In this model, everything is attached to the parent organization, which exerts tight control over the subgroups within the organization (chapters, etc.) There is only one website and all members can login to that website. The database is attached to this parent organization.

The parent organization is responsible for defining its own regions, districts and chapters. (You can have one, two, or three levels of subgroups; contact ClubExpress to define the actual number of levels. You can also change the name of each level.) Each subgroup can have its own administrators who have control over that subgroup and any groups below it.

Example: A chapter administrator can manage the members of that chapter only but a district administrator can manage all members of the district and chapters within the district, but not members of other districts or chapters within those other districts.

You can configure member types with different options for joining chapters:

• Must join one chapter only;
• May join one chapter only (but not required);
• Must join at least one chapter but can join any number;
• May join any number of chapters (but not required).

These options can apply not only to the primary member but also to any secondary and/or tertiary members defined as part of the member type.

You can also define different fees for each chapter, district and region, and specify how often these fees should be applied.

Example: Some clubs will charge a separate chapter fee for each child in the membership, while others will charge a single chapter fee whether there are one or multiple children in the membership.

ClubExpress allows you to define separate bank accounts at the chapter, district and region levels, so that membership and event registration fees can be distributed automatically.

The following modules and functions within ClubExpress have been enabled for subgroups:

• Events calendar. Subgroup administrators can define events at the subgroup level. These events can be especially color-coded and labeled.
• Committees can exist at any level and draw members from that level. Subgroup committees will be visible just to the members of that subgroup.
• Custom web pages can be defined at any level and managed by administrators at that level.
• Discussion forums can exist at any level and draw members only from that level and below.
• In the People Manager, subgroup administrators will only see the members at their subgroup level and below.
• Subgroup administrators can send blast emails to the members of their subgroup only, including the ability to filter to levels below the current level. For example, a region administrator can email every active member of the region, or select just the members of a district or chapter within the region. But she cannot email members of another region.
• Reports and data exports run by a subgroup administrator are filtered automatically to the members of that subgroup. Some reports also allow the subgroup admin to filter to a lower level. For example, a district admin could run such a report on the members of a single chapter only.

In this model, each chapter has its own website and database. Members join at the chapter level and the chapter is responsible for defining member types and dues. Members login to their chapter website to update their profiles, participate in chapter discussion forums, register for events, and make payments, etc. Clubs using this model can also take advantage of our powerful Content Syndication option, automatically pushing blog posts, news articles, home page content and events to lower-level club websites. You also limit visibility at the parent level to show only memebers at the parent level, instead of all members of lower-level clubs.

These chapters (or individual clubs) may also be part of a larger organization. This organization does not control how the individual clubs are defined but it does serve in a “parent” role, aggregating members, events, programs, discussions, etc. The larger organization will have its own website and members of the individual clubs can login to this website to participate in activities at the higher level. Members are handled at the lower level but members can register for events and participate in discussion forums and committees at the higher level.

The larger organization will have a virtual database. Administrators defined at the top level can view (but not update) member contact information for all members in all of the linked individual clubs. ClubExpress also allows you to define “super” administrators who can login to any of the individual club websites to help manage these sites. Generally, the large organization will not have its own members, although the system does allow you to define members at this level to manage this website.

The following modules and functions within ClubExpress have been enabled for multi-tier organizations that follow this model:

• Members can login to their local club and the parent club. But there is only one database entry, attached to their local club. When they update their personal profile from the parent club, the system is updating the database entry in the local club.
• Members can sign up and pay for events at the top level. The transaction and payment history will appear in their profile no matter which website they are logged into.
• The Member Directory at the top level will show all members in all linked clubs, respecting the visibility settings defined for each member.
• Committees, contacts and discussion forums defined at the top level can draw on members from any linked club.
• At the parent club level, the Chapter Finder module will display all linked clubs, using any of the map or org. tree options.
• You can define a master website template and require that all linked clubs use this template. Individual clubs can have their own page header to express the identity or location of that club. You can also define one or more content boxes on this template that are managed at the top level but visible at all levels.
• The top-level club has a special set of aggregator reports and data exports that display member data for all linked clubs.
• The Business Directory module at the parent club level can be configured to include member entries from every local club.

