What it costs, and which tier fits.

Four tiers, all annual. Individual is $170 a year, Creamery $480, Retailer $390 and Affiliate $260. There is no joining fee and no monthly plan — one payment covers twelve months.

Every tier carries the same vote, the same weekly brief, the same archive and the same discount on credential exams. What changes between tiers is how many people at your organization the membership covers and which extras come with it. The full rate card is on the Join page.

The tier follows what your organization does, not how big it is. Creamery if you make cheese, from a two-vat farmstead to a regional plant. Retailer if you sell it, at a counter or into wholesale. Affiliate if you supply the trade — suppliers, laboratories, distributors, consultants. Individual if the membership is yours rather than an employer’s.

A farmstead creamery with a shop attached should join as a Creamery: the cheaper of two applicable tiers is not the rule, the primary activity is. If you genuinely cannot tell, say what you do in an email to memberservices@morecheese.org and someone will place you.

There is no separate student tier. The Individual tier is set at $170 partly so that it works for someone still training, and it is the tier most students, apprentices and people between jobs join on.

It carries the same credential discount as every other tier, which is the part that matters if you are working up the ladder. Education Programs also holds a small number of course places each year for members in their first two years in the trade; ask, because they are not advertised.

No. A Creamery membership covers up to six staff and a Retailer membership up to four, under the one payment. Each covered person gets their own account, their own copy of the brief and their own member rate on courses and events. The organization gets one vote.

Adding or swapping a name is a note to Membership Operations, not a new invoice. If you need to cover more people than the tier allows, write to memberservices@morecheese.org — the answer is usually a second membership at the same rate rather than a bespoke deal.

Yes, and you get a full year. Dues are billed on your join date and your membership year runs from that day, not from January. Join in August and you renew in August.

That is deliberate: it means nobody buys a part-year, and nobody has to work out a proration. It also means the renewal reminders land at the same point in your year every year.

No joining fee, and no reinstatement fee for coming back. Former members rejoin at the current rate for their tier.

Your record comes back with you — credentials held, courses completed, cohort, competition entries and the years you were a member. If it does not appear within a day or two of rejoining, tell memberservices@morecheese.org and they will reattach it.

Dues are not refundable once a membership is active, because the brief, the archive and the member rates are available from the first day. That is the plain answer and it is worth knowing before you join.

The exception is circumstance rather than second thoughts: if something has happened — a closure, an illness, a business that folded three weeks after joining — write to memberservices@morecheese.org. Those are read by a person, not a policy, and they are usually resolved in the member’s favor.

Card or bank transfer. If your organization needs a purchase order, a formal invoice or payment in a currency other than US dollars, ask finance@morecheese.org and they will set it up before the membership starts rather than after.

Members outside the United States pay the same dues in the same currency; there is no international surcharge and no separate international tier. A third of the membership is outside North America.

Ask. Since 2025 the board has offered hardship dues for members whose creamery has closed, is close to closing, or has had a year that makes $480 an unreasonable ask.

Write to Membership Operations at memberservices@morecheese.org. The conversation is confidential, it does not go to a committee, it does not affect your standing or your credentials, and the answer is usually yes. A member who drops out stops getting the brief and the archive, which is the opposite of what someone in that position needs.

In most places professional association dues are an ordinary business expense, but we are not in a position to advise on your tax position and we will not pretend otherwise — ask your own accountant.

What we can give you is the paperwork: a dated receipt for every payment, an invoice in your organization’s name if you need one for a purchase ledger, and a letter confirming the membership term and standing. All three come from finance@morecheese.org.