By Jayci Cave
User-friendly, convenient and always up-to-date all describe PCCA’s Member Access System, one of the software services PCCA provides to its members and gins. In the last three years, there were 3,840 individual members who successfully signed on to the Member Access System bringing the total to 5,940 members.
The system allows members to view important information regarding their accounts with PCCA. This includes gin account information, scale ticket information if the gin subscribes to PCCA’s service, invoice statements, PCCA check register and patronage statements via a secure website. The Member Access System is accessible 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
With a Member Access account, PCCA members also can sign up to receive text message alerts for class information, scale ticket information and futures prices. For futures prices, members can choose to receive alerts for cotton, corn, feeder cattle, Kansas City wheat, live cattle, soybeans and Chicago wheat.
Danny Davis, PCCA member who gins at Carnegie Coop Gin in Oklahoma, said his favorite part of Member Access is the text message he receives when the market opens and closes. He also was quick to praise PCCA Vice President Joe Tubb and PCCA’s Information Systems Department on how quickly they are able to fix any issues or software suggestions he has.
“It is a way of serving the members,” Davis said. “I am thankful for their timeliness and understanding in handling my suggestion for an addition to a form on Member Access to help the insurance agent while calculating quality loss adjustments.”
Brady Mimms, a PCCA member near Acuff, Texas, said he enjoys both the original and mobile versions of Member Access because he can check his account while he is at home or out in the field, especially during harvest season. He also said he likes to utilize the futures portion of the system to keep track of the market.
“You can go into your accounts and look at your cotton classes,” Mimms said. “If you are not at the gin, you can go on there and see what cotton has been classed. When we are busy and cannot get to the gin, it shows up when the cotton is ginned. I can look at how many bales it made, what the turnout was and all of those things.”
Other members use Member Access to make sure all their documents are accurate with PCCA’s records. Ashley Zdansky, partner with husband Crain Zdansky at Double Z Farms in Lyford, Texas, said she uses Member Access to keep track of what cotton went to which gin because they send their cotton to multiple coop gins.
“I mainly use it to double check everything from the gins and to make sure everything has gone through the system the way it needs to,” Zdansky said. “I also use it to double check to see when the checks are coming out and that sort of thing.”
Gin offices can get hectic during harvest season, and members like Darren Jost from Glasscock County Coop use Member Access to try to save the gin personnel some time when looking up information.
“It is easy to do, easy to set up,” Jost said. “You can see exactly where all of your accounts are, and it is really user friendly. It unties the hands of the gin staff a little bit because they are really accessing stuff that is pretty easy to look up if you just do it.”
Larry Black, Gin Manager at Central Rolling Plains Coop, said allowing his members to be able to see their scale tickets and grades immediately without coming into the gin is the major reason he encourages producers to utilize Member Access. He said this is just another piece of the technology that is taking over the industry.
“I think just getting the information to the farmer and having it at his fingertips where they can access it as easily as we can,” Black said, “they will tend to look at things a little more that way. I only have myself and one bookkeeper here in the office. When they have that information available to them in the field, it frees them up as much as it frees us up.”
If you don’t live or farm close to the cotton gin, Member Access can help get all the information needed without making a trip to the gin. This is the case for Tony Cox, a PCCA member fromWellington, Texas. Cox said Member Access is very convenient because he farms a lot of land, and he is not always able to go check on the cotton that has been ginned. He likes to be up-to-date on everything that is happening with his crops.
“I like to check on how many bales were being produced on the farms as they are being ginned,” Cox said, “whether I am at home or away from home. We can also print our own reports from there as far as account summaries or recaps.” Clay Cowan from Ropesville, Texas, said the resources on the Member Access system help him stay informed about his crop and the cotton market.
“I like to look and see the weekly pool updates and see what they have made,” Cowan said. “There also are articles on the cotton market, and it is another tool to keep informed. I also look at The Seam, especially if I have cotton that I am selling outside the pool. I can look on there and see what opportunities I have to sell my crops.” To get started with Member Access, visit PCCA’s website and find the Member Access page under the Sales and Services tab. Click the link at the bottom of the page to set up an account on the secure website.
To access the mobile version of Member Access, log into your account on a mobile device and save it as a bookmark or add it to your home screen for easy access in the future.