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Guide · Membership cards

How to digitize your club's membership cards

Paper cards get lost and plastic cards cost money, and neither tells your door volunteer whether the holder has paid. Here is how to move to digital cards in an afternoon.

6 min readUpdated

Digital member card on a phone, showing a QR code and the member's name

Why go digital?

A membership card has one job: let someone prove they belong. Everything printed on it, such as the name, the season and the member number, is only useful if it is still true. A digital card keeps the proof and drops the printing. It cannot go out of date because the card holds only a code, and the facts are looked up when it is scanned.

For the board there are three practical wins: no printing and hand-out each season, no replacement requests, and a check at the door that includes the one thing a printed card cannot show, the current fee status. For background, read about digital membership cards.

Step 1: Decide what the card has to prove

Write down the situations in which someone has to prove membership: a members-only event, the general assembly, a training session, the bar. For each, list what the volunteer must know. Usually it is three things: is this person a member, are they active, and have they paid?

If you also want the card to carry a photo or a membership number printed on it, say so now. A QR card works without them, but some clubs add a photo ID check for high-security events.

Step 2: Clean up your member list

Digital cards depend on a reliable register. Before you invite anyone, spend an hour on the basics:

  • Make sure every member who should have a card has a valid email address, because they sign in to the portal with it.
  • Set a correct status: active for current members, inactive for those who have left.
  • Remove duplicates and fix obvious typos.
  • Members without an email address cannot sign in, so they cannot have a digital card. Ask them for an address, or keep a simple paper fallback for them.

Step 3: Choose the format

A QR code on the member's phone is the baseline and works on every device. If many of your members use iPhones, add Apple Wallet: the same code, but one tap away in an app they already open every day. Offer both and let members pick. Android users keep the portal card, because Google Wallet is not supported at the moment.

Step 4: Get members into the portal

Digital member card on a phone, showing a QR code and the member's name

Members sign in to the member portal with their email address, set a password and confirm their address once. After that, the card is one tap away on Member card. Send the invitation in waves if you have hundreds of members, so you can answer questions as they arrive.

Step 5: Equip your door volunteers

Scan result on a phone showing an active member whose fee is paid

Create staff accounts for the volunteers who will check cards and give them access to the members area, nothing more. They open Scan card on their phone, allow the camera once and point it at the code. The result shows the name, status and whether the fee is paid. Practise once with a few members before your first event. QR code check-in explains the details.

Step 6: Announce it and support it

People adopt something new when it is explained once, clearly. Send a short announcement and repeat it before your first event. Here is a template you can adapt:

The {{firstName}} variable is filled in automatically for each member by the email broadcast tool.

Common pitfalls

  • Waiting for perfection. Start with one event and the members who already have email.
  • Forgetting the camera permission. Browsers ask once; tell volunteers to tap Allow.
  • Weak signal at the venue. Scanning needs a connection on the staff phone, so test it where the event takes place.
  • Unclear status. If a member is marked inactive by mistake, they will be turned away. Review statuses before big events.

Your checklist

  1. List the situations where members must prove membership.
  2. Clean the register: emails, statuses, duplicates.
  3. Pick QR only or QR plus Apple Wallet.
  4. Invite members to the portal, in waves if needed.
  5. Create volunteer accounts with members access.
  6. Do a test scan with the whole door team.
  7. Send the announcement and a reminder before the event.
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