yeah, for several reasons you have to be a member to form or even join a clan. I'm sure you can see the logic behind this when you concider that running or being in a clan will require playing many more than the 6 games a non-subscriber is allowed (this is limited because games = bandwidth = money), and a subscriber is much less likely to make a clan ad then decide he's bored with the site & leave it to fester.
Butif you like the site (and if you like chess & fun people I'm sure you will) stick around. It won't be long before you get addicted like the rest of us & get that star 🙂