Insights from the AuSAE Association Knowledge Program webinar "In Practice: How we rebuilt our membership model" with Paul Ritchie, Chief Operating Officer, AUSactive

Membership is at the heart of what we do as associations. But what worked five or ten years ago doesn't always land the same way today. Member expectations have changed, information is everywhere, and it's easy to slip into a "this is how we've always done it" mindset. Sound familiar?

In this AuSAE Association Knowledge Program session, Paul Ritchie shared the real story behind AUSactive's membership journey. AUSactive is the peak national body for Australia's fitness and exercise sector (you may remember it as Fitness Australia), representing exercise professionals, gyms and studios, and students in every state and territory. Toni, who hosted the session, sums up the spirit of these webinars well: “it’s beyond theory, it’s beyond telling what to do, and it’s actually hearing a story from somebody who’s done it.” Paul delivered exactly that, with an honest look at what changed, what they learned and what didn’t work.

Here's are the key takeaways:

1. Your membership model will keep evolving, and that's okay

Paul started with a roadmap of how far the organisation has come. It began as a group of state-based associations, joined together as a national body, then widened from representing individual exercise professionals to also representing employers, operators and facilities. Today it's a multi-modality organisation under the AUSactive name.

As Paul was quick to say, it hasn't been a straight line. They inherited things from the past and had to gently challenge old assumptions along the way. In Paul’s words, “the organization that was Fitness Australia 10 years ago is not the organization that we are now,” and that’s the whole point.

There was a useful lesson in the amalgamation too: solving one problem can create another. Going national fixed fragmentation, but it made it harder to stay close to diverse communities and keep support personal.

2. Separate your standard from your membership

One of the biggest lessons was separating registration (the professional standard, such as qualifications, first aid, CPR, insurance and codes of conduct) from membership (the wider support wrapped around it).

Registration had become part of members' professional identity. Pulling the two apart let AUSactive move from "being listed on a register" to supporting people through a whole career or business life cycle.

Something to ask your team: Is what members think they're paying for the same as the value you actually want to deliver?

3. Tailor to each audience, with a shared foundation

Individual members needed recognition, career support and development. Businesses needed help with workforce standards, operating practices, commercial relationships and industry representation, and larger groups needed more strategic engagement.

Rather than a single generic membership message, AUSactive built separate propositions, each with its own journey and account management, all resting on a common standards platform.

4. Let your industry's changes shape your boundaries

After COVID, Pilates and yoga grew quickly, each with its own education pathways, professional identity and business models. To represent them properly, AUSactive's membership model, and eventually its name and brand, had to grow beyond a traditional "fitness only" identity.

The takeaway for any association: your members' professions keep moving, so your model needs to be ready to move with them.

5. "Membership that Moves with You"

Over the last 12 to 24 months, AUSactive has been reshaping membership around the stages of a professional's career, with more flexibility and choice. Three changes stood out:

• A CPD framework. Continuing Education Credits became Continuing Professional Development, recognising learning in many formats and separating ongoing development from education alone.
• Professional indemnity insurance built into membership. Bringing the two together into one product added clear, practical value.
• Registration tiers. A baseline registered pathway sits alongside an accredited pathway that recognises an ongoing commitment to professional development and unlocks enhanced benefits.

The goal behind all three was clearer choices and a more relevant pathway to professionalism.

6. Simple on the front end takes discipline at the back end

Members should find their options easy to understand. But as Paul put it, “simplicity on the front end doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s simple at the back end.”

AUSactive worked to bring previously disconnected systems together into one connected platform. That supports renewals, reminders and workflows, and it depends on strong governance and clean data.

When weighing up system decisions, the team keeps two questions in mind: what frees up time and capacity so staff can serve members, and what the experience feels like from the member's side (UX and UI).

7. Lessons learned along the way

Paul shared several hard-won lessons that apply to organisations of any size:

• Start with the problem, not the categories. Ask what members need and how you can help solve it.
• Consult widely, but don't expect consensus. Consulting widely, Paul explained, “doesn’t mean that there’s always going to be a consensus.” What matters is consulting early, explaining your decisions and being open about trade-offs, with members, staff, the board and other stakeholders.
• Don't let historic system logic become permanent policy. Paul’s reminder is that “just because something’s been inherited doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.” Old membership levels and renewal rules can simply be artefacts of a previous database, so a system change is a chance to question them, not just carry them across.
• Settle before you layer on more. Every membership change blends systems, service and communication, so build confidence in one change before adding the next.
• Carry the learnings through everything. Forms, workflows and communication channels all need to reflect each change to your offer.

8. How to know when a change has settled

AUSactive combines a regular feedback loop with data. Changes are made with an expected outcome in mind. For example, introducing Pilates recognition came with targets based on the size of the workforce and the number of instructors they hoped to see join. Results are checked against those targets, alongside member feedback.

9. Consult through many channels, with a clear purpose

There's no single right way to consult. AUSactive uses surveys, webinars, one-to-one conversations through account management, town halls, and events and conferences. Whichever channel is used, the team stays clear on the problem they're trying to solve, so the questions are framed around it.

