off-site servers, which saved us significant resources from not only needing a more advanced IT department to manage the system, but everything that goes with on‑site transactions, including installing firewalls and maintaining PCI compliance. In all, ActiveNet was a very cost‑effective solution for us.”

In October 2008, the Stapleton MCA signed on as an ActiveNet customer. The community installed the Activity Registration, Facility Reservation, Membership Management, Point-of-Sale and Public Access modules.

Implementation

Stapleton decided to roll out the launch of the ActiveNet system in a phased approach. Phase one of the roll-out currently runs all of its parks and recreation functions, such as parks and facility reservations, program registrations, and memberships and IDs.

As far as the training is concerned, Keven sums it up with, “thank goodness we did it! After delving in and realizing that we needed to understand the depth of the software so we could better use it, we wanted more training to customize it even more. Having an intimate knowledge of all of the inner workings of ActiveNet allows us to use the system exactly how we need it. We are even considering Active’s refresher training course on an annual basis to uncover areas of the software we still haven’t maximized.”

Keven acknowledges that ActiveNet is easy to use. “Despite its complexity, ActiveNet is easy to use. On the occasion when we have new front desk staff join, it doesn’t take long for them to become comfortable with it.”

Results

After less than a year using the association management system, Keven already feels that the Stapleton MCA has a much better handle on everything its doing. “We’re able to maximize the use of our facilities, put more information into the system, and make our services more accessible to our community. From an internal standpoint, ActiveNet allows us to communicate better, such as automatically emailing reports to a specific group on a regular schedule to keep everyone informed of their responsibilities. The fact that all of our information is going into one place and ActiveNet is taking that information and emailing it out on schedule to the right people is of huge value for us. We have a small staff and lack the resources to manage that level of communication and distribution on our own.”

For Stapleton, the online access has been a great benefit for the community. “Our residents don’t have to call us to ask questions or check the availability of a facility. Instead, they can simply go online to look at a park, pool or facilty of their choice, and check the availability or register for a program or class. While we don’t have anything to compare to in terms of online registrations, we have been extremely happy in the number of registrations and facility rentals that have been processed. The online registration feature of ActiveNet has truly exceeded our expectations.” Keven estimates that approximately 10,000 transactions have been processed through the ActiveNet system to date.

As for the future, Stapleton will continue to offer and grow the aquatics programs, but soon the MCA will offer soccer, yoga and camps. “ActiveNet is a system you can grow into and run and operate an entire community with, whether you’re processing a few thousand or a few million dollars in assessments, parks and recreation programs, memberships, etc. Stapleton is on track to become a community of 30,000 individuals and plan to manage all of the operations with ActiveNet. It will be THE database. ActiveNet alleviates the need for additional software, databases, IT staff and equipment. We needed a tool that could handle our needs now and in the future, and ActiveNet is that tool.”

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