The ClubExpress monthly fees can be paid by each individual club or the top-level club can pay them and the individual linked clubs pay nothing. Either way, the fee is based on the aggregate of active members across all linked clubs.

If your organization matches this model, contact ClubExpress to set up this hierarchy and define the linked clubs. We will also define “super administrators”, website templates, and shared content boxes.

• The currency symbol can be configured to display up to 4 characters, so that members and non-members know that their payments will be in the local currency. For example, in Australia, you could use “$AUS”, “AUS$”, or “AUD”.
• In Canada, Australia, the UK, and Europe, clubs and associations can use Authorize.Net or Stripe as the payment gateway to make payments through the website in the local currency, with the funds flowing directly into a local bank account. We are also planning to support other payment gateways.
• ClubExpress supports payments using PayPal in the local currency.
• Dates will be shown in the local format based on your browser configuration (not your operating system.) The US uses mm/dd/yyyy but other countries use dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy.mm.dd.
• Numbers will be shown in the local format. The US and other countries use a comma for the thousand's separator and a period for the decimal separator but some countries, especially in Europe, reverse these.
• Time zones can be configured at both the club or association level and the individual member or non-member level. At the club level, this ensures that deadlines such as an event close registration or a survey close date happen at the correct local time. At the individual member or non-member level, this ensures that transactions, payments, event registrations, and other information will be shown at the correct local date and time. With the correct time zone, forum message posting times are properly localized as well.
• Units of measurement are shown in the metric system everywhere in the world except the US!
• The system supports tax (Sales Tax, VAT, GST, etc.) to be charged on membership dues, additional charges, event registrations, etc. The correct term will be used for each country where the club or association is based.
• ClubExpress reports are available in A4 paper size.

At the time of writing, these are the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By using ClubExpress, we make it easy for your club or association to also conform to these regulations, although you accept the ultimate responsibility for how personal data is handled.

Like most online service providers, we have decided to apply these regulations to everyone, even if the chances are slim that you will have an EU citizen as a member or in your non-member database. You really have no way of knowing whether someone is an EU citizen so it makes sense to apply these most stringent of rules to everyone.

The Privacy Policy (linked at the bottom of each page) explains how ClubExpress handles privacy when member and non-member data is collected, stored, and processed. It also provides the justification for why ClubExpress and your club or association needs this data, and how it will be used.

When members log in the first time, they will see a special screen asking them to consent to having their data stored in the US; to receiving transactional messages from ClubExpress on behalf of your club or association; and to the sharing of your data with third parties for official club purposes (such as credit card processing.) Such consent is required; members cannot proceed without providing it.

They also have the option to accept or decline general purpose emails from your club or association, such as newsletters or event announcements.

If your club shares member and/or non-member data with third parties for marketing or fund-raising purposes, members and non-members are presented with the third question, allowing them to opt-out of being included in these lists. If you don’t do this, it’s easy to turn this question off.

ClubExpress also makes it easy for you to define your Data Protection Officer (“DPO”), who is responsible for protecting the personal data of members and non-members. The DPO also handles inquiries about data security, potential breaches, and requests to be removed or forgotten completely from your organization’s records, as required by the GDPR.

Note: Protecting personal data does not stop with ClubExpress however. When you run a report or one of the data exports built into ClubExpress, perhaps for backup or analysis purposes, this data moves outside our control. It is important to instruct board and committee members, administrators and coordinators at all levels, and any paid staff you may have, in how to handle and protect personal data in their possession.

ClubExpress is software that runs on powerful computer servers in the data center provided by a commercial-grade Internet hosting company. This company provides multiple hi-speed connections to the Internet, to ensure redundant paths for your data and to provide optimal performance. They also provide and maintain firewalls to protect your data.

