Clubs or associations can define their various membership types, including single, family, senior, youth, multi-year, complimentary and other options. Each membership type has an associated price, duration, and availability.
Editing: Click the Edit icon to edit properties for a member type. Click the Delete icon to delete a member type. This icon will only appear if the member type is not being used in the database.
Initial Setup: We create a single member type called “Member”. You can change the name and any properties of this type. You can also create as many other member types as you need.
Order of Member Types: Click the Display Sequence button to customize the sequence in which member types appear in the Member Signup/Renewal wizard. You will see the standard ClubExpress display sequence dialog.
To add a new type, click the Add Member Type button. The following screen is displayed:
Name and Description
- Specify the name and description of the membership type. The name appears in the drop-down list when a member joins, while the description will appear underneath once a type is selected.
- If you are creating a group membership with Tertiary members, we recommend notifying the members they won't be able to sign into the website.
Duration
- Durations are specified in months to allow organizations to specify a full range of dates, including quarterly or multi-year memberships.
- You can create durations as low as 1 month but these short renewal cycles are really only suitable when renewals are set to Automatic or Automatic with Payment.
Availability
- New Members and Renewals – New and renewing members can select this type.
- New Members Only – Only new members signing up can select this type. This type can be used if your organization charges a new member initiation fee.
- Renewals Only – Only members renewing can select this type.
- Trial (New Members Only) – This option allows you to create a special membership type for new trial memberships. It can have any duration and fee. When users select this type, they also get a special membership status of Trial, allowing you to quickly locate these members. Trial members also see an Upgrade Membership option if they log in. This option allows them to “renew” to a regular membership at any time. Users must select one of the other types from the list of available “new” member types. You can control whether Trial members can login to the website (see Control Panel – Website Options screen to configure). If Trial members cannot login and they try to do so, they are taken to the first page of the renewal wizard to upgrade to a full membership.
- Renewals (Same Type Only) – Only members renewing with the same member type can select this member type. Alternatively, they can select any other member types you have configured. Members without this member type will not see this option. Use this option to “grandfather” long-time members who might have a special deal.
- Admin only – not publicly available. This type will only be shown to admins. Use this option when a board of directors defines a lifetime membership for people who have provided exceptional service to the organization, or if the board wants to grant a complimentary membership, for example, to the editor of the leading magazine within your community.
Renewal
- Select this option to control how renewals are handled for this member type. The default is to use the default settings that are defined on the Renewal / Expiration Settings page.
- Select Automatic Renewals if you want ClubExpress to renew this member automatically. When you select this option, the screen will refresh and you will be asked to specify the number of days before expiration when the renewal should take place. See Automatic Renewal Options for more information on automatic renewals and payment options.
Fee Change
- You can optionally specify a different membership dues amount for expired members. There are three options:
- None. The same amount is charged whether the member is expired or still active.
- After Expiration Date. The different amount will be charged if the member’s expiration date has passed, whether or not the member is actually expired.
- After Actual Expiration. The different amount will be charged if the member’s status is “Expired”. This option is used when you have defined an expiration lag period where the membership status is not changed to Expired until X days after the expiration date.
- If a dues change is enabled, you can specify the dues after expiration in the Fees section at the bottom of the page.
Website Menu
- Select a menu from the list of defined menus that members of this type will see once they login. This feature allows you to define different menus for each member type, or to use a default menu.
Financial Account and QuickBooks®Item Name
- Select a non-archived financial account to use for this membership revenue. You can select a detail account that you created or the master membership account that is built into the system.
- If you have the QuickBooks® integration enabled, specify the QuickBooks® Item Name to link this member type to a QuickBooks® item when transactions are exported.
Financial Accounts can only be used to direct payments to multiple bank accounts if you are a ClubExpress Premium Payments user.
Requires Approval?
- On the Control Panel – People Options screen, you can configure a global default whether membership must be approved. But this default can be overridden for each membership type.
Some associations have a special type for students, at a reduced rate. But the member’s student status may need to be verified before he or she is allowed to pay this rate.
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- If you specify No, then members can signup through the website, pay the specified fee and become “Active” on the spot.
- If you specify Yes, then members can still signup through the website. Unapproved members are added to the database with a status of Prospective. You then have the option of accepting the member (which changes the status to Pending and invites the new member to log in and complete payment—changing the status to Active) or declining the application (which changes the status to Dropped, sending a “regrets” email.)
Business Membership
- Organizations have the option to create business memberships. This setting differs from members joining through their professional lives, where the membership belongs to the person and the club collects their work information. In a business membership, the business is the member, a primary member of the business manages the membership (as the main contact), and other employees are secondary and/or tertiary members. Business memberships can be configured to either allow others to add themselves to the membership using a unique code (provided to them), or to only allow the primary member or a club administrator to add people to the membership.
Example: In a cycling club, a local bike repair shop would have a business membership. The primary member (main contact) would be the owner, and several employees would be secondary members.
- To configure a membership as a business membership, select Yes.
- In the new field, determine how people will add themselves to the membership. If you allow people to add themselves, a special code is generated and given to the primary member. The primary member is then responsible for providing that code to other employees in his/her company. When a new user signs up, they are able to enter in the code and add themselves to the membership. The primary member or an administrator will still need to approve or decline the new member.
