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 memberships, he saw a system that had outgrown itself. Committee members were tracking registrations, renewals, expiration dates, and follow-ups by hand, and the workload grew with every new beekeeper who joined.

That wasn’t the only complexity. CBKA operates with multiple membership levels, 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. His aim was to stay as close to commercial off-the-shelf as possible, relying on established tools rather than 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. Throughout that process, Martin found PMPro’s support team responsive and helpful in working through the configuration details.

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 members are able to register and renew with zero errors in the process — a meaningful shift for an organization where inaccurate records mean real administrative headaches down the line. The quality of the membership database has also improved in another way: the number of invalid registrations has fallen sharply.

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, who now serves as CBKA’s membership secretary and webmaster, continues to refine the system. The next big project on his roadmap is a self-managed equipment loan library, available to members holding a valid PMPro membership level. Members will be able to see which honey extraction equipment is available, who currently has what on loan, and where it’s located — so a beekeeper can contact the nearest member already holding the right gear rather than making a long drive out to the central equipment store. The first phase will run on trust: rather than building strict validation around who borrowed what and when it’s returned, the system relies on visibility itself to keep members accountable. As an added benefit, faulty equipment flagged on return surfaces to the next borrower much faster than the current process allows.

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.

For other associations and clubs facing similar challenges, CBKA’s experience is a useful one. Martin’s own advice is characteristically practical:

It does the core membership management for you — but you have to be prepared to customise towards your given use case.

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.