Within the platform is a sophisticated database that is used to store everything associated with your club or association, including member information, the content of your website, financial transactions and even the photos used on various pages.

Users access the platform, and the website for a club or association hosted on that platform by opening an Internet browser and surfing to the site.

ClubExpress.com describes our product and service to prospective customers. It is also built using the ClubExpress platform.

When a club or association wants to sign up for ClubExpress, it does so entirely online, creating its own account that is then entered into the database. An administrator steps through a short wizard to create the account and log in to the new website. He or she is then presented with a Setup Check List of additional tasks that must be completed before the website and membership database can be turned on.

Once a club or association is signed up, ClubExpress automatically creates an initial website in the platform, with a default home page that can be extensively customized.

The public side of the website includes content that the club or association creates for non-members, including, for example, the benefits of signing up as a member, membership information, a list of member interests, a calendar of events, etc. This content can include any number of custom pages as part of your website.

One of the features in ClubExpress is a wizard that allows new members to sign up entirely online. Members provide their basic contact information, establish a user account and password, answer club-specific questions, select a membership type from options that you define, and pay for their membership by credit card or by printing an invoice and mailing a check. They are then entered in the membership database. You can also enable an option to require new members to be approved by the board before they are enabled.

ClubExpress provides each member with his or her own login, including a user name and password. A “Forgot My Password” option allows members to retrieve a lost password.

When members log in, the system automatically detects their access level. Ordinary members have access to members-only features and special content that you designate for members only. Members see a different menu than the public and you can even define different menus based on a member type.

ClubExpress includes more than 22 purpose-built modules to handle many of the common activities that clubs and associations perform, including committee tracking, online discussion forums, documents, photo albums, surveys/polls, member interests, blogs, event calendar and registration, volunteering, etc. Each organization decides which modules to enable, how each module will be configured, who will have access to that module, and where the module will be placed on the visitor and member-only menus.

ClubExpress also allows clubs and associations to create any number of custom web pages, to control whether each page can be accessed by any site visitor or by members-only, and to access that page via a menu choice or an internal link from another page.

In addition, ClubExpress supports coordinators that you designate who have special administrative rights over a specific module or page, adding and updating content within that module or page only. Finally, the system recognizes a category of users called administrators who have complete control over the configuration of the site.

ClubExpress can handle membership renewals for you. You have control over the renewal schedule, when and how renewal notices are sent out (by email or regular mail) and when members are “expired” from the organization. ClubExpress can also handle fully automated renewals and payments.

ClubExpress collects member signup and renewal fees, event registrations, donations, and E-commerce purchases online, using a credit card processing system that we make available to every club and association.

When transactions clear through our credit card processor they are deposited automatically in our bank account. Three times a month (on the 10^th, 20^th and last day of the month), the system generates an automated transfer (ACH) of these funds from our bank account to your bank account. A complete accounting of the source of these funds is provided online, allowing you to match the transactions on your bank statement to the underlying member transactions.

ClubExpress can also distribute funds for you across multiple bank accounts.

Example: If your organization has chapters, districts and/or regions that also collect dues, the system can be configured to divide these dues up automatically.

(ClubExpress also supports your own merchant account for clubs and associations that want deposits to godirectly into your bank account. WIth this option, the back-end payment gateway must be Authorize.Net or Stripe. Note that ClubExpress will require you to have your own merchant account under some special circumstances. Please contact us if you are interested in this option.)

At the end of each month, we use the same automated bank transfer facility to withdraw our monthly fee from your bank account. A complete accounting of all bank deposits and withdrawals is also provided online.

Your website is made up of a few basic components:

• administrative functions only administrators and coordinators can access (like databases and setup options),
• built-in modules that have an administrative side used to configure the module and a user side site visitors access to use the module (for example, the Event Calendar), and
• custom pages you use to deliver information to your members, like your organization's history, or resources for members of a professional association.

