Reviewing the pack's membership agreement
Why the Fitness pack's membership agreement is starter wording to review before use, what to check, and how the reviewed version is signed.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A new club owner switching on the Fitness, wellness & spas pack finds a membership agreement already there, ready to send. It is tempting to use it as it stands. It reads sensibly, it covers the obvious points, and the first members are waiting.
Don't, at least not yet. The agreement in the pack is a starting point written to be adapted, not a finished contract for your club. This article explains why, what to have checked, and how the reviewed version fits into the way new members join.
Starter wording, marked for review before use
Every contract or agreement in Achekam's industry packs is marked as starter wording that the business must review before use. The membership agreement in the Fitness pack is no exception.
There are good reasons for that. A membership agreement has to reflect things only you know: whether you sell month-to-month or fixed-term memberships, how freezes work, what your joining fee covers, whether members can bring guests, what happens when a class is cancelled, and how your club handles the end of a contract. It also has to follow consumer law in your country, which differs between South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. No single wording can be right for a boutique yoga studio in Lagos and a large gym in Durban.
Treat the starter wording as a checklist of topics an agreement normally covers, and a first draft to edit.
Where the agreement sits in the trial-to-member workflow
The agreement matters because of where it appears. The Fitness pack's trial-to-member workflow takes a person from first visit to paying member:
- It books a trial.
- It sends the person their own health declaration.
- It has the membership agreement signed electronically.
- It invoices the joining fee and first month.
- It checks in with the new member at two weeks and at thirty days.
A workflow step can send the customer a document to sign electronically, and their answer moves the task on. So every new member who comes through this workflow signs whatever agreement you have loaded. If that is the unreviewed starter wording, every member signs it.
The health declaration is the member's own
The pack keeps the health questionnaire separate from the agreement, and deliberately so. It keeps no medical records: the health questionnaire is the member's own declaration, kept only to decide whether to ask for a doctor's note.
When you review the agreement, make sure it is consistent with that. The agreement should not suggest the club assesses a member's medical fitness, keeps medical files, or relies on the declaration for anything beyond deciding whether a doctor's note is needed. If your trainers do fitness assessments, have your adviser look at how that is described.
What to have reviewed, and by whom
Ask a lawyer who knows consumer contracts in your country to review the agreement before the first member signs it. Bring them your actual membership options and prices, and ask them to look in particular at:
| Topic | Questions to settle |
|---|---|
| Term and renewal | Month-to-month or fixed term? What happens when a fixed term ends? |
| Cancellation | How a member cancels, the notice period, and any cancellation charge |
| Freezes | When a membership can be frozen, for how long, and whether fees pause |
| Price changes | How and when you can change fees for existing members |
| Health and risk | How the health declaration is used, and the limits of the club's responsibility |
| Personal information | What you keep about members, why, and who sees it |
| Club rules | Whether the rules form part of the agreement, and how they change |
In South Africa, the National Consumer Commission's page on the Consumer Protection Act gathers the Act, its regulations, industry codes, guidelines and explanatory notes for businesses, and is a useful place to start the conversation with your lawyer. In Nigeria and Kenya, ask your lawyer which consumer protection rules apply to membership contracts.
Once the wording is settled, keep a dated copy of the reviewed version with a note of who reviewed it. When you change the agreement later, review again and date the new version.
Sending the reviewed agreement for e-signature
With the reviewed wording in place, the workflow's signing step does the rest. A document can be sent for electronic signature with signature and initials fields placed on it, signers in order or all at once, an expiry and reminders. When everyone has signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents. An envelope with a signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before it is sent, so link it first whenever you send an agreement by hand.
Two points to raise with your lawyer. Achekam's e-signatures are simple electronic signatures: the certificate cites section 13 of South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and states that they are not advanced electronic signatures. And for clubs in Nigeria and Kenya, the completion certificate currently describes the signatures under that South African Act whatever the workspace's country, so check how your own country's law treats them.
Before your first member joins, load the reviewed agreement, send a test envelope to yourself, and read the signed PDF and certificate end to end. Then follow the whole journey in from trial visit to signed membership, and read health declarations, not medical records before you finalise the health wording.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
