diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MemberList.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MemberList.js
index 6ef448f0fd..87758fa922 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MemberList.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MemberList.js
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     displayName: 'MemberList',
 
     getInitialState: function() {
-        this.memberDict = this.getMemberDict();
         this._mounted = false;
 
         const cli = MatrixClientPeg.get();
@@ -196,8 +195,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
 
     _updateList: new rate_limited_func(function() {
         // console.log("Updating memberlist");
-        this.memberDict = this.getMemberDict();
-
         const newState = {
             members: this.roomMembers(),
         };
@@ -206,15 +203,15 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
         this.setState(newState);
     }, 500),
 
-    getMemberDict: function() {
-        if (!this.props.roomId) return {};
+    getMembersWithUser: function() {
+        if (!this.props.roomId) return [];
         const cli = MatrixClientPeg.get();
         const room = cli.getRoom(this.props.roomId);
         if (!room) return {};
 
-        const all_members = room.currentState.members;
+        const allMembers = Object.values(room.currentState.members);
 
-        Object.values(all_members).forEach(function(member) {
+        allMembers.forEach(function(member) {
             // work around a race where you might have a room member object
             // before the user object exists.  This may or may not cause
             // https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web/issues/186
@@ -226,14 +223,13 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             // the right solution here is to fix the race rather than leave it as 0
         });
 
-        return all_members;
+        return allMembers;
     },
 
     roomMembers: function() {
         const ConferenceHandler = CallHandler.getConferenceHandler();
 
-        const allMembersDict = this.memberDict || {};
-        const allMembers = Object.values(allMembersDict);
+        const allMembers = this.getMembersWithUser();
         const filteredAndSortedMembers = allMembers.filter((m) => {
             return (
                 m.membership === 'join' || m.membership === 'invite'