Private members’ clubs · roles and teams
The private members club membership manager
A private members club membership manager recruits, admits and keeps the club’s members. The role runs the application pipeline, works the floor so members know a face, handles renewals and complaints, and reports against membership targets, usually to a membership director, head of membership or general manager.
This guide sets out the roles in a club membership team, what each owns, the KPIs that measure them and how the team is structured as a club grows.
Membership team
01/ Membership roles in a private members club
Director, manager, executive and secretary.
Clubs use different titles for overlapping jobs. Read the remit, not the title.
A membership director owns membership strategy, pricing input and the numbers the board sees. The role in general is covered under membership director.
A membership manager runs the pipeline and the member experience day to day, and is usually the face of membership on the floor.
A membership executive or coordinator handles enquiries, applications, renewals and records. The Groucho Club’s published advert describes an executive “working closely with the Membership Manager & Director” on the journey “from enquiry and application through to engagement, renewal and retention” (The Groucho Club, as published on Leisure Jobs, read 29 October 2026).
A club secretary in a traditional members-owned club often holds the membership brief alongside governance, the committee and the rules.
02/ Membership manager responsibilities
What clubs ask a membership manager to do.
Soho House’s published description gives the role a clear core: “directly building and defining the local membership community to ensure the membership culture, experience and sales are maximised”, reporting to a Head of Member and Communications (Soho House careers, read 29 October 2026).
The Lensbury, a Thames-side leisure club, frames it more commercially: forecasting and delivering “the membership budget which includes new sales, retention and freeze movements across all categories”, and being “accountable for the club hitting Net Growth vs budget” (The Lensbury careers, read 29 October 2026).
Both are real descriptions of real jobs. Together they cover the two halves of the role: curating a community and hitting a number.
Membership manager: core duties · 0/8 in place
In the job
The applications and committee work connects to the club’s admissions rules; see private members club application process.
03/ Where the hours go
Most of the job happens on the floor.
Soho House is unusually specific about the split: recruitment and acquiring “30% of time”, communications, retention and member inquiries “30%”, and “on the floor face time with members and their guests (40%)” (Soho House careers).
That is one operator’s design, not a standard. It is a useful test of any job description: if floor time is not in the plan, members will not know who to talk to.
Acquiring new members
Communications and enquiries
Face time with members
04/ Membership manager KPIs
Measure the pipeline, the mix and renewals.
A membership manager should be judged on a short set of numbers the club can actually collect.
Net growth, the measure The Lensbury names, is joiners minus leavers against budget. It hides a lot, so pair it with renewal and the quality of the mix.
Renewal rate and its calculation are covered on membership retention rate; dashboards and board packs on membership KPIs.
Avoid targets that reward the wrong thing. A pure joiner count invites a manager to fill the house, which is the overcrowding problem clubs then pay to undo.
- Enquiries
- Applications
- Approval rate
- Days to decision
- Renewal rate
- Lapses by category
- Freezes
- Complaints closed
- Members by category
- Age and sector balance
- Waiting list
- Visits per member
- Event attendance
- Members not seen in 90 days
05/ Membership team structure
The team grows in three stages.
A small members-owned club often has one person: the secretary or a membership manager who does everything.
A single-site commercial club typically adds an executive under the manager, with a director or head of membership above once the board wants a strategy owner.
A multi-site group adds a central layer. Soho House’s manager reports into a head of membership for “the House or region” (Soho House careers).
Pre-opening is its own case: founding members are recruited before the doors open, often with a consultancy or a dedicated founding team.
One person
Secretary or manager does it all.
1 roleManager and executive
Director above as the club matures.
2–3 rolesCentral head of membership
House managers report to region.
Layered06/ Private members club jobs: hiring well
Hire for judgement as well as sales.
The hardest part of the job is saying no. A manager who approves every application will hit a number and damage the club.
Look for evidence of three things: building relationships with the people a club wants, running a process carefully, and handling difficult conversations about conduct and lapses.
Write the job description around the club’s targets and its floor plan. If the role is half sales and half host, say so.
We do not list vacancies here. Clubs advertise through their own careers pages and hospitality job boards.
Is your membership role well defined? · 0/4 answered
01Does it have written targets?
02Is floor time planned?
03Who decides applications?
04Is renewal measured?
Answer all 4 to see your result.
Our scoring aid, not a published standard.
07/ Why the role matters now
More clubs means more competition for members.
Knight Frank reports that more private members’ clubs have opened in the past four years than in the three decades after the Groucho Club opened in 1985 (Knight Frank, A Guide to Private Members’ Clubs, 2024; property consultancy research).
More clubs means members have choices, which makes retention and the member experience the membership team’s main work. See the private members clubs UK market for the wider picture, and reciprocal clubs for one benefit the team usually administers.
08/ If you run a club
Support for the membership team.
Our private members club marketing work supports membership teams with recruitment campaigns, the application journey and retention, so the manager spends more time with members.
Written by Dan Keegan
09/ questions
Private members club membership manager FAQs.
What does a membership manager do at a private members club?
Who does a membership manager report to?
What is the difference between a membership manager and a membership director?
What KPIs does a membership manager have?
What skills does a private members club membership manager need?
What does a club secretary do?
Membership that holds
Give your membership team room to host.
We help private members’ clubs recruit and keep the right members.
11/ sources
Every claim, and where it came from
- Soho House — Membership Manager role description (careers page)Operator’s own publication
- The Lensbury — Membership Manager role description (careers page)Operator’s own publication
- The Groucho Club — Membership Executive advert, as published on Leisure JobsOperator’s advert, third-party board
- Knight Frank — A Guide to Private Members’ Clubs (2024)Property consultancy research