Team Management / Email / CRM Software

[Aerosmit]

We struggled last year with team communication, parent communications, event/trip management and taking payments; most through Google Docs. So this year we would like to head some of that off by looking at software to help us manage the team a little better. I have conducted an initial research on Google and have come up with subscription software like Wild Apricot and Memberclicks. These seem to be costly in the long run. I also had CIVICCRM and SugarCRM suggested.
I would love to hear from other teams about what you use and best practices your teams have put in place to systematically manage the team, email lists, meetings events, etc.

Thanks,

Mark Smith
KleinBOTs 3735