CA Membership Card Now Available

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CA members may recall that in the past a CA Membership Card was issued every year to all CA members. This was rarely required to be shown, except to prove CA membership on entry to certain clubs, such as Hurlingham, which is where the CA Office was previously located. With the CA Office now being at Cheltenham, there hasn't been a real need for the CA to continue incurring the cost of issuing paper Membership Cards. However, in view of continued security concerns, some clubs have recently become stricter about controlling entry - often requiring their own members to show Club Membership Cards on entry. Therefore, particularly when CA members wish to visit such clubs for a major championship, it may now be useful to have a CA Membership Card again to provide proof of CA membership.

The intention is that if there is a requirement for CA members to show a CA membership card to gain access to a club where an event is being held, then this will be advertised in advance on relevant websites and in the event programme. This will include any specific requirements, such as whether the CA Membership Card has to have a photo, and whether any other form of identification is required.

Rather than incur the expense of producing thousands of paper Membership Cards, most of which would never be used, Dave Kibble has added a new facility to the CA website to generate your own CA Membership Card.

All CA Members can now bring their CA Membership Card up on their phone (or computer) by:

• go to the CA Directory in the "Members' Area" and log in
• click "My Details" in the "My CA" box
• select the "Membership Card" button

It is noted that CA members can upload their own photo - otherwise you still get a Membership Card but without the photo (like the old paper card). A new upload automatically sends an email to the CA Office support address with a link for a quick visual inspection: "Please check that the new member-uploaded photo is decent, legal and reasonable" - this has to be carried out by the CA Office fairly promptly. While uploading, the member is told "Make sure that you have the legal right to publish it on the website and that it will not cause offence". Please note that this new membership card facility is to address security concerns so it is important that this facility should not be abused.

This online Membership Card could be shown on a phone to gate staff as proof of CA Membership. CA members could also print the card (just press Control-P on a computer) and show a paper copy to the gate staff. It is also possible to take a screenshot image of the card on your phone and save it on your phone (e.g. in Files on an iPhone) so that you can bring it up even when not online. On most iPhones a screen shot can be taken by pressing the Top button and the Home button at the same time, and quickly releasing both buttons. On android phones, to take a screenshot, press and hold the power and volume down button at the same time.

It is hoped that CA members who may need to provide proof of CA membership will find this facility easy to access, and that it will help keep us all safe at major events.

Dave Kibble and Ian Lines