Replacing a print-and-scan membership process with something from this decade

Goal

A board member approached me about the organization's need to reach and onboard new members. They worried the existing website was too outdated to appeal to an enthusiastic, modern business audience. Having just joined and been through the PDF-based registration herself, she wanted a better way.

Approach

I reviewed the existing site for content and user experience, then tried to register as a new member myself to understand the backend process from the inside. Sure enough: download a PDF, print it, fill it out, scan it, and either email it back or bring it to the next meeting.

I built a full working demo site and presented it alongside a written proposal for digitizing registration and integrating it with email marketing. The home page would feature upcoming events linking through to a genuinely engaging calendar. Registration would happen entirely online, requiring only an administrator's approval before the new member's profile and business directory listing published automatically. Any registration, contact, volunteer, or subscription submission would trigger the appropriate Mailchimp workflow to welcome that person according to what they had actually signed up for. And the whole thing would be mobile friendly and pitched at the young professional aesthetic they were trying to attract.

Results

The project was not adopted by the wider board because of cost. The demo stands on its own as a clear, functional upgrade — and as an argument that the registration process, not the design, was what was actually costing them members.