Membership Directors Don’t Give Tours. They Architect Belonging.
Traditional new member onboarding focuses on orientation. A welcome packet. A tour. Maybe a group happy hour. Melissa Hansen, Director of Marketing and Membership at The Club at Olde Cypress in Naples, Florida, treats it as a year long journey.
That timeline matters because it takes a full season to transform someone who joined the club into someone who belongs at the club.
The difference shows up in how members describe the club to friends, whether they become advocates who refer others, and whether they stay for decades or leave when another club offers comparable facilities at a lower cost.
Membership directors are not tour guides. They are architects of belonging. And the clubs that understand this distinction are building member experiences most clubs are not.
This article draws from a conversation with Melissa Hansen, who has spent 15 years building and leading the membership experience. Her insights reveal what membership directors see from their unique vantage point at the intersection of brand and belonging.
Onboarding Extends Beyond Orientation
For much of Melissa’s time at Olde Cypress, onboarding followed the traditional model: group orientations and welcome folders. It was efficient, but it did not create the belonging new members needed.
What she saw was that new members left those orientations knowing where things were but not knowing anyone. They understood the rules but had not connected with the culture. They joined the club but remained on the periphery.
So she rebuilt the onboarding process around one insight: belonging develops over time through repeated positive experiences and deepening relationships. Now, onboarding spans 12 months of intentional touchpoints designed to move members from outsider to insider.
Department introductions delivered over a full year. Small, curated events where new members are paired by home state, background, profession, or life stage. Low-user reports pulled monthly to identify members who need more support.
The shift was from delivering information to fostering relationships. From group orientations to intimate Nine & Wine events where small groups of members connect over charcuterie boards. From hoping members find their people to ensuring they do.
What this means for club leaders:
When onboarding ends after orientation, belonging is left to chance. The new member journey creates conditions for attachment that a single welcome session cannot.
New Members Are Your Best Advocates
Melissa sees a pattern that plays out consistently: there is a window when new members are most enthusiastic about the club. It opens the day they join and closes somewhere around year five.
During that window, they are the most likely to refer their friends. They are excited about the investment they just made. They want the people they care about to experience what they are experiencing.
Melissa describes it like buying a new car. You research, you test-drive, you finally decide. And then you cannot stop talking about it because you are excited about your decision.
New members are the same. They have spent months evaluating clubs. They have chosen yours. They want to validate that choice by bringing others in. But that enthusiasm only converts to referrals if two conditions are met.
- First, they need to feel they belong. This is their place. That requires intentional onboarding over time through repeated positive experiences.
- Second, they need to be paired with the right people. Clubs that use their knowledge of the membership to make thoughtful introductions based on natural common ground help new members find genuine connections. Strategic seating at events creates opportunities for authentic relationships to form.
When new members meet people they connect with, they become advocates because they want their friends to experience what they are experiencing.
What this means for club leaders:
New members are often the most enthusiastic salespeople when they feel they belong and have connected with people who make the club feel like home. Intentional curation of those connections builds referral pipelines that sustain membership growth.
Brand Lives in Daily Actions, Not Materials
At a club in Palm Beach, every employee wears blue and white every day, all year. The membership director wears light blue with white pants. The ocean views are blue. The decor is blue and white. She is the brand.
The club implemented a wardrobe brand for all employees that embodies their coastal identity 365 days a year. The board provided a wardrobe stipend to get employees started and adds to it annually. Employees live the brand visually every single day. The visual consistency creates immediate impact. The moment someone walks in, they feel the identity.
Brand is what people experience in every interaction. What staff wear. How the phone is answered. The tone at the bag drop. The energy at Ladies Day.
At Olde Cypress, the brand is fun. That shows up in events designed to feel approachable, not formal. It is authentic. It is organic. And it represents who the club is more than any brochure could.
What this means for club leaders:
Brand lives in behaviors. In what staff wear, how they greet members, and what they say when the phone rings. When staff embody the brand daily, the experience matches what the club promises.
Partners Reflect What You Give Them
Realtors marketing properties in the community would visit Olde Cypress to photograph the club for their listings. They wanted to showcase the amenities without disrupting members, so they came during quieter times.
The result: beautiful facilities in empty spaces. Pristine dining rooms with no diners. Immaculate golf course views without golfers. The images showed amenities but missed the energy that makes the club special.
It was not what anyone intended. But it was what happened.
Melissa created a digital playbook for realtors. Curated photography showing the club with people and energy. Written descriptions of what makes Olde Cypress special. A clear picture of the club they are representing.
Now when a new property lists in the community, she goes to the listing agent directly with the playbook. The message: use materials that show the club as it truly is at its best. The same principle applies to vendors, partners, and anyone who speaks for the club publicly.
Melissa built a 25-page brand standards document for staff, vendors, and realtors. It defines who Olde Cypress is and how that identity should be represented. The logic is simple: partners cannot align with what they have not been given.
If you do not provide clear materials, clear photography, and clear language, partners will create their own version of your brand. And their version may not match what you are.
What this means for club leaders:
External partners reflect the club to audiences membership directors will never reach directly. Realtors. Vendors. Photographers. Website firms. Equipping them with clear materials, photography, and language ensures they represent the club accurately.
The Relationship Business
When asked what one piece of advice she would give other membership directors, Melissa did not mention technology or strategy or marketing tactics.
She said: build relationships. With members. With their families. With realtors and vendors and staff. This is a relationship business.
Membership directors live at the intersection of brand and belonging. They are the first voice prospects hear. The face members see when they arrive. The architect of how onboarding unfolds.
The clubs that understand this invest accordingly. They give membership directors the tools to curate connections. The authority to build brand standards. The time to walk the floor and notice when something has stopped working.
The clubs that treat membership directors as tour guides wonder why new members do not refer, why onboarding feels transactional, and why the brand the club promises is not the brand members experience.
Moving Forward
Onboarding is a 12-month journey that transforms members from outsiders to insiders to advocates.
Brand lives in the daily actions, behaviors, and expressions of staff, members, and partners.
Membership directors curate connections, embody identity, and ensure that what the club promises is what members experience.
When clubs see membership directors as architects rather than administrators, they create conditions for belonging that shape how members talk about the club, whether they refer others, and whether they stay for decades.
That is when membership directors stop giving tours and start building something that lasts.
This article draws from Episode 109 of Clubs Made Meaningful, where we explore how membership directors create belonging through intentional onboarding and daily brand expression with Melissa Hansen, Director of Marketing and Membership at The Club at Olde Cypress.
Schedule a 30-minute discovery call. We will show you how strategic clarity shapes culture and creates the conditions for lasting member value. Want more content like this? Sign up for Clubs Made Meaningful Insights: original frameworks and ideas on identity, belonging, and member experience, delivered weekly to your inbox.
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