Frequently Asked Questions

JCW Platform is designed for all JCI Organizations

The JCW Platform is designed and built for a digital world for National Organizations and Local Organizations. The team behind the JCW Platform have been or are JCI members for many years and we understand from a local level to national or regional. 

Payments & Charges

Online Payments across Memberships, Events, and Store is all handled by Stripe Payments. You will need a Stripe Account in order to accept online payments. We don't charge any additional fee's on top of Stripe processing fee's which is one of the lowest in the world with world-wide card payments.

If your organization needs to charge any tax / vat, this is optional to include or exclude. A copy of all transactions is stored within the Admin Dashboard and also on Stripe, which your Accounting Software can connect to Stripe to sync all data automatically. All transaction / order information stored in the database is fully encrypted. 


What is included when purchasing the JCW Platform?

At the base level the following outlines what is included with the JCW Platform.

  • Installing, setup and configuring the JCW Platform for your organization.
  • JCW Platform comes with over a dozen pre-built pages, content & template for JCI Organizations.
  • Frontend Website Builder allows easy editing & adding of pages, content and expansion.
  • No limits to the number of Members, Local Orgs, or any restrictions involved.
  • All options in the Admin Dashboards allows you to control everything without technical knowledge.
  • JCW Platform Support, Hosting and Platform Updates included with the basic SLA involved.

If you want a more hands on approach with converting your old website, design changes or data, we can do that as well in working out a service package tailored to your needs with transparent breakdowns.


How can we migrate our old website / content?

With the basic plan of JCW, we will install the platform and configure it for you, which also comes with over dozen pre-built JCI content pages. You can change and adjust these to suit as needed. To migrate your old content and data you will require a Service Plan which will be an additional charge for our team to handle this. We will work with you to address your needs and work with you at every step of the way forward. 

Below is an example of what we have done with other JCI Organizations with customizing the platform:

  • Converted old website content, data and pages.
  • Onboarded members from an old website / system to the new JCW website.
  • Custom Design of the template and pages. 
  • Custom plugins and additional development.

We built the JCW Platform to be highly flexible and customizable with easy controls in the backend. This allows a wide range of configurations to be supported for different JCI setups in how Local Organizations are handled, Voting, to Membership Plans & Payments. Most of this will be done during the setup phase as part of the base plan but if you need additional changes we can still help you with tailored service plans. 

Can JCW support small or large organizations?

Yes to both small and large JCI organizations. As the team are also JCI members we understand world-wide there are differences to each National Organization from memberships to LO's. 

The JCW Platform has no limits or restrictions to the number of Members, Transactions, Events, Store Products/Services and so on. Only typical Hosting limits as found everywhere and we have multiple hosting plans your website can upgrade to if the basic package exceeds bandwidth / emails / file space. 

The JCW Platform can handle hundreds to ten's of thousands of active members logged in, communicating and orders without any affect on performance. The core of the JCW Platform has also been used for Government & Corporate projects that are larger. 

Security & GDPR

The JCW Platform is one of the most secured Web Platforms on the market, built on well known & used web stacks/frameworks used by massive corporations / governments. Built-in protections against injection attacks and most common known threats. Our Servers are located in Dublin, Ireland with AWS. 

All personal data, every member (name, address, etc) is fully encrypted in the database which means no information is exposed in any way, ever. This also extends across the system to Orders / Receipts. When an Admin or Member logs in to view their information / orders, we decrypt this temporary to show the info and only within that active session.

We use bank level encryption to protect all personal & order data stored and one of only a handful of systems that handles data this way with encrypting everything, where most do not. If your unsure, we can easily demo this for you for peace of mind. The JCW Platform is fully GDPR compliant and we even have pre-built content pages for your JCI Website with this!

How is SEO handled?

The JCW Platform comes with a built-in SEO Engine that helps to rank your JCI website on Search Engines. You can control every page with meta descriptions, keywords and more (eg blocking bots). 

If your worried about losing your ranking with an old website change over to the new one, it is part and parcel of any more with JCW or another platform/CMS. We will help guide you on this or we can do it for you. A key part to remember is to ensure your page links remain the same or if not, redirected to the new links. 

Search Engines such as Google are far more sophisticated these days compared to past years and are more than capable in updating records correctly even with url changes. SEO is more than just meta tags, it is your content and how relevant it is to what your doing. The JCW Platform is built with this in mind and can handle SEO in better ways compared to other systems or add-on plugins to them. 


LO's Profiles & Websites

Some of your Local Organizations will have their own independent websites, some as sub-domains of your own website or none at all. The JCW Platform comes with LO Profiles that act like a website. Each LO profile contains all the information about them, membership plans, upcoming events and ways to contact them. Local Organizations can park their domain to their profile if wanted, which act's like a sub-domain website. Users can also find all your Local Organizations by search and map listing. 

For Local Organizations that have their own Website but want Membership Bookings or Events to go through the National Website, the platform is built where they can simply copy the booking links to a button on their own website and users will land directly at their Local Organization plans or events, without viewing other LO's offerings.

Local Organizations manage their own members, payments, events, orders all from within your National Website, members can sign-up from each LO profile or a nationwide list of membership plans. This all depends how you want the JCW Platform to be configured for your National Organization.


Can LO's edit their own content & plans?

Yes they can, we have built in easy controls for LO's to update their content on their profile/mini-website and their Membership Plans / Events is all within their own control. Payments can go directly to that LO or to National, which can be a mix of this depending how you want it. 

National Board Officers are the only users that can edit / update the National Website pages. Local Officers can only update their own chapter Profile / Mini-Website. Members can not edit anything but only their own account information and engage with the online community. 


Will the Website go out of date?

