Membership categories · a practical guide
Honorary membership, and what it should mean
Honorary membership is membership given as an honour, usually to someone who has served the organisation or the field with distinction, rather than bought or earned through the normal entry route.
Whether an honorary member votes, pays or counts as a member in law depends on your rules. This guide shows how organisations decide each point, with their own wording, and a rule you can adapt.
Honorary membership
01/ Honorary membership meaning
An honour, not a purchase.
The Cambridge Dictionary gives “honorary” two senses: something given as an honour to someone who has not followed the normal route, such as an honorary degree, and a position “for which no payment is made”, such as an honorary treasurer (Cambridge Dictionary).
Both senses turn up in membership organisations, and they are easy to confuse.
An honorary member has been given membership as a mark of respect. An honorary officer, such as an honorary secretary, holds an unpaid office and is normally an ordinary member who happens to volunteer.
Professional bodies often call the category honorary fellowship. The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, for example, looks for nominees who “have achieved distinction in related fields or given significant service to the actuarial profession” (IFoA, Bye-law 37).
02/ Do honorary members vote or pay?
Five sets of rules, five different answers.
Each row is the organisation’s own published rule, quoted or summarised from the document linked. None is a client, and none is a norm.
The pattern is that honorary members almost never pay, and the vote is where organisations divide.
Some give the vote outright, as the IFoA does. Others withhold it entirely, as Serpentine and Invicta do. Leander keeps whatever rights the person already had as a Full Member before the honour (Leander rules 2 and 4.3).
That last approach avoids an awkward outcome: an honour that quietly takes away a long-standing member’s vote.
Published rules, read 25 October 2026. Each document is dated by its publisher; rules change, so check the current version before quoting one.
03/ Honorary vs life membership
Life membership rewards members; honorary membership can go to anyone.
Several clubs run the two side by side. Invicta FFC describes honorary members as people who “may not be current members” but have made significant contributions to the club or the sport, and life members as long-term members who “pay no subscription but are eligible to vote” (Invicta rules 12).
Serpentine draws the same line: life members “rank equally in all respects with Ordinary Members” except that they pay nothing, while honorary members have no vote (Serpentine membership policy).
Some clubs merge the two into honorary life membership. Bere Regis Sports Club, for instance, elects a full member to honorary life membership at a general meeting on a two-thirds majority, with all privileges and no annual subscription, and caps the number at six (Bere Regis rule 5).
Life membership bought with a one-off fee is a pricing question, not an honour; it is covered under membership pricing.
Summarised from the rules quoted on this page; your own constitution decides.
04/ Is an honorary member a member in law?
In a company, only if their name is on the register.
If your organisation is a company, the Companies Act decides who is a member: a person “who agrees to become a member of a company, and whose name is entered in its register of members” (Companies Act 2006, s.112).
The model articles for companies limited by guarantee add that no one becomes a member unless they have completed an application in a form the directors approve and the directors have approved it (Model Articles 2008, Sch 2 art 21).
So an honour announced at a dinner does not by itself make someone a member of the company. If your articles give honorary members a vote at general meetings, the person needs to have agreed and to be on the register; if the honour is meant to be purely ceremonial, say so in the rules.
Unincorporated clubs and associations take the answer from their own constitution, which is why the wording of the rule matters. This is general information, not legal advice; check your governing document.
05/ An honorary membership rule to adapt
Decide the five points in writing.
Our template, built from the choices the rules above make. Adopt it the way your constitution requires, which may mean a vote at the annual general meeting.
Two practical points sit outside the rule. Record honorary members in the register with their category, so a vote count is never in doubt; the membership committee usually owns that. And list the category with the others in your membership categories, so members can see how it fits.
Honorary membership rule: the five points
- 01Who qualifies: distinguished service to the organisation or the field; say whether non-members are eligible
- 02Who decides: the board, a committee or a general meeting, and the majority needed
- 03What it carries: the privileges of membership, with or without the vote, and whether the person may hold office
- 04How long: for life or a fixed period, and whether the number is capped
- 05How it ends: by resignation, death, or removal on the same grounds as any member
Written by Dan Keegan
06/ questions
Honorary membership FAQs.
What is honorary membership?
Do honorary members pay a subscription?
Can honorary members vote?
What is the difference between honorary and life membership?
What is the difference between an honorary member and an honorary officer?
Is an honorary member a legal member of a company?
Categories members understand
Make every category mean something.
We help membership organisations review their categories, honorary ones included, so each has a clear purpose, a clear price and clear rights.
08/ sources
Every claim, and where it came from
- Cambridge Dictionary — “Honorary”: given as an honour; a position for which no payment is madeDictionary
- Companies Act 2006, s.112 — The members of a companyUK statute
- Companies (Model Articles) Regulations 2008, Sch. 2 — Model articles for private companies limited by guarantee, art 21UK statutory instrument
- Institute and Faculty of Actuaries — Honorary Fellowship (Bye-law 37, voting rights, subscription)Professional body, own rules
- Leander Club — Rules of Leander Club Limited, rules 2, 4.3 and 5.5Club rules, own document
- Serpentine Running and Triathlon Club — Membership policy: life and honorary membersClub rules, own document
- Invicta FFC — Constitution and Rules (as amended August 2021), rules 12 and 16Club rules, own document (dated)
- Bere Regis Sports Club — Club constitution and rules, rule 5Club rules, own document
- Welsh Indoor Bowls — Constitution, section 4: honorary membersSport association rules, own document