Information collected from your website is stored in a database that feeds information into modules and searchable databases you use on your website. For example, the People Manager provides a way for you to search through members and non-members stored in the database. Similarly, the Transaction Search feature allows you to view information for every transaction generated on your website. Built-in modules are also connected to your database and use the information to determine what should be visible to members and non-members, and how they can interact with the module. For example, when a member accesses the Event Calendar, the member only has access to events based on their member type, or any selected interests or committees of which they are a member. The user interfaces (pages) of databases and built-in modules are built by combining your data and predefined HTML and displayed in a master page. The page is displayed after the data are inserted/altered by code. The HTML for these pages cannot be altered, modified or rearranged, and additional HTML cannot be added. CSS changes are permitted (e.g. heading styles, button styles, etc.)

Custom pages and the home page do not have any direct interaction with the database. The information displayed on these pages (your HTML) is untouched and displayed as it is stored in a master page. These pages are created by you and can be modified as often as you need.

Your organization’s website serves as the gateway to all of the functionality within ClubExpress. So everyone starts out by opening a browser and typing in your club’s URL, for example:

http://www.chicagoCorvettes.org

http://chicagoCorvettes.clubexpress.com

The first screen shown is your organization’s home page, which you have defined to highlight the club’s or association’s purpose, current or recent events, or news. You have complete control over the content of the site, the header that appears on every page and the overall look and feel of the site.

There is also a menu of additional pages and modules that you make available to site visitors or members who have not yet logged in. ClubExpress controls what visitors can see, to protect confidential club/association and members-only information, such as the membership database. Non-members will only see what you allow them to see, such as the benefits of joining the organization, lists of special interests, the events calendar and an on-line joining form.

Every page includes a standard footer which points to the Contact Us page, allowing visitors to contact a club or association officer or send you email, the Terms of Use of the site, and the Privacy Policy that ClubExpress adheres to, and that you agreed to when you signed up for ClubExpress.

Every page also includes a small login panel that allows club or association members to log into the site. Clicking the Login link allows members to login with a unique user name and password.

Once logged in, members can see a different version of the organization’s home page, with content that is reserved for members only. They will also see a different list of choices on the menu, including options that would not normally be shown to non-members (such as Committees and the Member Directory.) Other modules have additional options for members only; for example, the Interests module allows members to select an Interest to see who else has signed up for that Interest. From there, members can also view a member’s Directory entry.

Once logged in, the login panel also includes a Profile link that leads to the member’s profile page. This page includes options that allow members to change their personal information stored in ClubExpress.

Depending on the Member Types you configure, there are variations among club or association members.

• Solo members are not linked to any other member accounts; they are only responsible for themselves and their own information.
• Primary members are created when you define a “family / business” membership type. This member has a primary login and one or more secondary and tertiary accounts under the primary login. For a primary member, the Profile screen includes an additional choice to manage secondary and tertiary accounts.
• Secondary members exist under a primary member who is assigned to a “family / business” membership type. Secondary members have their own login and identity within the system but their membership status is linked to the primary membership and renews or expires as the primary renews or expires. For a secondary member, the Profile screen excludes any choices related to renewals, the membership account, and credit cards. You can change the keyword used for a secondary member.
• Tertiary members exist under a primary member that is assigned to a “family / business” membership type. Like secondary members, their membership status is linked to the primary membership and renews or expires as the primary renews or expires. Tertiary members cannot log into the website. But if an email address is entered for them, they will receive emails sent by the club. Tertiary members have a Profile screen that is accessed by an administrator. Tertiary memberships are suitable for clubs where members join through their personal lives and the club needs to track children. For clubs where members join through their business or professional lives, they are suitable for tracking additional contacts at a business or location. You can change the keyword used for a tertiary member.

Note that for each of the following security levels, the user needs to be a solo, primary or secondary member in good standing before he or she can be a forum moderator, coordinator or administrator. Tertiary members cannot fill these roles because they cannot login.