Every JCW Platform base plan comes with the basic SLA service plan included. This includes Support, Hosting and Platform Updates as part of it. If you run into any problems, bugs or issues you can contact support for help. 

We use CPanel Hosting system which allows you to access the files / source code, database and also emails. CPanel is the most popular hosting software system in the world. We also have regular back-ups created of your website and is included by default.

JCW is a platform, not just a website and as it is software it will get regular updates every year with improvements, new features and bug fixes. This means your JCW website will remain up to date with the latest in technology changes and keeping your website fresh without the need of it going out of date forcing a re-install or change over unless you want it. 

Online Bookings

National Organizations need a strong presence online for both laptops or mobile phones and JCW helps to give you the right tools to do just that. 

  • Receive payments online from Memberships, Events, and eCommerce Store Products / Services. 
  • Accept card payments or bank transfers easily. 
  • Offer discounts, additional add-on's, early bird and set flexible membership durations.
  • New members sign-up is quick and easy, with a simple checkout system and receipts..

Stripe Payments is used but during the onboarding process we can look to integrate the payment gateway of your choice. Stripe charges depends on the regions, in this example we will look at a European Organization and European Cards used has a transaction fee of 1.4% + 0.25c and is one the lowest fees out there.

Online payments helps to reduce the admin work involved with accepting payments from new members, automatic receipts are issued and can be sync to accounting packages will help run your chapter more efficiently.

Members and Community

The online community of your JCI National Organization is as important as real life within the world we live in today and into the future. The JCW Platform helps your members to sign-up, renew their membership easily and be part of your online community. The internal communication tools helps to focus members in one place, one platform and reduces distractions from other popular platforms.

  • Members Dashboard where all your members can login after becoming a member. 
  • Access to important files, your constitution, their account information and much more.
  • Communication tools such as the social network, newsfeed, groups and private messages.
  • Run committees and project teams with ease, empowering your members.

Communication is everything with a thriving membership base and one which we are always improving with the JCW Platform for your members. Reducing the workload in getting important messages out to members, encouragement towards projects and training events is just a taste of what the JCW Platform can do for your organization.

Events and Projects

Hold monthly meetings, training events and special gatherings all from your National Organization website. Break out different events with filters and categories, show location details as well with Google Map directions. There is a range of helpful tools to help with projects such as task lists, surveys, questionnaires, public voting and communications. 

  • Keep your events of past and present in one place, on your website. 
  • Run different types of events from trainings to speakers and more. 
  • Charge for tickets, offer early bird prices and discounts to each event. 
  • Run committee projects with surveys, voting and even the eStore.

Use the eCommerce Store system to sell items or services as part of your projects or fundraising for your organization. 

Connected LOM / Chapters

National Organizations with the JCW Platform can bring all of your Local Organizations / Chapters under one roof while still keeping them all separated with their own payments, bookings and members. 

  • Each Local Organization is separated but all remain within your one website platform.
  • Manage Local Organizations from your Admin Dashboard and administrate anything you need to.
  • Local Organizations have their own Local Admin Dashboards to manage their chapter and members.
  • Local Organizations receive online payments directly, while the National Organization also receives payments required. 

The JCW Platform is highly flexible to allow your National Organization to hold all your Local Organization / Chapters on one website with their own mini-website pages, memberships, events and members. For those who already have their own independent website but do not have any online booking abilities, the JCW Platform can still be used to help your Local Organizations to accept membership payments and event tickets while still operating their own website without any changes.  

Everything you need to bring forward your National Organization into the digital world is right here with the JCW Platform. It can be configured to suit your structure and the structures of your Local Organizations, even if each one is different to the next one. 

Support and Management

The JCW Platform team is here to help you at every step from the onboarding process to going live and afterwards. If you get stuck somewhere, we are at hand to help your Board Members out or the Local Presidents. As JCW Platform is a product, it also comes with regular updates to address any issues, enhancements and new features land in every year, keep your website up to date with the latest trends and needs. 

Training and tutorials in how to edit pages will be provided. The JCW Platform is an product solution with full source code access to where any technical members can help expand it's abilities further and the JCW Platform team is here to also help when needed. As we provide regular updates from feedback world-wide, we bring forward new features and abilities to the benefit to all who are on the platform. 

Project Committees

JCI projects is an important part of every Chapter and National Organization. Let's see how the JCW Platform can assist your members in the running of projects.

  • Task lists with date/time and completed or outstanding.
  • Survey forms, nominations, and public voting.
  • Communications with private messages, group channels and notifications.
  • Public information pages and photos of projects.

Communications play a vital role with committees running a project no matter how big or small. Teams can be formed and have their own private group with text and audio messages. Tasks can be worked out and ticked off as done. Project pages for the public is easy to create and edit with the results of that project or for promotion. 

Regional

  • Bring in members across Chapters to form a project committee.
  • Access the same tool-sets as Project Committees use.
  • Run TOYP or other related projects at a National level.

We built in a few extra abilities from working with JCI Ireland on their TOYP and Friendly Business Awards projects, at a National and Local level. The following outlines the tools here used and are flexible to suit your needs. 

TOYP:

Public nominations with tagging of the Local Chapter. Each nomination is stored in the backend in a list that breaks out the total number of nominations per chapter and groups the list together to be saved as a PDF or Print. Judges can then review only their own JCI Chapter nominations and using the Events system release tickets for the Local or National Awards event. 

Friendly Business Awards:

Like TOYP public nominations begin at a local level but tagged with each Chapter or region. At the National level the final nominations are then put out to a public vote and the voting system displays the business names, logos and info. Public users can then vote per business per category and the scores are collected in the backend. 

We automated the process above with the nominations, break-downs and voting parts. These can be used across different projects in various ways and adjustments to work the way you need your projects to be. Projects can work from a Local level or Regional and National.