Start with how your club works
The right software fits your club’s year, your membership types and the jobs your committee already does. Before you look at any product, write down how your club runs today.
A one-page summary is enough. Cover:
- Your club year. When does it start and end? Do all members renew on the same date?
- Your membership types. For example Full, Pensioner, Life and Honorary, with the price of each.
- How members pay. Card, bank transfer, cash at meetings, or a mix.
- Who does what. Which committee members keep which records today, and in what (spreadsheet, card file, paper register, an old database).
- Vehicles and the Scheme. Whether members’ vehicles are on the Conditional Registration Scheme, and who manages log books.
- What goes wrong. The jobs that take longest, the errors that recur, and what got lost at the last handover.
This list becomes the yardstick. Every provider will show you their best features. Your list keeps the conversation on what your club needs.
What to look for
A motor vehicle club needs the basics of any membership system, plus records most clubs outside motoring never think about. The list below covers both.
Renewals by club year
Look for renewals tracked against your club year, with a clear view of who has paid, who is outstanding and how much is still to collect. Check that life and honorary members can be set to not renew, and that multi-year memberships are possible if your constitution allows them. Our guide to running membership renewals explains what a good renewal season needs.
Membership types and prices
You should be able to set up your own types with a price for each, and change prices from one year to the next without rewriting old records.
Payments into the club’s own account
Members’ payments should go straight into an account the club controls. Check who pays the card fees, whether the provider takes a percentage of each payment, and whether the treasurer can record cash and bank transfers as well.
Vehicles and log books
A motor club needs a register of members’ vehicles: plate, make, model, year and other details, linked to the owner. If your members use the Scheme, you also need each vehicle’s log books, with the date issued and whether each one is current, expired or cancelled. The Code requires clubs to keep records of financial members and their Scheme vehicles (the Code, clause 2.1g).
Scheme reports
Clubs on the Scheme send yearly reports to the Registrar and the Federation. Check whether the software can produce them from the club’s records, or whether you will still build them by hand. Our guide to the yearly Scheme reports lists each report and when it is due.
Roles and committee access
Not every volunteer needs to see everything. Look for access by role, so an events helper, for example, can do their job without seeing members’ contact details or the club’s money.
An activity log
An activity log records who changed what and when. It helps when a record looks wrong, when committees change, and when the Department asks to see the club’s records.
Where data is stored
Ask where member data is stored. Many clubs prefer Australia. Our guide to member data and privacy covers the wider questions.
A full export
You should be able to download all of the club’s records at any time, without asking permission. This is the single most important protection a club has.
A price model you can predict
Prices are set in different ways: per member, in bands by club size, by feature, or by transaction. Work out the yearly cost for your club, and ask what happens if numbers change mid-year.
Help moving your data
Moving records from an old system is often the hardest part. Ask who does it, what it costs and how long the old and new systems can run side by side.
Questions to ask any provider
Ask every provider the same questions, and ask for the answers in writing. Comparing written answers is much easier than comparing memories of three demos.
- Can we download all our records, at any time, without asking you?
- Where do members’ payments go, and when does the club receive the money?
- Do you take a percentage of members’ payments? Who pays the card fees?
- Where is our data stored?
- Can we limit what each committee member sees?
- Does it keep a log of who changed what?
- Can it record vehicles and log books, and produce the yearly Scheme reports?
- What is the full yearly cost for a club of our size, including setup and add-ons?
- Who moves our existing records across, and what does that cost?
- If we leave, what do we get, and what happens to our data?
- Who do we contact for help, and how?
- Which of the features you showed us are available now, and which are planned?
The last question matters. A feature shown in a demo is not always a feature you can use today.
Work out the true yearly cost
Compare providers on the full cost for a year, not the headline monthly price. Two tools with the same monthly fee can cost the club very different amounts once everything is counted.
