Membership plugin & events

I am new to WordPress & have gone round and round in circles, tried many different plugins and left a bit confused and wonder if someone with experience can just point me in a good direction please. I apologise for so much info, but thought it best to cover details properly

– I have the need for event management with entry to members & non members. Sports 2 day competitions running throughout the year
– Membership is seasonal which runs Jan to Dec, so regardless of when someone joins, membership needs renewing from Jan to benefit from member status the next year. This has been the main stumbling point as most memberships seems to run for set term, i.e. annual, monthly etc
– Members get reduced entry fee to competitions
– Is it best Members have to be logged in to benefit from reduced entry/protected content
– Running a newsletter to anyone

At the moment I have opted for

– Simple Membership – have specified end date which I need
– Quick event manager – manage registration/entry/payment for each event
– Mailchimp

Am I making this too complex…

QEM seems a good plugin for our needs, so I just need enable a paid membership level to benefit from reduced entry fees.

Do I need Simple Membership – can I just use the WP membership structure. Can I specify end membership date. If so, can you send me to instructions for setting up themes registration forms/paypal payments… sorry I have read so much a “go here” is really welcome.

I noticed on Simple Membership, the emails sent out when someone registers come from my email address, but say from WordPress… how to I get this changed to our Company Name

QEM & Simple Membership both need paypal IPN. QEM specifies a URL, SM is happy with any URL

I look forward to some assistance here please. We are supposed to open memberships up in a weeks time…ouch

Thanks, Michelle