Membora

Self-hosted membership register for clubs and associations: who is in good standing, whether a meeting was quorate, and whether a motion actually carried.

The problem it solves

A club's records are fine until the year somebody disputes a vote. Then the questions arrive at once: who was a member on that date, were enough of them present, and was the person who moved it entitled to vote at all.

Those are three different questions, and a spreadsheet of names and payment dates answers none of them.

• Membership, subscriptions and attendance kept in three places that disagree
• Minutes that record a motion as carried without recording whether the meeting was quorate
• Association software priced per member per month, for a register that changes a few times a year

Every feature

• Standing gates the vote, not the door. Attendance is a record of fact: anyone who was there can be marked present, lapsed or not. Standing decides whether they may VOTE. Conflating the two is how registers end up unable to answer either question.
• A motion cannot carry at an inquorate meeting. The refusal names the numbers — 4 present, 5 required — and the motion stays open. Withdrawing is still allowed, because withdrawal is not a decision the meeting takes.
• Quorum has ONE definition. Computed in one place from the roll and the rule, and used by the screen, the REST API and the assistant tool alike. A quorum that means something different in two places is not a quorum.
• Roll call as it happens. Mark people present during the meeting, and the quorum figure updates as you go. The fifth arrival is the moment the meeting becomes able to decide, and the screen says so.
• Subscriptions and standing. Rates, periods, and what each member has paid — with standing derived from it rather than typed in. Good standing is a computed fact about a date, not a checkbox somebody remembered to tick.
• The record afterward. Minutes, the roll, the tally and the outcome, exportable as PDF and CSV — the document you send round, and the one you produce when the vote is questioned a year later.
• Renewal notices by email. A daily cron job writes to each member whose subscription is about to end, once per end date, through your own SMTP, with the amount and your own payment link or bank details. Nothing sends until you switch it on.
• A meeting record you can prove. Close a meeting and its minutes, roll and votes are sealed with a SHA-256 of the record. The PDF and CSV carry the seal and say whether the record still matches, so a vote questioned a year later can be checked.
• Renewals that collect. The renewal email says what renewing costs and how to pay: your own payment link and/or your bank details. One follow-up goes to members who have not renewed, and arrears have a Send reminder button. No platform fee, no percentage.
• Your club's own fields. Your own fields on every member, and in the export.
• Members sign up for events themselves. With their member number and email; capacity applies.
• Digital membership cards. Cards that show today's standing, with a QR code.
• Joint and family memberships. People in a member's household are covered by that subscription; leaving deletes nothing and keeps the paid-to date.
• PDF receipts and payment requests. For every payment, with your payment link and bank details on a request.
• Organization memberships. A company, school or group holds the membership, and the people added to its household are covered by it.
• Export exactly who you need. The members export filters by status, rate, people or organizations, lapsing within so many days, an overdue charge, or one of your own member fields.
• Updates from inside the app. The Updates page installs a new release with your license key: Ownware's signature is checked, a backup is taken first, and the app puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. It never checks by itself.
• Backups by themselves. Automatic backups, an optional copy to S3-compatible storage you own, and a weekly check that the latest backup reads back. The Health page names anything that needs attention.
• Dues by card. Switch on card payment with your own Stripe account and a member pays an unpaid charge or their renewal from their card page, on Stripe's own page. Membora records it when Stripe confirms the payment, and a renewal moves their standing. No card number reaches your server.
• Renewal reminders by text. Texts through an SMS gateway the club already pays for, only to members with Texts OK ticked on their record: 14 and 3 days before the membership ends by default, inside your send window. Every text links to the member's card page, where one tap stops them.
• Own It 4.0.1 — fixes and an up-to-date manual. For Membora, 4.0.1 fixes an installer that had lost its styling, a rollback that a page opened during an update could stop, scheduled tasks that a browser could start and a command-line update that ended in an error after putting the previous version back. Its manual, FAQ and QUICKSTART now cover everything 4.0 added, including two Nginx rules that keep the data folder private. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0.2 — the installer opens on every host. For Membora, 4.0.2 fixes a fresh install on an Apache host: the one-page setup at /install/ looped back to itself and never opened, and now it opens. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.

Release notes in full

• Own It 4.1: dues by card, renewals by text. For Membora, 4.1 adds dues paid by card through your own Stripe account, and renewal reminders by text through your own SMS gateway. An Extended license bought from October 4, 2026 covers up to ten client installations, one per client project: hand each one over to the client or host it for them, with the client's logo and colors from the app's branding settings. The API reference now shows how to connect Membora to Zapier, Make or n8n, using its own webhooks and API key. Your license covers the update: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0: it updates and backs itself up. For Membora, 4.0 means updates from inside the app: the Updates page checks for a new release with your license key, verifies Ownware's signature, takes a backup and puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. A new install can start with a sample business and remove it in one click; backups run by themselves, with an optional offsite copy and a weekly check that the latest one reads back; and the Health page says whether the install is looking after itself.
• Own It 3.3: organizations as members. For Membora, 3.3 meant memberships held by a company, school or group, covering the people added to its household, and a members export you filter by status, rate, lapsing date, an overdue charge or one of your own fields. Both are cards above.
• Own It 3.2: renewals that collect, and a record you can prove. For Membora, 3.2 meant renewal emails that say what renewing costs and how to pay, PDF receipts and payment requests, members signing up for events themselves, digital cards with a QR code, joint and family memberships, your own member fields, and meeting records sealed so a questioned vote can be checked. Every REST write now checks the key holder's role. Each change is a card above.
• Own It 3.1: it writes to the people you serve. Membora was built after the 3.1 wave. Its outbound path is the renewal notice: a daily job writes to each member whose subscription is about to end, once per end date, through your own SMTP — off until you switch it on.