List every cost for your club’s size:
| Cost | What to ask |
|---|---|
| Subscription | What is the price for our number of members, and how is that number counted? |
| Setup | Is there a fee to move our records across? Is it fixed or quoted? |
| Add-ons | Which features cost extra, such as a website, email or SMS? |
| Card fees | Who charges them, at what rate, and who pays? |
| Percentage of payments | Does the provider take a share of members’ fees? |
| Growth | What happens to the price if membership grows during the year? |
| Discounts | Is there a saving for paying yearly? |
Then add the cost the committee already pays in volunteer time. A tool that costs a little more but saves the registrar a weekend each year may be the better buy. Only your committee can weigh that.
Make the most of a demo
A demo is the best chance to see whether the software fits your club. Go in with a plan, so you see your jobs done and not only the provider’s favourite features.
Before the demo, send the provider your one-page summary and ask them to show your club’s own situations. During it:
- Ask to see a renewal season. Who has paid, who is outstanding, and what the treasurer sees.
- Ask to see a member with two vehicles. One on the Scheme with a log book, one not.
- Ask to see a resignation. What happens to the member’s record and their log book?
- Ask to see the yearly reports. Where they come from and what they contain.
- Ask to see an export. Download it, then open it on your own computer.
- Ask what an events helper would see. Then ask what the treasurer would see.
Take notes against the checklist below while it is fresh. If something is shown on slides rather than in the working software, ask whether it is available today.
Plan the move before you sign
Before committing, agree with the provider how the club’s records will move across and when. Ask who does the work, what format they need your records in, and whether the old system can keep running until the club is ready. Decide who on the committee will check the moved records, and set a switch-over date that avoids the busiest part of your renewal season.
Red flags
Some answers should make a committee stop and think. The two most serious are no full export and the provider holding the club’s money.
- No full export. If the club cannot download all its records, it cannot leave without starting again.
- Money held by the provider. If members’ payments go to the provider first and are paid to the club later, ask why, how often and what happens if something goes wrong.
- Vague answers about data. “Somewhere secure” is not an answer to “where is our data stored?”.
- A percentage of every payment. This is a real cost that grows as fees rise. Make sure you have counted it.
- Prices that change often or without warning. Treasurers need to budget for the year.
- Planned features presented as current. Ask which features you can use today.
A checklist to compare providers
Use this table to compare up to three providers side by side. Fill it in from their written answers.
| What to check | Provider A | Provider B | Provider C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renewals by club year | |||
| Your own membership types and prices | |||
| Life and honorary members do not renew | |||
| Multi-year memberships | |||
| Payments straight into the club’s account | |||
| No percentage taken from members’ payments | |||
| Record cash and bank transfers | |||
| Vehicle register linked to owners | |||
| Log books with current, expired, cancelled | |||
| Yearly Scheme reports | |||
| Access by committee role | |||
| Activity log of changes | |||
| Data stored in Australia | |||
| Full export at any time | |||
| Complete export if the club leaves | |||
| Yearly cost for our size | |||
| Help moving our records |
Involve the whole committee
The people who will use the software should help choose it. At minimum, that is usually the secretary, the treasurer and the registrar.
Each role sees a different part of the system. The treasurer cares about payments and reconciling. The registrar cares about log books and Scheme reports. The secretary cares about member records and correspondence. If only one of them chooses, the others may end up keeping their own spreadsheets on the side, and the club has two sources of truth again.
Book demos when the key people can attend together, and give each of them a few of the questions above to ask.
Where MemberCrew fits
MemberCrew is built for motor vehicle clubs, starting in South Australia. Today it covers most of the list above: renewals by club year, membership types with prices, invoices with payments by bank transfer, cash or cheque recorded against them (including part payments), vehicles and log books, the yearly Scheme reports for the Registrar and the Federation, roles, an activity log, data stored in Australia (Sydney) and a full export at any time. Online renewal payments are coming soon: members will pay through Stripe straight into the club’s own Stripe account, with no cut taken by default. Email and SMS to members, and a club website, are coming soon too.
Pricing is one plan in bands by current members, set once a year at the club’s renewal date. See pricing, how moving from an old system works, or compare MemberCrew with general membership software.