Come August 2nd, persons will be able to renew their Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) membership at any one of the 19 Barbados Postal Services (BPS) locations around the island.
The Executive Manager of BARP, Elsa Webster, revealed this during a press conference that was held in BARP’s new headquarters at Mervue House, Hastings, yesterday morning. She explained that they pursued this partnership in order to make their services more accessible for their members.
“We know that it will be a much welcomed service by our members because they have been asking for other locations; like an online service in order to pay their membership fees,” she said.
Unfortunately, she noted that they were not able to facilitate an online payment system and hoped that by providing additional outlets for them to renew their membership, members would be just as satisfied.
“It is solely for renewal right now but we plan to monitor the situation closely and if it takes off like we think it will, if it is favourable to members and it is very well used, we will look at the possibility of fine tuning our processes to allow sign ups to take place at the post offices as well,” she said.
Webster envisioned that the new 19 locations will provide not just greater accessibility and options for the members but highlight BARP’s friendliness as they tried to facilitate the needs of their members to the best of their abilities.
She explained that in order to renew, members would have to fill out a very short information document to make sure they have not changed their address or would like their card shipped to a new address. She added that along with the membership fee, they would also be asked to pay a minimum transaction fee of $2 BDS to allow the post office to facilitate the transaction; upon completion, she noted that the BPS would give a receipt to BARP to put on their record.
Usually, Webster noted that the process would take two to four days to complete but added that BPS will also provide a service where they facilitate a rush delivery service. She added that unfortunately, new BARP members and persons whose membership has been in arears for more than three months would still have to make their way down to BARP Headquarters in Hastings.