- Information collected during the signup process will focus on the company, but will include space for the primary member (main contact) to enter in their member contact information.
Printed Newsletter
- On the Control Panel – People– Setup – People Options page, you can configure whether members pay extra for a printed newsletter. Some clubs are moving to digital newsletters that members read online or download; if members want a printed newsletter, they have to pay extra, based on their member type.
- Select Yes if this member type includes a printed newsletter or No if it does not. If this option is not visible it means that the cost of a printed newsletter is not considered separately as part of the cost of a membership.
Stop Notices
- Use this option to prevent members using this member type from receiving renewal and/or expiration notices. For example, if you use a different service to send specific member types renewal notices. To apply this option to a chapter selection, go here.
Secondary* Members
*The system will display the keyword you specified for secondary members on the Control Panel – Club Options page.
- Primary members own the account; they can add or remove their own secondary and tertiary members from the Profile screen. Secondary and tertiary members, on the other hand, do not see account management options on their Profile screen, nor will they ever be asked to renew; their membership is entirely dependent on the status of the primary membership. They have the same member type as the primary, they renew when the primary renews and expire when the primary expires.
- Secondary members have a login and password and can login to the website to participate in all club activities as members. (Note that ClubExpress charges a reduced fee for each active secondary member in your database.)
- If this member type includes secondary members, select Yes, then specify the minimum and maximum number of members allowed. Then specify whether secondary members can also join chapters; the available options are described on the previous page.
The default maximum for secondary and tertiary members is 5. Contact us if you need this limit raised.
Tertiary* Members
*The system will display the keyword you specified for tertiary members on the Control Panel – Club Options page.
- Tertiary members do NOT have a login and password and cannot login to the website. But they are included in blast emailings and in mailing lists of active members. (Note that ClubExpress does not currently charge a fee for active tertiary members in your database, although we reserve the right to change this policy.)
- When members join your club through their personal lives, tertiary members are appropriate for very young family members that you want to track in the database but who do not need the ability to login. When members join your club through their business or professional lives, tertiary members are appropriate for other contacts at a business who might be interested in club activities but who also do not need the ability to login.
- If this member type includes tertiary members, select Yes, then specify the minimum and maximum number of members allowed. Then specify whether tertiary members can also join chapters; the available options are described on the previous page.
- If you are creating a group membership with Tertiary members, we recommend notifying the members they won't be able to sign into the website.
The default maximum for secondary and tertiary members is 5. Contact us if you need this limit raised.
Fees
- The fees section of the page will be different based on the options selected above and elsewhere.
- The Primary Member Fee is always shown.
- If you specified that this fee changes after expiration, an additional field is provided on the right side to specify the changed fee.
- If you enabled secondary and/or tertiary members, fields are provided to specify the fee for each secondary and/or tertiary member, again using the keywords chosen on the Control Panel – Club Options page.
- For each of the subgroup levels defined (if applicable), you can specify whether a fee is charged and who controls this fee. For some clubs and associations, fees are defined at the top level and cannot be changed by individual regions, districts and chapters. For other clubs and associations, default fees are defined at the top level, but they can be individually adjusted for each region, district and/or chapter. ClubExpress gives you full control over these options.
If a fee is charged at a specific level, you will see fields to define separate fees for each member level (primary and optionally also secondary and tertiary.)
If you have specified that fees are different for each chapter, district and/or region, be sure to select the Edit Membership Fees option when you are defining chapters, districts and/or regions.
The following options may not appear depending on your Club/Association's basic configurations
Apply Subgroup Fees
- This option will only appear if your organization has subgroups (chapters, districts, and regions) and if you are charging membership dues at these levels. There are three options:
- Every Time. The fee at each level is charged for each chapter, district and region that the member joins.
If a member joins two separate chapters, he may be charged two chapter fees, two district fees and two region fees.
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- Once Per Member. The fee at each level is charged only once per member.
If a member joins two separate chapters in the same district, he may be charged two chapter fees but only one district and one region fee. (However, if the chapters are in different districts, each district may charge a separate fee.)
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- Once Per Membership. The fee at each level is charged only once for the whole membership.
In a mother’s playgroup if a membership includes two kids in the same chapter, district and region, the respective fees are only charged once per family.
Chapter Selection
- If your organization supports subgroups (chapters, districts and regions), you can control how many chapters a member can join. Select from one of the following options:
- None. This type does not allow members to join a chapter.
- May select only one. Members may select a single chapter, but this is not required. Use this option if you don’t have chapters in every part of your service region, so some members must join the top-level club only.
- Must select only one. Members must be assigned to one and only one chapter. They cannot complete the signup or renewal process without selecting a chapter.
- May select one or more. Members may select a single chapter or multiple chapters, but they do not have to select a chapter.
- Must select at least one, may select more. Members may select a single chapter or multiple chapters, but they cannot complete the signup or renewal process unless they have selected at least one.
- Same as Primary. Secondary and tertiary members will be assigned to the same chapter(s) as their primary member. This option is only available for secondary and tertiary members.
Create Channel
- If your club or association has activated the mobile app, you will see a Create Channel option, allowing you to automatically create a mobile channel based around this member type. Members who choose this member type will automatically be added to the channel.