The renewal cycle in brief
A renewal season has five parts: decide the year’s types and prices, send notices, follow up, record payments, and report the result. Each part is simple on its own. Problems come when they are done in a hurry, by different people, without a written plan.
Most clubs renew everyone at once, on the same date each year. That date is the start of the club year, which your constitution usually sets. A club year of 1 July to 30 June is common, but your club may use another one. Everything in this guide works for any club year: just shift the dates.
A typical cycle looks like this:
| Stage | What happens | Who usually does it |
|---|---|---|
| Before the season | Confirm types, prices and the timing of notices | Committee |
| Opening | First notice to every member who needs to renew | Secretary or treasurer |
| Follow-up | Reminder to those who have not paid | Secretary or treasurer |
| Close | Final notice, then the club’s lapsing rule applies | Committee |
| Throughout | Record each payment as it arrives | Treasurer |
| After the season | Report numbers to the committee and the AGM | Treasurer or secretary |
For a dated, step by step version of this list, use the renewal season checklist.
Set your membership types and prices first
Agree the year’s membership types and prices at a committee meeting before any notices go out. Changing a price after notices have gone out causes confusion and extra work.
Membership types (sometimes called tiers or categories) are the kinds of membership your club offers. Common examples are Full, Pensioner, Life and Honorary. Your constitution may also allow family, joint or associate memberships. Each type has a price for the year, or no price at all for types that do not pay.
Questions to settle each year:
- Are prices changing? If so, check whether the constitution requires a general meeting to approve the change.
- Are any types being added or retired? Decide what happens to members on a retired type.
- Which types count as financial membership? This matters most for Scheme members, because only financial members can hold a log book. Your constitution decides this. Our guide to who counts as a financial member explains why.
- Do any types run for more than one year? See the section on multi-year memberships below.
Write the decisions in the minutes. The minutes are your record of what the committee agreed, and the next committee will need them.
Decide when notices go out
Send the first notice before the new club year starts, then a reminder, then a final notice. Agree the dates in advance and keep to them, so every member gets the same treatment.
The exact gaps between notices are up to your committee. What matters is that:
- members have enough time to pay before their membership runs out
- the reminder reaches people before they forget the first notice entirely
- the final notice gives a clear date and says what happens after it
A good first notice tells the member their membership type, the amount, the due date, how to pay, and who to contact with questions. If the member holds a Scheme log book, it should also explain that their right to use the vehicle depends on staying financial. Our renewal reminder letter template has wording for the first notice, the reminder and the final notice, including a paragraph for Scheme members.
Keep the notices short. Older members in particular appreciate a single page with the amount and the payment details easy to find.
Reminders and follow-up
Follow up only the members who have not paid, and work from an up-to-date list. Nothing annoys a member more than a reminder for a fee they paid last week.
That means payments must be recorded before each round of reminders goes out. If your treasurer reconciles the bank account once a month, plan your reminder dates around that, or ask the treasurer to do a quick check just before.
After the reminder, the remaining list is usually short. This is the point where a personal touch works best. A phone call from a committee member often resolves things a third letter will not: the member moved, changed email, had a health problem, or simply missed it. Note the outcome of each call so the next person does not ring the same member twice.
Handling late payers fairly
Treat every late payer the same way, by a rule the committee agreed in advance. Fairness protects the committee from awkward conversations and accusations of favouritism.
Whether the club allows a grace period after the due date, and how long it is, is a club policy decision. Your constitution may already set it. If it does not, the committee can agree one and put it in the minutes. Then:
- Say it in the notices. Members should know the rule before it applies to them.
- Apply it to everyone. Long-standing members and committee members included.
- Record what happened. If the committee makes an exception (for example, because of illness), minute the reason.
- Be clear about what lapsing means. Can the member rejoin at the renewal price, or must they apply as a new member? Your constitution may answer this.
Late fees are possible but are often more trouble than they are worth. Only charge one if your rules allow it and members were told in advance.
Life and honorary members
Life and honorary members are usually treated as financial without paying a yearly fee, so they should not receive renewal notices. Check your constitution to confirm how it treats them.
Keep these members on your list with their membership type clearly recorded. They still count in your membership numbers, and they may still hold Scheme log books. If your constitution treats them as financial, there is no yearly renewal for their log book to depend on.
If your club is not sure whether a life member counts as financial for the Scheme, read the constitution first, then the financial members guide. The Code says a club must make sure members with Scheme vehicles are financial under its constitution, whatever membership types it offers (the Code, clause 2.1b).
