FREE 52+ Sample Membership Forms in PDF | MS Word | Excel

Membership allows an individual to enjoy the privileges given only to members and those who successfully passed its initiation rites—in some cases, elevated into the highest strata of society. Such is the case of the members of a secret society at Yale University called Order 322 or, more famously known as “The Skull and Bones Society.” The society was way beyond your average college fraternity. It was a small community composed of America’s elite, celebrities, and the country’s top officials—members of Congress, senators, and presidents. Because of this, many of Yale University’s freshmen aspire to become a Bonesman during their tenure at the university due to the society’s offer of career advancement in the future. If you think that the idea of forming a small and exclusive community wouldn’t benefit a business, you are wrong. Think of 5-star hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, it’s prestige and reputation for being the R&R spot for celebrities and rockstars, and the net profit they rake in every single day.

What Is a Membership Form?

A membership form is a registration form filled out by those who wish to belong to a small community of like-minded people. This form works somewhat like a personal information form, which organizations or clubs use to determine a prospective member’s qualification and eligibility for induction. In some clubs, like fraternities, membership forms are stamped and sealed after passing an initiation ritual as certification of an initiate’s full membership to the society. Additionally, membership forms are also used to update a club or organization’s roster of members when inducting a new member—which is the form’s primary purpose and function. Businesses often use membership forms to offer membership to customers as part of their community marketing strategy.

Important Benefits that Membership Offers

Membership, in most primitive societies, marks a person’s traverse from one chapter in life into another along with privileges enjoyed by those who successfully passed such a journey of transition. However, as civilizations later progressed, membership not only offered privileges but also restricted its activities exclusively among its members as well. This was very notable during the late medieval period, which saw the rise of guilds. Medieval guilds are exclusive communities of merchants and craftsmen, which were formed so that its members could benefit from mutual aid, set product standards, and reduce competition among them—political and economic advantage included. Their most peculiar practice is that they wouldn’t allow anyone to practice a trade without being a member of a guild. Because of that, guilds held most of the local economy in their hands. Guilds slowly went into decline as time moved on. Today, clubs and businesses still applied the same important set of benefits that guildsmen of the old enjoyed. These benefits are:

1. Exclusivity: Remember the “boys only” sign that we used to hang on the club house’s door when we’re still kids? That’s what exclusivity is all about, in a nutshell. Exclusivity means that certain perks, privileges, and rights are restricted only among members of a specific group of individuals. Costco, for example, pioneered the warehouse club concept in the mid-’70s, wherein members not only enjoyed discounts and low prices but also restricted the right to shop only to those with membership.

2. Community: Membership—believe it or not—brings us to a community where we could honestly say that “we belong.” It reminds us of our days in the science club, where we get to belong to a group of kindred spirits and like-minded people. Communities allow us to grow and improve ourselves. Aside from that, it also allows us to form a network of friends from different backgrounds, which we can tap for matters outside the club.

HOGs for Life: The Harley Owners Group

When it comes to membership, not many can boast the closed-knit bond of American road trip enthusiasts, such as (motorcycle) bikers—the real deal. Motorcycling has brought a unique bond between man and the machine, which quickly formed tightly-knit communities since its invention. That same bond led motorcycling enthusiasts, Bill Harley, Arthur, and Walt Davidson Sr., to found the household motorcycle brand—Harley-Davidson—in 1903. The brand and its machines actively took part not only in big racing events but also in historical events as well, including the 1st and the 2nd world war—where the army deployed most of their motorcycles in all theatres. The brand enjoyed a significant following—the Bobber culture of the late ’40s up to the ’50s—during these years since the brand’s inception.

Not everything is all cotton candies and balloons for Harley-Davidson. The company began to lose its following after the company was sold to American Machine and Foundry in 1969. The new owner was a far cry from the identity that the brand was known for. Streamlined production led to producing bikes of low quality, and the brand became a laughing stock.

In 1981, 13 Harley-Davidson executives—one of them, the founders’ grandson, Willie Davidson—decided to buy back the company from its parent company, AMF. Following the successful buy-back, executives celebrated by riding from York, Pennsylvania to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the brand was born—and will be re-born. The buy-back ought to bring back the energy and focus brand’s most important asset: “the most loyal customers in the world.” In an effort to regain—and revive—the following that Harley-Davidson had lost during its time under AMF’s wings, the Harley Owner’s Group or HOG was officially launched on January 1, 1983. The HOG is a tightly-knit community of Harley-Davidson fans and followers, which numbered around 100,000 members from 49 chapters across the country, by the end of 1985. “It was a way to reconnect with our customers, and have some fun.” Wrote Willie Davidson, in his book—100 Years of Harley-Davidson.

