HomeMy WebLinkAboutFrequently Asked QuestionsFAQs Will facilities be able to decide their own rental prices? Yes. Every facility will be in charge of their own information, including: facility rental price, blackout days, what within the facility is available to the public, what costs extra/add-ons, and more. It’s your facility, your opportunity. Will there be a way to check out potential renters? Yes, all potential rental requests will need to be approved by the facility administrator. How does payment work? Payment will be through the system by either credit card or debit card. Cogran uses Stripe as their payment processor. Stripe abides by the highest possible standards of data security. Stripe allows for fast and secure online payments for all of the programs you run, from camps to classes, from memberships to drop-ins. Stripe is DSS compliant, meaning it adheres to security protocols established by the Security Standard Council which protects cardholders information. You can be confident that your users financial data is protected. How are funds disbursed to the facility after a rental event? Once an end-user makes a payment for their rental, the funds are seamlessly processed through our secure software via Stripe. On a monthly basis, the County of Newell's finance team diligently reconciles our reports, ensuring accuracy. Subsequently, the funds are efficiently transferred to each respective facility through secure EFT/Direct Deposit. Where does the deposit and rental money go? Due to limitations of the software vendor to allocate money to each participating facility, the money will come to the County first. Each facility and their offerings will be coded to allow for easy & timely transfer from the County to the corresponding facilities. Users will pay a standard online booking fee, similar to that of a credit card fee. The County will NOT be taking a cut of any revenue. How is this initiative being funded? The County received a grant of $10,000 to kickstart the initiative within the non-profit sector. The County will pay the initial start up costs and annual software fees. All participating non-profit facilities operating within the County will never be charged to use this service. Who will be in charge of implementing and overseeing it? The County is taking the lead on this initiative and will continue to oversee it in the future. Every participating facility or group of facilities will need to provide a backend user( a facility representative or administrator) who is willing to be trained by the ‘super user’ group (a handful of County staff that will be trained on all aspects of the backend of the software and be available for ongoing training). Do we have to participate? No. recCONNECT is 100% optional and we completely understand if you don’t feel like this program is a good fit for your organization or facility. Do we have to decide right now? Absolutely not! We believe the more organizations we have on board from the beginning, the more successful recCONNECT will be, but if now is not the right time, just know you can sign up down the road, if and when it is the right time. FAQs Have similar initiatives been done in other communities and what were the results? Our research has shown that there are not any other municipalities near us using such a feature. Being a trailblazer for something like this provides other municipalities the chance to watch the initiative come to life and receive a report on its successes before they choose to replicate it within their region. Will users have to put their banking & personal personal information into this platform? Eventually, yes. Users will be able to look and shop around, and once they are ready to book, they will need to set up an account. Payments will require banking information. Our platform uses state-of-the-art encryption techniques, similar to those used by major banks and online shopping sites. We're committed to protecting everyone’s information. We only collect what's absolutely necessary, and we never sell or share data with third parties for marketing purposes. The credit or debit card information provided goes through a secure payment gateway, which adheres to the highest industry standards for payment processing. This system is regularly audited and certified to ensure top-notch security. How will success of the initiative be measured? Although we consider year one to be the pilot year, some of the key performance indicators we will be considering include: user registrations, booking volume, revenue growth & cost savings, Return on Investment (ROI), surveys, user & facility feedback, error rates & resolution time, demographic usage data, engagement methods, and retention rate. Will the County be taking a fee? Not a single cent! All revenue will be turned over to the facility to put back into the facility’s upkeep and general expenses. If you have a question and don’t see it listed here, please contact Catherine for further information at siakalukc@newellmail.ca or 403.794.2325. What are the potential negative impacts or disruptions? Some of the potential risks we are anticipating include: exclusion of non-tech savvy individuals, technical issues, security concerns, resistance to change, maintenance costs, transitional pains such as human error causing end user dissatisfaction, economic barriers (residents without electronic payment methods like credit cards or online banking). All of these potential issues are concerns we want to address by working closely with facilities and community members to reduce or eliminate.