What do other clubs do in terms of issuing membership cards or providing some other means for members to prove membership for things like homebrew shop discounts.
As a new, small club (attendance averaging in the mid 20’s), I’m not sure cards are really a feasible option. Are there any digital solutions that can be used in conjunction with smartphones?
Our club uses a basic template in word and adds the member’s name to the card and emails it out to the respective member. It is up to you to print it out. I haven’t seen anybody laminate it but I guess it could be done. Our cards have a bar code for a discount to a LHBS but otherwise really serve no other purpose.
You could probably get a very cheap print and laminate job on some cards at a local printer or a big box office supply store but if the cards don’t really do anything for you then you may want to hold off until the club is larger or the card provides some kind of discounts somewhere.
We have an editable PDF (with lines for the member’s name and year) posted on the member-only page of our web site. Any member has access, and can print a card if they like. A couple LHBS in our area give club members a discount but I have not heard of a shop questioning the discount or requiring the physical card.
We send them to a local printer ahead of time. Those that were members in the past have their name and membership year pre printed. We also print up some blank ones for new members. This year we also picked up some plastic holders that we could drop the cards into so we could use them as name tags at meetings. We have around 100 attendees per a meeting so it helps.