diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index 76a489dd7..0f6b1571d 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -48,8 +48,7 @@ pipeline:
     secrets:
       - github_automation_api_key
     commands:
-      - echo ${DRONE_COMMIT_AUTHOR}
-      - /bin/bash -c '[[ ! $(curl --silent "https://api.github.com/orgs/vmware/members/${DRONE_COMMIT_AUTHOR}?access_token=$GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY") ]]'
+      - tests/check-org-membership.sh
     when:
       status: success
 
diff --git a/tests/check-org-membership.sh b/tests/check-org-membership.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..1a4471384
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/check-org-membership.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Copyright 2020-2021 VMware, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+set -ex
+
+echo ${DRONE_COMMIT_AUTHOR}
+
+if [ ! $(curl --silent -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY" "https://api.github.com/orgs/vmware/members/${DRONE_COMMIT_AUTHOR}") ]; then
+  echo "checked origin membership successfully"
+else
+  echo "failed to check origin membership"
+  exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/tests/pass-rate.sh b/tests/pass-rate.sh
index 2996e89dc..11f1f0024 100755
--- a/tests/pass-rate.sh
+++ b/tests/pass-rate.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/vmware/vic-product/commits?access_token=$GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY | jq -r ".[].sha" | xargs -n1 -I{} curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/vmware/vic-product/statuses/{}?access_token=$GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY | jq -r ".[-0].state" > status.out
+curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY" https://api.github.com/repos/vmware/vic-product/commits | jq -r ".[].sha" | xargs -n1 -I{} curl -s -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_AUTOMATION_API_KEY" https://api.github.com/repos/vmware/vic-product/statuses/{} | jq -r ".[-0].state" > status.out
 
 failures=$(cat status.out | grep -c failure)
 echo "Number of failed merges to master in the last 30 merges: $failures"