In the Discussion Forums function, you can define forum moderators who have limited administrative rights over a specific forum. Moderators can modify or delete individual messages or threads, or move part of a thread to another forum. For forums where messages must be approved before they are made public, moderators can review and approve or block these messages. Moderators can also ban members from posting messages if they don’t follow forum rules (and remove bans for members who then agree to abide by the rules.)

In the Blogs function, each blog is authored by an individual who is usually a member of your club or association with specialized knowledge or experience. When you define a blog, you will link it to an author who will then have administrative rights over that blog, with the ability to create, edit and delete blog postings and comments (if enabled.)

When an event is created in the Event Calendar module, you have the opportunity to define an Event Coordinator who then has limited administrative rights to that event only. Event Coordinators can modify the basic information about an event, view a list of registrants, send event reminder emails to registrants, process payments, run reports and export event data.

Selected members may be designated as Coordinators in one or more functions, custom web pages or photo albums. Coordinators have the ability to administer that function or page, adding or deleting content, categories, entries, or members within the module or page. Functions can have more than one coordinator.

Administrators define coordinators, by clicking the Coordinators icon on the Control Panel, or on the Custom Pages Manager or Photo Albums Manager screens.

Subgroups: For selected functions, custom web pages and photo albums, if your club has subgroups, when you define a coordinator you can pick the level that this person can manage.

Example: You can define an event calendar coordinator who can manage events belonging just to the Midwest region, or just the Dallas chapter.

Subgroups: If your club or association has subgroups, you can define administrators at each subgroup level. These administrators will see a special control panel with functions that apply to their subgroups only.

Example: A chapter administrator has access to the People Manager screen but it only shows members in that chapter. A district administrator could run reports for all members of the district, or filter the report to just the members of one chapter within the district. Individuals can be managers of multiple subgroups at the same time.

Coordinators can also be defined to help manage functions on the Control Panel itself.

Example: You can assign one or more coordinators to help maintain the membership database, without giving them access to other administrative functions.

This is done by selecting Control Panel – Club tab – Setup panel – Administrators/Coordinators. The lower half of the screen allows you to define coordinators specifically for administrative functions.

Coordinators access the administrative functions in either of two ways:

• By clicking the Control Panel link. This is a special version of the Control Panel showing only the administrative functions available to that coordinator.
• For functions with a user and an admin component, by clicking the pencil icon in the Page Tools Widget on the right side of the screen.

Selected members may be designated as club or association Administrators. These are usually the senior Board members (Membership Director, Treasurer, etc.), plus one or more people charged with managing the website itself.

Administrators have access to all information about the club or association and its members, including the membership database and financial transactions that are processed by ClubExpress. Administrators can change the overall look and feel of the site, the layout of menus, and which modules are made available to members and visitors.

Administrators can also appoint and remove other administrators. This is done by clicking Control Panel – Club tab – Setup panel – Administrators/Coordinators. The initial administrator account is created when the club signs up for ClubExpress. After that, a small number of additional administrators can and should be added to the system, so that someone can access the site if the original administrator becomes unavailable. After that, administrators can be added or removed as necessary to allow for changing membership and roles within the club or association.

The system requires at least one administrator.

The Administrators’ Discussion Forum

If you activate the Discussion Forums function, administrators will see a special forum at the end of the list for administrators only. This forum allows you to post questions that are available to all administrators across all ClubExpress clubs, and to the Support team in our office. You can also participate in discussions about the best ways to use ClubExpress for your organization. You should be careful not to post club-confidential information in this forum, since it is used by many ClubExpress customers.

If you are part of a multi-tier organization with individual clubs that are linked to a parent club, you can define super administrators who are members of one club but who can login to any club website within the hierarchy to help manage those sites and databases. There is no user interface for this feature; contact ClubExpress to define a super administrator.

At ClubExpress, we have system administrator rights on all clubs and associations. We can log into any website as an administrator to help with support tasks and troubleshooting, and to review sites for compliance with the Subscription Agreement and Terms of Use.