How to Digitise Your Club’s Membership Cards

Deciding to go digital is the easy part. Actually moving a club of 200 members from plastic to Apple and Google Wallet cards — without dropping anyone or annoying the committee — takes a plan. Here's a practical, season-shaped guide to digitising your club's membership cards, based on how clubs do it in the real world.

Before you start: get your member data straight

Everything downstream depends on this. You need, at minimum, each member's name and email address. Membership number, type (adult/junior/family/social), and expiry date are valuable extras that make the card genuinely useful at the door.

Most clubs already hold this in a spreadsheet or a membership system. Export it to a CSV, then spend an hour cleaning it: fix obvious typos, fill in missing emails, and remove people who've lapsed. Clean data now saves a hundred small headaches later.

Step 1: Design your card

In Digital Cards Club, build one card template with your logo, colours and fields. This single design becomes both the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet card, so you're not doing the job twice. Keep it simple — name, number, type, expiry, and a QR code covers 95% of clubs. The live preview shows exactly what members will see.

Step 2: Trial with the committee first

Don't roll out to 200 people on day one. The free plan gives you 5 cards — issue them to the committee. Everyone adds their card, tests it on their own phone, and scans it at the clubhouse door. You'll catch anything odd (a colour that doesn't pop, a field you forgot) while it's five people, not two hundred.

Step 3: Import your members and distribute

Happy with the trial? Upgrade to Pro, import your cleaned CSV, and distribute. Members receive an email with a one-tap add button. Expect a wave of installs in the first few days and a long tail after — which is normal, and something you can actually see (more on that below).

Step 4: Handle the stragglers

A week in, some members won't have added their card — they missed the email, or it went to spam. Two moves help:

• Resend to the non-installers (you can see who they are).
• Put a QR poster up at the clubhouse: scan it, add your card on the spot. This mops up the members who never read club emails but always turn up on match day.

Our guide on sending membership cards by email covers keeping that first message out of spam.

Step 5: Decide your plastic policy

Be pragmatic. "Digital by default, plastic on request" respects members without smartphones and still cuts your print run dramatically. A handful of plastic cards a season is far cheaper than a full run — see the true cost of plastic membership cards for the numbers.

Step 6: Live the payoff

From here it gets easy. New member joins — issue a card in seconds. Renewal season — cards update in place, no reprinting. Member changes phone — same link, new wallet. Someone lapses — revoke, and the card stops working at the door. The membership secretary's card job shrinks from days to minutes.

A realistic timeline

Two or three weeks of light effort, then a permanently lighter admin load. Start the trial free — five cards, no card details — and take the committee through it this week.