13/07/2009 EXTRA SPICE BENEFITS

In addition to our massive programme of events in the UK and overseas available for Spice East Midlands members there are a number of other benefits available.

1) Discounts from our Spice "Partners", see the Spice East Midlands or Spice UK website for details.

2) Further discounts on a wide range of goods and services from spiceextras which we pay for on members behalf.

The link is http://www.spiceextras.bestrewardscard.co.uk/

3) Personal Accident cover for all members taking part in Spice events.

4) If you have problems with using private or corporate email for Spice we can provide a webmail based email account at spicemail.com for a one off setup fee of £10 which will enable use of online booking etc. Access from any internet connected PC or some mobile PDA's.

For further information on any of these extra services please email or call us in the Spice Office.

28/05/2009 CENTER PARCS 2009 SHERWOOD TRIP

Now pretty much done and dusted with just a few last places left, mainly bunks at the bargain price this year of just £85.

For those who don't like sharing we are also going to let the last few bunk rooms go as singles at £135.

Further bookings for twin and double rooms may be lodged with members of other Spice groups as we fill up the last few villas.

They say a picture speaks more than a thousand words so I guess our Center Parcs photo albums must speak whole libraries ..........

See: - www.spiceeastmids.com/uploads/pics/cppics

Don't miss it, don't worry if you are new to the group everyone mixes in and no-one is left out.

30/04/2009 MAY / JUNE EVENT PROGRAMME

This has now been finalised and a small number of additional events added to the several hundred already online.

Hopefully a well balanced programme with lots available wherever you are in the East Midlands and whatever your interests.

We shall now be working on the programme for July, August and September so any suggestions for events or venues you'd like to see included would be very welcome.

Whilst we have had a Newsletter famine for a while for various reasons these are now being shipped for the current period i.e. May-June.

Other Spice groups like ourselves are now cutting down on the number of paper Newsletters shipped annually as most members now look and book online.

Our own plans for the remainder of this year are to ship every 2 months and probably to alternate a brief update with a full colour combined newsletter and holiday programme.

Please let us know if you have any difficulty accessing information on the web as we can post updated event lists out more frequently than this to those who need them.

20/04/2009 EVENTS WITH DEPOSITS

Our online system appears to have been demanding full payment for some events where only a deposit is initially required. This has now been corrected.

When wishing to book an event by paying a deposit online you need to change the "Paying" selection from "Full Amount Now" to "Deposit Only Now", the correct amount to pay will be automatically calculated.

The ability to pay the deposit only disappears seven days before the final payment is due which is in itself normally one month before the event start date. A notable exception to this is Center Parcs where we work to national Spice rules which have an earlier balance due date.

Vouchers cannot be processed online so please send these in to the Spice Office with your booking. If they are for weekends away i.e. events where deposits are payable, the full deposit must still be paid to secure the place, the amount of the voucher reduces the balance payable.

Hope this all makes sense, but if you have any queries please call us in the Spice Office or drop us an email.

09/02/2009 LOCAL AREA LISTS

These days, with around 500 events available for booking by our East Midlands members at any one time and new events being added and amendments made on a daily basis it's not always easy to keep track of what's going on in your local area.

We did amend our online listings some time ago so that by using the drop down category selections above the events grid you can see the appropriate selections. Some members have further requested that we present this information with a bit more detail and make it available in a more downloadable / printable format.

Hopefully the addition of Local Event Lists with location and price information will address this which we hope to update on a daily basis. The underlined links then click straight through for booking. Initially on clicking through to booking it will show you as a "guest user" regardless of your logged in status, but if logged in and carry on, the system will pick up your details correctly.

07/01/2009 WEB PROBLEMS (contd)

We are still having problems with some supplementary pages on our web site which are not being updated correctly.

This does not in any way affect the event listings or booking system.

SpiceUK who provide the system to us are both continuing to try to get the problems fixed but are also in final discussions about a new national web framework for all Spice groups which will shortly replace the existing system.

We are using this blogger to keep up to date copies of supplementary pages which we feel are necessary for regular use by members.

03/11/2008 WEB PROBLEMS

Our web pages are controlled through Spice UK as part of a national initiative to standardise the look and feel of our websites around the country.

Unfortunately this project has run into a few difficulties with a knock on effect on the performance of our standard web pages such that some of the options no longer function as they should. This has not affected event bookings or payments.