How The Caxton Club Thrives in the Digital Landscape with WildApricot – Case Study

About Caxton Club

In January of 1895, a small but dedicated group of book lovers founded the Caxton Club in Chicago. 129 years later, the club has been around longer than many of the books it’s collected, and at 400 members strong, it doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon.

Merging a modern digital venue with a timeless love for all things books, the Caxton Club connects members of all ages from various fields, including archivists, authors, binders, collectors, librarians, publishers, scholars and more. No matter your background, Caxton Club provides a community for anyone interested in studying and promoting the art of books to come together, publish, share ideas, hear speakers and even go on field trips.

As an entirely volunteer-run organization with a member base that skews older, the Caxton Club needed a powerful, capable solution. We spoke to Immediate Past President of Caxton Club, Jackie Vossler, about how WildApricot helped the club simplify operations, automate essential membership tasks and allow members to engage with the organization – in a way that’s intuitive and accessible to them.

Website

Caxton Club’s WildApricot website acts as its office as an organization without a physical home. The site serves as a meeting place, a digital filing cabinet, a community hub and a bulletin board all in one.

Members from all over gather on the club’s website to discuss the art of book collecting, delve into Caxton’s vast online archive, attend speaking events through Zoom and get information about upcoming events, publications and more. The site is also finely tuned to the needs of its members, who, as a group, generally prefer books to laptops. It’s accessible, easy to navigate and not too complex or involved.

“The website doesn’t seem too interactive or as ‘jazzy’ as you might think it should be,” said Jackie Vossler. “It’s straightforward, but it meets the needs of our membership. For an all-volunteer organization where most members are over 70 years old — including me — computer was not our first language — we need things to be simple.”

Caxton Club’s website is not only easy to navigate but also incredibly easy to set up. Jackie said putting it together was a snap with WildApricot’s ready-made themes and templates. Along with easy integration with Omeka, software commonly used in book collecting clubs, WildApricot offers guided website setup, with intuitive suggestions on where to place assets like photos and tabs, which fonts to use, formatting help and more.

“I went with all their suggestions,” said Jackie. “I didn’t feel the need to forge my own path. I really think for smaller clubs like us, when you’re not going to have a website design person, starting with one of WildApricot’s templates leads to the best success. WildApricot gives you a lot of guidance about setting up reminders and how you might want to think about what you’re doing. So, if you follow that path, you’ll be set up for success.”

Members-only tab

While the Caxton Club offers a variety of assets to the public for free, their paying members enjoy the bulk of what they have to offer. Under the members-only tab, Caxton hosts 30 years of digitized content plus 12 years of video programs for their members to access on-demand. The vast content library serves as a tremendous asset to members and a valuable tool to incentivize more membership for the club.

WildApricot’s advanced website capabilities have also been instrumental in preserving the online archive as a members-only zone. The software’s sophisticated security system prevents any penetration behind the organization’s paywall, ensuring only members are allowed access to the club’s carefully and painstakingly digitized library.

Before WildApricot, Caxton stored most of its digital files on Google Drive. However, the club quickly ran out of storage due to its vast content volume. WildApricot allows Caxton not only to host its entire catalog in one place but also to make it readily accessible to paying members.

“Our members are old-time book collectors, so the idea that they can share in the world of book collecting is something that we wanted to be able to do and that we’re encouraging them to do through our website,” Jackie said. “We’ve been around since 1895. So, members are proud of our history and want to go back and look at things we’ve done in the past. We have no offices, so if a member wants to go back and see something, they can find it all on the website. It represents everything we have to offer and we’re quite proud of that.”

Speakers and Events

As Jackie said, none of the Caxton Club’s events would be possible if they didn’t have such a great website. WildApricot has bolstered not only the club’s online traffic and engagement but also their event attendance, both online and in-person. Jackie said she’s achieved this primarily through keeping things simple, something WildApricot has helped her to do.

“I’m a big believer in that there’s a lot of money to be made from razors and razor blades. So, once we have a razor, I might replace the blade of information, but we are not reinventing the handle of the razor.” said Jackie. Caxton Club holds two speaker events per month. With WildApricot, Jackie was able to craft her “razor blades”, or the templates for promoting and advertising speakers on the club’s website. From there, all she has to do is swap out the speakers’ photos, names and information, or the “blades”, every two weeks or so, making event setup and preparation simple.

This system has made things more manageable both for Caxton volunteers and members alike. Through the website, members can register for events as soon as they go live on the website. They can also check the schedule of upcoming speakers, view the club’s archive of past speakers, receive reminders about upcoming events and check their registration status.

“The website is the most important feature for connectivity,” Jackie said. “None of the events we do would be possible if we didn’t have the website. Because as soon as I put events up on the website, members can begin to register. Then we send out reminders, both for registrants and for members not yet registered. If you have a regimented system and you follow the path that WildApricot has, it’s super helpful.”

WildApricot’s systematic content organization has also been enormously helpful in the speaker selection process.

“We have two speakers a month about books and book collecting, and sometimes it’s difficult for me to find those speakers. So, it’s very helpful for me to be able to go back into our website archive and see when we had a certain speaker so that we don’t duplicate things too quickly. It’s also a great way to evaluate a past speaker and determine if we want to have them again. It’s a great file drawer that I constantly reference.”

Communication

Communication is the lifeblood of any organization. As a club that’s been around for almost 130 years, Caxton Club understands the importance of communication. With WildApricot, the club has been able to segment its members by zip code, allowing more relevant and precise communication for in-person events. This strategy has also helped to increase attendance and engagement across the board.

“When we want to send out a communication, we use WildApricot to do it,” Jackie said. “If we’re having what we call an on the move event, we will sort our members by zip code and send communications only to certain zip codes. I’m into a lot of segmenting so I found that sort feature to be very, very helpful.”

Like website design, Caxton found building emails from templates remarkably easy with WildApricot. Templates and other shortcuts save time and resources and help Caxton create minimalistic, straightforward newsletters for their no-nonsense audience.

In addition to routine communication, WildApricot enables Caxton to send out automated email blasts to members on event registration, including payment reminders, ‘forgot to register’ notifications, and alerts on upcoming events.

“We’ve found building the newsletters to be easy,” Jackie said. “If you look at the plan and the path that WildApricot gives, you’ll be successful. We’re really very happy with it.”

The Caxton Club’s successful transition into the digital age is a testament to the power of technology in preserving tradition and enhancing community engagement. With WildApricot’s robust platform, this historic organization has seamlessly bridged the gap between old-world charm and modern convenience. The pre-made templates and intuitive design tools WildApricot offers have proven invaluable for a club that values simplicity and accessibility. These tools have empowered the Caxton Club to maintain its rich legacy while expanding its reach and inclusivity.

WildApricot has enabled the Caxton Club to streamline operations, automate essential tasks, and foster meaningful connections among its members. From its easy-to-navigate website, which serves as a digital hub, to the sophisticated security features that protect the club’s treasured archives, WildApricot has been instrumental in meeting the unique needs of the Caxton community.

The platform has significantly boosted engagement and membership, with its targeted communication tools and simplified event management processes. Members can easily register for events, access the club’s extensive archives and participate in discussions, all through an interface that prioritizes user experience.

WildApricot has provided the Caxton Club with the tools necessary to thrive in a digital landscape, ensuring its storied history and passion for books continue to inspire future generations. As the club looks toward the future, it does so with confidence, knowing that its cherished traditions will be preserved and celebrated in an ever-evolving digital world.