How to bring your members along to Orchesi

Many boards dread it: won’t there be dozens of questions, and won’t members who “aren’t really into apps” drop out? In practice it’s not that bad, especially if you prepare the switch well. For a member, Orchesi is mostly three things: seeing what’s planned, saying whether you’re coming and opening your sheet music. With this plan, everyone can do that from the very first week.

This already takes away most worries: Orchesi is free for members, because the association pays. It works in the app (iPhone and Android) and simply in the browser at orchesi.app, so also without a smartphone. And members decide themselves whether other members can see their email address and phone number.

1. Pick one switch date and announce it

Choose a clear date, for example the start of the season or the first rehearsal after a break. Announce it two weeks ahead: in the group chat, in the newsletter and briefly at rehearsal. Focus on what’s in it for members: no more hunting for the schedule, one tap to say you can’t make it, sheet music always at hand.

Use the announcement message and just change the date and your association’s name.

2. Set everything up before you invite

An empty app raises questions (“so what am I supposed to do here?”). Make sure members see something useful the first time they sign in:

• your groups and sections are in place, so you can put everyone in the right place straight away;
• the first rehearsals and concerts are in the agenda;
• the sheet music for the first rehearsal is ready.

3. Ask one ambassador per section

In every section, ask one member who’s handy with apps to join a week earlier. Invite these ambassadors first. They’ll know Orchesi by the time everyone else joins, and members can take their questions to someone they know instead of to the board.

4. Invite everyone on the switch date, group by group

Invite your members by email and choose their groups and sections as you invite them. Once they accept, they’re in the right place and see their own rehearsals straight away. See Invite members straight into the right groups.

Mind the timing: an invitation is valid for 7 days. Send the invitations in a week with a rehearsal, and post the invitation-day message in the group chat the same day, so members know the email is coming.

5. Help on the spot at the first rehearsal

Plan ten minutes before or after the first rehearsal as a “setup corner”: the ambassadors help anyone who gets stuck. Members without a smartphone go to orchesi.app on their computer at home. For them the invite code is handy: it doesn’t expire, and they enter it while creating their account.

Share the link to the help center for members as well. Everything is explained there step by step, in plain language.

6. After a few days, check who isn’t in yet

The Invitations tab on the Members page shows who hasn’t accepted yet, and when their invitation expires. After about four days, send those members a personal reminder. Has an invitation expired? Cancel it and send a new one, or give the member the invite code.

7. Stop the old way after a few weeks

Don’t keep the old list or sign-offs in the group chat running next to Orchesi for too long: two systems at once is exactly what causes confusion. Agree on an end date, for example four weeks after the switch, and announce it. From then on, schedules, sign-offs and sheet music only go through Orchesi.

Questions from members? Questions members ask, and what to answer has answers to the ones you’ll hear most.