Retyping paper forms costs the secretariat hours — and interested people drop off when joining is awkward. This guide shows how to set up online registration for your association: a signup form on your website, iframe embed and membership fee payment at signup.
The classic path: print a form from the website or fill it in at a club evening, send it by email or post to the secretariat, then retype it into Excel. Fields are missing, handwriting is hard to read, the fee arrives weeks later. For the secretariat that means double work. For new members it means waiting and uncertainty. That is why many boards look for online registration — not as a gimmick, but as digital intake that collects data and payment in one step.
Online registration means interested people fill in a digital signup form — name, address, email, membership type and whatever else your association needs. Data lands in member management instead of an inbox. You review and confirm; the new member is in the system without retyping. Online member signup does not replace board decisions or statutes — it replaces the paper path. For Swiss associations at season start, course launch or ongoing intake, that is the difference between chaos and a calm routine.
The form belongs on your association website — where interested people already land. With an iframe you embed it on an existing page without building a new site. Or you share a direct link via newsletter, WhatsApp or social media. Neither needs an IT project: copy the embed code from your association software into your CMS. Important: you decide when online registration is active — always on or only during intake windows. You control the flow without reprinting forms.
The second win besides clean data: new members can pay the membership fee at signup — with TWINT or card. You do not chase them afterwards, and the treasurer sees the status immediately. Online payments run through zahls.ch; once set up, payment and membership belong together. Paying later or by bank transfer can still be possible — but the default "sign up and pay" cuts drop-off and reduces questions to the secretariat.
In Membear you set up online registration once and embed it via iframe or link. You define fields and membership types yourself. You review applications in a few clicks; paid fees show up without manual retyping. For associations with about 80–150 members, we estimate around 8 hours saved per year in the secretariat on new-member intake alone — these are estimates, not audited metrics. The core version is free to start. More detail is on the online registration feature page and the secretariat persona page.
Short, practical answers for Swiss associations.
Set up online registration, embed it on your website and skip paper for the next join — start free with Membear.