FREE 52+ Sample Membership Forms in PDF | MS Word | Excel

1. Library Membership Form

2. Medical Association Membership Form

3. Club Membership Form

4. Farmer Membership Form

5. Membership Data Form

6. Stock Exchange Membership Form

7. Society Membership Form

8. Membership Application Form

9. Organization Membership Application Form

10. Foundation Membership Form

11. Chamber Membership Form

12. Sample Membership Form

13. Sample Membership Application Form

14. Fresh Membership Form

15. Students Club Membership Form

16. GYM Membership Application Form

17. International Leadership Association Membership Form

18. Life Membership Application Form

19. Air Force Association Membership Form

20. Association Membership Form

21. Organization Membership Application Form

22. Primary Membership Form

23. Adult Membership Registration Form

24. Hotel Membership Form

25. Individual Student Membership Form

26. Membership Registration Form

27. Sample Student Membership Form

28. Membership Transfer Form

29. Staff Library Membership Form

30. Farmers Association Membership Form

31. Institutional Membership Form

32. International Membership Form

33. Membership Renewal Form

34. Declaration of Membership Form

35. MLA Program Membership Form

36. Sample Club Membership Form

37. Creative Partner Membership Form

38. Regional Membership Form

39. Sample Society Membership Form

40. Sample Association Membership Form

41. Public Charitable Trust Membership Form

42. Senior Membership Form

43. Running Club Membership Form

44. Sample Associate Membership Form

46. General Membership Form

47. Program Committee Membership Form

48. Alumni Association Membership Form

49. Church Membership Form

50. Membership Renewal Application Form

51. Personal Membership Form

52. Professional Membership Form

53. Membership Checklist Form

How to Make a Membership Form

Organizations, especially businesses, uses membership forms to reach out to the community that their brands or interests represent. These forms offer ordinary people the chance to become a cut above the rest by granting them access to exclusive perks and priveleges unavailable to the general public. It gives a feeling of pride and prestige from being a member of such an exclusive community, as well. So, if you’re a business wanting to express gratitude and be more in-touch with your customers and the community that it represents, then extending exclusive access to your products and services will be more fitting by way of membership forms. And, here are the steps on how to make them.

Step 1. Select and Download a Template

Firstly, select from a wide variety of membership form templates found in this article. By using a ready-made template, it allows you to expedite the process of having your very own membership form without the hassle of making such, out from nothing. Each membership form template in the list are made explicitly for a specific purpose. So make sure that you’ve selected the right one before hitting the download button. Then, hit the download button placed beside the sample after choosing the right one.

Step 2. Personalize the Template

Then, personalize the template after downloading one from our list, and make it as your very own. To do that, start by placing your business’s name and logo on the header of the form. There will be instances that you’ll end up downloading a form with a business name and logo in it. To fix that hurdle, replace the ones that came with the form with those of your business. Aside from that, you may also encounter some sections that are included in the template, such as those that ask for personal information. Those sections are integral to the form, so better skip that part. However, the most important part that you shouldn’t forget is to have a signature block on the membership form. The signature block is where your customers place their signature to confirm that they agreed on the terms and conditions of membership. If you wish to, you can also add a signature block to place your signature on. This way, you can further be in touch with your customers by confirming their membership to the small community that your brand represents.

Step 3. Incorporate Terms and Conditions

Next, Incorporate a terms and conditions agreement with your membership form. A terms and conditions agreement is an agreement where terms, conditions, and limitations of membership are detailed. Aside from that, it also details the violations and penalties that a member should avoid. To get started, write and print them on a separate page as it will be very long to write it on the back page of the form itself.

Step 4. Print the Membership Form

Lastly, print the membership form after completing the previous steps listed above. For this matter, you can print the membership form using your office printer⁠—if the quantity of the output are within the printer’s capacity according to its design. You’ll also be more likely to print huge quantities of membership forms, so it will be wise for you to enlist the services of a commercial printer.

Step 5. Or Integrate the Form in your Website

Or better yet, since more people are likely to run to the world wide web for almost everything, why not integrate the membership form to your business’s website. Integrating a membership form to your website allows your business to extend its reach to its international community that your brand represents. Likewise, it also allows your business to be recognized on that same scale, as well.

Terminologies

Exclusive – The act of limiting the use, access, or availability of something to a particular group. The word is synonymous with the phrase “member’s only.”

Perks and Privileges – Are benefits enjoyed by a member or members of a certain group. These are advantages not normally offered or catered to outsiders or the majority of the populace.

Community Marketing – This is a Marketing Strategy that places importance on customer engagement and conversation.

FAQs

1. How does extending membership benefit my business?

Forming and sponsoring a small community of loyal customers has led many businesses to succeed at a fraction of the cost. That is largely due to the brand being brought closer to the community that it represents. And by also listening to the testimonies from the end-users themselves, which makes them feel that their voices matter. Aside from that, offering exclusive and members-only access benefits and services enables your customers to feel valued even more. In turn, it subsequently leads customers to be loyal to your brand and promote them by word of mouth—which costs a lot cheaper than hardcore advertising.

2. Can extending membership raise my business’s reputation?

Of course, absolutely! Take luxury hotels, for example. As we know, most of them extend membership to their guests in the prospect of converting them into full-time patrons. You may not realize, patrons are the life-blood of a business. Patrons allow a business to thrive no matter what the economic conditions are. If you’re lucky to gain the patronage of a celebrity, it will consequently raise your business’s reputation and add an air of prestige to it—owing to the amount of influence that a single celebrity has to society. With that being said, people will tend to want to experience the same, as well.