ClubExpress includes built-in support for organizations with chapters, districts and regions, and supports two basic models.
- Model 1: One website where members join at the parent club (top) level
- Model 2: Multiple websites where members join at the local (lowest) level
Model 1
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.
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.
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.