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For associations running on a small staff

When a member joins or renews, everything downstream should already know.

I work with associations that have small staffs and too many systems. I make your member record, your website, your email and your accounting agree with each other — so renewals don't slip, event registrations reconcile, and nobody re-keys anything by hand.

Book a 20-minute call See what the review covers

The first paid step is a $3,500 Member Systems Review. Two to three weeks, fixed fee, and the findings are yours either way.

Sound familiar?

You'll know if this is you

  1. 01 Your AMS doesn't talk to your website.
  2. 02 Member data lives in three places and you're not certain which one is right.
  3. 03 Somebody re-keys event registrations into accounting after every conference.
  4. 04 A member pays their dues and their status doesn't change — so they keep getting renewal notices, or they lapse and register at the member rate anyway.
  5. 05 Renewal notices go out manually, because the automated version got it wrong once and nobody trusts it now.
  6. 06 Sponsor deliverables live in a spreadsheet and someone's inbox.
  7. 07 Board reporting means exporting three systems and reconciling them in Excel the week before the meeting.
  8. 08 You have three staff and everyone wears five hats.

Why this keeps happening

Nobody owns the space between your systems

Your AMS vendor supports the AMS. Your web person supports the website. Your bookkeeper reconciles what reaches the ledger. Everyone is doing their job.

But when something breaks between those systems, each vendor points at the other, and you don't have an IT department to settle it. So it lands on whoever has the least room to say no — usually your membership or communications lead, usually during renewal season or the week after the annual meeting.

That space between your systems is the only thing I work on.

  • Your AMS vendor Their platform, and only their platform.
  • An AMC Running your operations, with their own stack.
  • A fractional CIO Advice, at $200–$250 an hour.
  • A web agency The website, up to the form submission.
  • PipeCraft Whether your member data actually behaves.

Three ways in

Start where it costs you most

You can stop after any one of these. Nothing here requires the next thing.

01 · Two to three weeks · fixed fee

Member Systems Review

$3,500

Find out what's actually broken.

I trace what really happens when someone joins, renews, registers for an event or lapses — across your member record, your website forms, your email tool, your event registration, and whatever reaches finance. You get a written document that ranks what's broken by what it costs you in staff time and in dues and event revenue, plus a fix list with a price against each item.

It's yours. If you take it to another vendor, or fix it in-house, that's a fine outcome.

02 · Named scope · fixed price

Build the fix

From $8,000

Fix it on the systems you already own.

A named, capped set of workflows — not "we'll integrate everything." We pick them off the fix list, agree the scope in writing, and I build them on the platforms you already pay for. You get working handoffs, documentation, a named owner for anything that falls out, and thirty days after launch.

No new platform. No migration. Nothing to rip out.

03 · Monthly · cancel with 30 days

Keep it working

From $500/mo

Somebody has to watch it.

I monitor the connections between your systems, catch the records that don't go through and fix them before anyone complains, keep your site current, and run a readiness pass before renewal season and before your annual meeting.

Most associations don't need this. The ones with a conference and a renewal cycle usually do.

What changes

From a pile of tools to a system with owners

Before

  • AMS or member database
  • Website forms
  • Email marketing tool
  • Event registration
  • Accounting
  • Dues spreadsheet
  • Sponsor tracker
  • Board reporting deck

Nothing is wrong on its own. Together they cost you a staff member.

After

  • Member experience Join · renew · register — one path, one status
  • Member record One source of truth for who is current and who is not
  • Handoffs between systems Written contracts, monitored, with alerts instead of phone calls
  • Finance & reporting Dues and event revenue that reconcile without a spreadsheet

Track record

Where this comes from

PipeCraft is the successor to Sfera Interactive. Most of that work was for media and entertainment industry associations — the same shape of organization, the same renewal cycles, the same annual meeting crunch.

Media & entertainment industry association · Member and event systems

Multi-year delivery across member communications, event registration and sponsor operations for an industry association running a conference calendar and a renewing membership base.

Add a real figure before launch

Member-based organization · Website and member data

Rebuilt the public site and connected it to the member record so status changes stopped being a manual step.

Add a real figure before launch

I'm not going to put invented numbers on this page. Ask me on the call and I'll walk you through specific engagements, what worked, and what took longer than I said it would.

How it goes

Four steps, and you can stop after any of them

  1. 01 · Week 0

    A 20-minute call

    You tell me where it hurts. I tell you whether it's the kind of problem I fix, and roughly what it would take. No deck, no sequence.

  2. 02 · Weeks 1–3

    Member Systems Review

    The paid diagnostic. I trace your join, renew, register and lapse paths end to end and hand you a written findings document with a costed fix list.

  3. 03 · Weeks 4–10

    Build the first fix

    The highest-cost handoff first. Live, documented, and used by real staff before we talk about the next one.

  4. 04 · Ongoing, optional

    Hand over or hold

    Your team runs it, or I do. Either way the documentation is yours and the exit is written down.

Fit

Worth being straight about this

This works when

  • You have somewhere between 3 and 20 staff.
  • You run at least one annual event and a renewing membership.
  • You already own the systems — you don't want to buy another platform.
  • Someone on staff can answer questions about how the work actually happens.

This isn't for you if

  • You want a new AMS selected and implemented. That's a different job and other firms do it well.
  • You need someone on site. I work remotely.
  • The real problem is that nobody has decided who owns member data. I can't fix a decision.
  • You're looking for the cheapest bid. I'm not it.

Built on the systems you already use

HubSpot · Zoho · Make · Zapier · n8n · WordPress · Webflow · and alongside Wild Apricot, MemberClicks, GrowthZone, Novi, and Impexium

Tell me where it hurts and I'll tell you which system it's on.

A 20-minute call, no deck. If a paid review is the right next step I'll say so, and if it isn't I'll tell you that too.

No sales sequence. One reply, from me.