To keep a vocal minority from driving decisions, Paul suggests weighing feedback against wider market intelligence, such as government economic data, workforce trends and public data on qualification completions. If a few passionate voices point in a different direction to the broader picture, it's worth asking how representative they are. As Paul put it, you don’t want that feedback to “drown out everyone else” and leave you in an echo chamber.

10. Governance needs to evolve too

The constitution had been designed around individual exercise professionals. It was deliberately updated to allow wider representation, mirroring the evolution of the membership model. As with everything else, it came down to consultation, communication and bringing members along on the journey.

11. Advice for smaller organisations: keep it simple

Paul's advice was to identify one, two or three key priorities you're really trying to solve for, and to resist getting “swept up in a vortex of excitement or flashy ideas” or the newest product on the market. His short version: “keep it simple, right?” Focusing on just a few principles filters out the noise and gives you clarity, which matters most for smaller teams.

12. What didn't work: the paid student membership

AUSactive had long offered free student membership. They trialled a small price to create a sense of value, but “we worked out pretty quickly that’s not what the students wanted,” Paul said. Engagement dropped, so they went back to free. Paul noted that students are a handy testing ground, because they're early in their careers and not yet long-term members. The lesson: try things, learn, and move forward.

13. Where next? Directions, not commitments

Looking ahead, Paul stressed that “it’s directional, it’s not commitment,” and that any future change will be guided by evidence, consultation and piloting. Areas under consideration include:

• Lifecycle support through each stage of a member's career
• Future movement professions and qualifications, staying open-minded as the industry evolves
• More value-adds, like embedded insurance
• Recognition and credentials as modalities change
• Community and personalisation, including how AI might trigger support based on member behaviour rather than fixed categories

Did it work?

Yes. About ten years ago AUSactive was facing declining membership, as members' expectations and access to information changed. The good news: “we’ve had some really strong growth in the last couple of years,” Paul said, which he puts down largely to the evolution of the membership model.

How your association can apply this

You don't need AUSactive's size, budget or sector to put these lessons to work. The table below turns each one into an action, with a first step you can take this month. The first steps are our suggestions for applying Paul's lessons, not things he prescribed.

Lesson from AUSactive	How to apply it in your association	A good first step
Start with the problem	Frame your review around what members are trying to achieve, not your current tiers or categories.	Ask 10 to 15 members, across different segments, what they're trying to solve and where you help (or don't).
Separate standard from membership	List what members get because of a credential or requirement, and what they get because they belong. Make the second list stand on its own.	Draw up a two-column list of "required" versus "value-add" benefits.
Tailor to each audience	Define the two or three member groups that genuinely need different propositions, such as individuals, businesses and students.	Map each group's top three needs and note where your offer is one-size-fits-all.
Follow your profession	Scan your sector for new roles, disciplines or business models your model doesn't recognise yet.	Review your workforce, enrolment or qualification data for growth areas you don't yet serve.
Simple at the front, disciplined at the back	Walk the member journey from joining to renewal, and check your CRM, portal, payments and learning systems support it without manual workarounds.	Join and renew as a member would, and note every point of friction.
Question inherited rules	When you change systems, ask why for every old level, price point and renewal rule rather than copying it across.	List your membership rules and mark the ones nobody can explain.
Consult through many channels	Combine surveys with webinars, one-to-ones, events and board conversations, and be upfront about the problem you're solving.	Pick three channels and write the one question each should answer.
Check feedback against wider data	Compare what you hear with workforce, economic and qualification data so the loudest voices don't set the direction.	Add one external data source to your next membership review.
Evolve governance with the model	Check whether your constitution and board structure represent the members you have now.	Ask your governance lead whether current representation matches your member mix.
Settle before the next change	Set expected outcomes before launch, and review them against data and feedback before adding more.	For your next change, write down the target and the date you'll review it.
Pilot in low-risk areas	Test pricing and packaging ideas with groups where a misstep costs little, and be ready to reverse.	Choose one small pilot with a clear success measure and a review date.

Starting from scratch? A simple sequence

1. Name your one to three problems. Be specific about what your members, and your organisation, most need solved.
2. Listen. Consult through several channels, framed around those problems.
3. Cross-check. Compare what you hear with external data before you decide.
4. Review your systems and rules. Let go of inherited logic that no longer serves members, and fix the biggest friction points.
5. Pilot and explain. Share your decision and the trade-offs, then test with a smaller group where you can.
6. Measure and settle. Review results against the targets you set before moving on to the next change.

Questions to take back to your team

1. What problem are our members actually trying to solve, and does our model help them solve it?
2. Which of our membership rules are genuine policy, and which are leftovers from old systems?
3. Are we consulting through enough channels, and checking feedback against wider data?
4. Have we settled our last change before starting the next?
5. If we could only solve three things, what would they be?

Want to hear it for yourself?

If you missed the session, or you'd like to revisit Paul's story in his own words, log in to the AuSAE on-demand webinar library and watch it again at your own pace.

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The AuSAE Association Knowledge Program (AKP) brings practical, real-world stories from association leaders. Keep an eye out for upcoming sessions.