Beekeeping has a way of attracting devoted people. In Cambridgeshire, England, that devotion stretches back to November 28, 1881, when a group gathered at St John’s College, Cambridge, to found what would become the Cambridgeshire Beekeepers’ Association. Seven of the founding committee members were clergymen — vicars who were already deep in the world of beekeeping, and who served as a natural bridge between the science of the hive and the “cottagers and agricultural labourers” still keeping bees in hollow logs and straw skeps.

More than 140 years later, CBKA has grown into one of the three largest beekeeping associations in the United Kingdom, with more than 550 members ranging from commercial bee farmers to absolute beginners. The association organizes apiary sessions and lectures, sends speakers to local groups and clubs, attends fetes and county shows, and works to educate the wider public about the vital role pollinators play in the environment. Beekeeping, after all, is not just a hobby: it’s a contribution to the health of every garden, farm, and wild space in the region.

Running an organization with that history and that mission is a labor of love. Running its membership system, until recently, was something rather more laborious.

A Retired Engineer Volunteers for a Big Job

When Martin Kendall, a retired software engineer and CBKA member, looked at how the association was managing its 500-plus memberships, he saw a system that had outgrown itself. Everything was handled manually — registrations, renewals, expiration dates, follow-ups. Committee members were tracking it all by hand, and the workload grew with every new beekeeper who joined.

That wasn’t the only complexity. CBKA operates with multiple membership levels (Ordinary, Joint, and Associate), each with its own renewal logic. More than 300 members are also affiliated with a national beekeeping organization, which means their records need to be accurate not just internally, but in coordination with another entirely separate body. Keeping all of that consistent, renewal cycle after renewal cycle, became an increasingly difficult ask for a volunteer committee.

Martin put his hand up to fix it.

We wanted a commercial off-the-shelf solution that could be configured to meet our needs, without building a bespoke system from scratch.

As a software engineer, Martin knew the difference between a problem that calls for custom development and one that calls for the right tool, properly configured. He turned to WordPress for its rich ecosystem of plugins, and went looking for a membership solution flexible enough to handle CBKA’s layered structure.

He found Paid Memberships Pro.

Getting the Configuration Right

Martin describes the early setup process as “somewhat frustrating at first” — an honest account from someone who knew exactly what he was trying to achieve and had to work through the details of getting there. CBKA’s membership model has real-world nuances that don’t map neatly onto a default configuration. Core membership levels use fixed annual expiration dates; Associate memberships, by contrast, run on a rolling one-year term. Both had to work correctly, and work consistently, within the same system.

Support has been very good when we’ve needed assistance.

Working through those setup decisions with PMPro’s support team, Martin arrived at a configuration that reflects how CBKA actually operates. Membership levels are clearly defined, expiration rules are set for each type, and renewal workflows run automatically. Members receive reminder emails before their membership lapses. When they renew, administrators can see full order details. The committee no longer needs to manually track who is due to renew, or cross-check records to confirm whether an update has been applied.

The result is a system that is, in Martin’s words, stable and predictable. And for a volunteer-run organization, that’s exactly what you want.

Zero Errors, Fewer Headaches

The outcomes have been concrete. Since moving to Paid Memberships Pro, CBKA has seen zero errors in the registration process. This is a meaningful shift for an organization where inaccurate records mean real administrative headaches down the line.

Since implementing the system, we’ve had zero errors in registration.

The quality of the membership database has also improved in another way: the number of invalid registrations has dropped significantly.

The system has reduced the number of bogus members significantly!

For the committee, the change in day-to-day experience has been just as significant. Renewal reminders go out automatically. Member status is visible in one place. The work that used to require constant monitoring and follow-up now largely runs itself. Committee members are freed up to focus on what they actually signed up to do: support the beekeeping community across Cambridgeshire.

What Comes Next

Martin is still refining the system. One project currently in development is an API integration with the national beekeeping organization, which would allow member affiliation data to sync automatically rather than being managed as a separate process. With more than 300 affiliated members to keep track of, that integration stands to be a significant time-saver.

There’s also ongoing work to make the system more accessible for committee members and older users who may find website navigation less intuitive. The goal, as Martin puts it, is to make membership management as automated as possible — a system that serves the association without requiring the association to serve it.

Using commercial off-the-shelf plugins with selective customization has given us the flexibility we need without unnecessary complexity.

For other associations and clubs facing similar challenges, CBKA’s experience is a useful one. The underlying message is simple: a volunteer organization’s energy is too valuable to spend on spreadsheets and renewal reminders. The right membership system can give that energy back.

The Cambridgeshire Beekeepers’ Association has been bringing people together around the hive since 1881. Now, at least, the paperwork looks after itself.

Associations and clubs facing similar administrative challenges can explore how Paid Memberships Pro supports membership tiers, renewals, and benefit management on our Associations page.