Maintaining membership records in a database has several advantages:

• it's easy to find and update each member's record;
• you can keep track of your membership fees – who has paid and how much is outstanding;
• the database can be transferred onto disk from one officer to another when post holders change;
• you can use mail-merge functions to automate the process of creating address labels for your member mailing;
• you can quickly analyse the membership information to find out, for example: the number of senior and junior members, which members live in a particular area, the number of Welsh speaking members.