We use Beacon, an online management system developed by the National u3a, to manage our membership records and to send emails to members. Our financial transactions are also recorded within the system.

Access to the Beacon database is available to Group Leaders. This enables you to manage membership of your group (eg by adding/removing members, creating waiting lists), and to send out group emails (particularly useful for larger groups and for sending messages bcc). There is a ledger facility to record group income and expenditure, and the option to download group details to Excel for creating attendance lists if required. It also allows group leaders to monitor whether their members have paid their u3a subscriptions.