Multi-year memberships
A multi-year membership lets a member pay for two or more club years at once. It saves the member a yearly payment and saves the treasurer a yearly chase. Only offer it if your constitution allows it.
The risk with multi-year memberships is losing track of who has paid ahead. Record a paid-through date on every member’s record, for example “paid through 30 June 2028”. Then, each season, exclude anyone paid through a later date from the renewal run.
Think about price changes too. If the yearly price rises, does a member who paid three years in advance owe the difference? Decide this before you offer the option, and say it on the form.
New members joining part-way through the year
New members who join late in the club year need a clear rule about what they pay and when their membership ends. Without one, the treasurer makes it up each time, and members get different answers.
Clubs handle this in different ways. Some charge a reduced fee for the rest of the year. Some treat a late joiner as paid through to the end of the following club year. Whatever your club does, the rule should be written down and applied to everyone. Your constitution may already set it.
In MemberCrew, a new member who joins after 31 December pays for one year, plus the joining fee, and is covered until 30 June of the following year. For example, a member who joins in February 2027 is covered until 30 June 2028. A club that prefers part-year (pro rata) pricing for the first period can choose that instead.
New members on the Scheme are a special case. The club’s authorised person confirms the applicant is a financial member before completing the MR334 form (the Code, clause 2.8), and the club checks the applicant is financial before issuing a log book (the Code, clause 2.27). So a new member’s payment should be recorded before either step happens.
Scheme members: why financial status matters
For members on the Conditional Registration Scheme, renewing is about more than the club’s income. A member who stops being financial must not drive their Scheme vehicle, or let anyone else drive it, until they are financial again or the vehicle has standard registration (the Code, clause 3.11).
That gives the renewal season some extra jobs for clubs with Scheme members:
- Tell Scheme members plainly. Your notices should explain that the right to use the vehicle depends on financial membership.
- Know who holds a log book. When the season closes, you need to know which unpaid members hold a current log book.
- Report at the end of the financial year. Within two months of the end of the club’s financial year, the club gives the Registrar a report of members with Scheme vehicles who are no longer financial (the Code, clauses 2.1j and 2.33).
- Cancel log books on resignation. When a member resigns, the club cancels their log book (the Code, clause 2.29).
Our guide to lapsed members who still hold log books covers this follow-up in detail, including a fair process for contacting members before they are reported.
Recording payments
Record every payment against the member it belongs to, with the date and the method, as soon as you can identify it. The list of who has renewed is only as accurate as the payment records behind it.
Payments arrive in several ways: online card payments, bank transfers, cash at a meeting, the occasional cheque. Each needs a record. Some tips:
- Ask for a reference. A member number or surname as the bank reference makes transfers much easier to match.
- Give receipts for cash. And record cash payments the same day.
- Watch for part payments. A member who pays the old price after an increase has paid part of the fee. Record what they paid and follow up the rest.
- Keep one list. If the treasurer and the secretary keep separate lists, they will disagree by the end of the season.
Online payment helps because the member pays and the record updates at the same time. If your club takes card payments, check where the money goes and who pays the card fees. In MemberCrew today, the treasurer records bank transfers, cash and cheques against each member’s invoice, including part payments; online renewal payments are coming soon. Our page on invoices and payments explains how this works.
Reporting at the AGM
At the end of the season, give the committee and the AGM a short summary: how many renewed, how many lapsed, how many joined, and the money collected and still owed. Keep the format the same each year so the numbers can be compared.
A simple table works well:
| Measure | This year | Last year |
|---|---|---|
| Members at the start of the season | ||
| Renewed | ||
| Lapsed | ||
| New members | ||
| Life and honorary members | ||
| Fees collected | ||
| Fees still owed |
If membership is falling, the AGM is the place to ask why. If it is growing, the committee may want to review its workload or its prices.
How MemberCrew helps
MemberCrew keeps renewals in one place for the whole committee. You set up your membership types with a price for each, and life and honorary members are treated as financial and do not renew. Renewals are tracked per club year, with an overview of renewals paid and outstanding and the dues still to collect.
The treasurer records each payment made by bank transfer, cash or cheque against the member’s invoice, including part payments. Online renewal payments are coming soon: members will renew in the member portal and pay through Stripe straight into the club’s own Stripe account. Memberships and renewals can be for 1, 2 or 3 years, and the grace period after the renewal date is a club setting. Because log books sit on each member’s vehicle, MemberCrew can list lapsed members who still hold log books, and produce the Registrar’s yearly report in one click. MemberCrew does not lodge the report: the club sends it.
See memberships and renewals for the detail, or book a demo to see a renewal season in the Demo Club.