A membership card looks like the simplest thing a body issues and is the one most often wrong. It is not a design job: it is a claim, made in the body's name, that the person holding it belongs and is paid up. That claim is only as good as the record it came from and the date printed on it, which is why cards made in a design tool and posted out in January are quietly false by March. This page is about what the card has to carry, who has to be able to check it, and what a membership card system does that a template does not.
The three fields that make a card checkable
A card that names the member and the body has told you nothing you can act on. The three fields that matter are the member's tier, the date the membership expires, and an identifier that ties the card back to the record. With those, the person on the door can answer the only question they have, which is whether this person is a member today. Without the expiry, a card is valid forever; without the identifier, a disputed card cannot be checked against anything; without the tier, a body with member and guest rates cannot enforce either.
Why a membership card template is where the trouble starts
A membership card template in a word processor or a design tool is a picture with fields typed into it. Nothing connects it to the membership, so nothing updates when the membership changes. The member who lapses in March keeps a card that says December, the member who upgrades tier keeps the old one, and the body has no list of what it has issued. The template is not wrong for a body of thirty that reissues by hand each year, but it stops being honest the moment issuing and lapsing are done by different people at different times.
What a membership card system adds
A membership card system issues the card from the record, so the card is a view of the membership rather than a copy of it. Practically that means three things: the card carries the expiry the record holds, a lapsed membership makes the card lapse with it, and the body can see what it has issued and to whom. The cost of that is keeping the record properly, which is the work the free template on this site sizes before you decide whether to do it.
Paper, plastic or a mobile membership card
Plastic is worth it where the card is shown constantly and where the body wants the object to feel like something, which is most sports clubs. A phone card costs nothing to issue and nothing to reissue, which matters far more when memberships lapse and restart, and it can be regenerated the moment a member upgrades. Paper is fine for a body whose card is proof at one annual event. The record is the same in all three cases: the format is a decision about the member's experience, not about the membership.
Checking a card at the door, in ten seconds
The person on the door has one question and no time. A card that answers it carries the expiry in large type, the tier in a word, and an identifier the door can read: a number, a barcode or a code the phone shows. The check is: is today before the expiry, does the tier match the rate being claimed, and, if there is any doubt, does the identifier find a current record. A card that carries a photograph makes the third check faster; a card that carries only a name and a logo makes it impossible. The record on this site is built so the door can do the third check on a phone in the time it takes to say good evening, which is the whole reason to issue from the record rather than from a design tool.
A season of cards from the record, worked
A club of four hundred members with a single renewal date in September. Cards issued on the record in the last week of August: three hundred and sixty renewed and paid, forty not yet. The three hundred and sixty get cards that expire next August; the forty get nothing until they pay, and the door list says so. Through the season, twenty-five join mid-year and get cards issued the day their dues land, expiring on the same August date at a pro-rated fee the record holds. Twelve lapse and their cards expire with them, because the card is a view of the record. At the next renewal the body knows exactly how many cards it has out and to whom, which is the figure the free worksheet on this site sizes from your own membership and reissue rate.
Questions people ask about membership card
What should a membership card include?
The member's name, the body's name, the tier and the expiry date, plus an identifier that ties the card back to the record. Everything else, including a photograph, is a decision about how the card is used at the door rather than about the membership.
Do we need a membership card at all?
Only if somebody checks it. A card nobody is ever asked to show is a cost and a small liability, because a card in circulation is a claim your body has made. Bodies with a clubhouse, a discount scheme or an event door usually need one; a professional association whose members never prove membership to anybody often does not.
How do we stop old cards being used?
Print an expiry and issue from the record. A card with no expiry cannot be withdrawn, only reissued and hoped about, and a card issued outside the record cannot be canceled at all because nothing knows it exists.
Is making membership cards without software good enough?
Yes, and for a small body a template is a reasonable answer. The free worksheet on this site will tell you how many cards a year you would be reissuing by hand, which is usually the number that decides it.
Should the card carry a photograph?
Only where the card is checked against the person rather than against the record: a clubhouse door, a discount at a partner, a members-only event. A photograph makes the check faster and the card harder to lend, and it costs the body a photograph per member to collect and keep. A phone card shows one at no cost; a printed card with photographs is a real administrative load and worth it only where lending is a problem.