The simplest format for importing your club’s or association’s membership database is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, each member on a separate row and each data element described below in a separate column. We also support Microsoft Access, Paradox, dBase, CSV Text and Fixed Length Text formats. Columns can be in any order.
In the following lists, the format or maximum length is shown in the middle column. Please check your values and shrink excessively long entries down to a size that can be imported, otherwise they will be truncated.
Important Notes
If any column is blank (no values for members), it should be left out of the spreadsheet. Only include columns that have data.
For associations where members join as part of their business or professional lives, use the Work… and primary address fields for the business address; the alt-address fields can be used for a home address if you have this information. Put the work phone in the Phone field, not the Work Phone field.
The import process generates a login name and temporary password. If you have login names, you may provide them, but if we detect duplicates, we won’t be able to use them. Do not provide existing passwords; because of how they are encrypted in our system, new temporary passwords will always be generated. Members will be able to change both their login name and password when they first log in.
Do not combine data elements (for example, city and state) into a single column. Also, please check that the phone number and email columns have only one phone number and email address; extras must be moved or removed. Also, remove any extraneous words from these columns. The phone number column can contain extensions in the form “x.123”. Phone numbers should also be consistently formatted with parentheses, hyphens, periods, etc.
It is important to remove members who have already been loaded into the system from the spreadsheet. This will ensure that they are not listed twice, and if this is not done, you may end up with duplicates.
You should include members whose membership expires in the last 18-24 months. We can import them and send them a welcome email, which might encourage them to rejoin. The system understands when Expired members try to log in and will take them to the Renewal Wizard, where they must renew.
Don’t include members who have passed away or moved out of the area or who you know will never rejoin. (Note that we only charge based on your Active membership, so there is no charge for these expired members.
Please double-check the date fields to ensure they are defined as actual dates and not strings. Otherwise, they will not be imported.
Please also verify that everything is properly aligned. It can be very frustrating to find one person’s email address beside another person’s name and contact information.
Finally, once you have sent us the database, please don’t add or remove members through the website until after the database has been loaded. This will avoid potential conflicts between members in the online database and the one we are loading.
ClubExpress does not support spaces in user names.
The Bulk Load Template
Download it at the bottom of this page.
Required Data
Column | Format/Size | Notes |
First_name | 20 chars | |
Last_name | 35 chars | |
Member_type | Must match member types defined in your website. | |
Date_expired | MM/DD/YYYY (The default format may differ based on your location) | Must be based on your renewal policies and on the member paid status. We use this value to determine if the imported member will be considered Active or Expired. It must be present for all members and must be a valid date. If you have secondary and tertiary members, be sure that they have the same expiration date as their primary member. Note that the last day of a membership is “inclusive”. So if everyone renews on Jan 1st in your club or association, specify 12/31/YYYY for the expiration date. Please check that all rows use a valid date format. If you have honorary “life” members, specify a date that’s some years into the future (but not too great or the date field will overflow.) We suggest 20 years. |
Optional Contact Data
Column | Format/Size | Notes |
Member_number | Alpha - allows letters, dashes, and other non-numeric chars. If you are concerned about sorting, consider using leading zeros. |
If your club or association does not have numbers, you can assign them, or we will assign them based on the date joined. They must be unique for each member, including secondary and tertiary members. Be sure that the member numbers in the spreadsheet start after the member numbers already in your online database. If member numbers are not specified, we will add them as sequential numbers starting after the people already in the online database. |
Address1 | 50 chars | |
Address2 | 50 chars | |
City | 30 chars | |
State/Province | 5 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Zip/PostalCode | 10 chars | |
Country | 3 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Email_address | 100 chars | Not required but strongly recommended |
Phone | 24 chars | |
Cell_phone | 24 chars | |
Fax | 24 chars | |
Website | 100 chars | Personal or company website address |
Date_joined | MM/DD/YYYY | |
Date_of_birth | MM/DD/YYYY | Can be hidden, visible and optional, or visible and required. |
Salutation | 6 chars | Dr., Rev., etc. |
Middle_initial | 1 char | No period after the letter |
Nickname | 20 chars | Enable this field on the People Options screen. See Choosing Contact Information to Collect |
Gender | 1 = male 2 = female 3 = other/non-binary |
If this column is included, blank values are not allowed. |
Spouse_first_name | 30 chars | Can be used when you have not set up spouses or partners as secondary or tertiary members. This is enabled on the People Options screen. See Choosing Contact Information to Collect |
Spouse_last_name | 35 chars | |
Spouse_date_of_birth | MM/DD/YYYY | Can be configured to hide the year, even though a year must be provided for importing a valid date. |
Sponsor | 100 chars | |
Mailing_name | 100 chars | |
Anniversary | MM/DD/YYYY | Can be configured to hide the year, even though a year must be provided for importing a valid date. |
Printed_newsletter | Yes/No | See People Options. |
Metro_area | If you are using this feature, a member can be assigned to a single metro area. Adding Metro Areas. | |
Bio | 250 chars | Remove embedded line and paragraph breaks |
Directory_visibility | 0-7 | Corresponds to the values shown in the Profile - Membership Directory Visibility option (where 0 means "Not visible" and 7 means "Everything is shown"). See Setting Your Member Directory Visibility |
Alternate Addresses
If the Alt_address columns are specified, be sure to enable this panel on the People Options screen. See Choosing Contact Information to Collect
Column | Format/Size | Notes |
Alt_address1 | 50 chars | |
Alt_address2 | 50 chars | |
Alt_city | 30 chars | |
Alt_state/province | 5 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Alt_zip/postalcode | 10 chars | |
Alt_country | 3 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Alt_phone | 24 chars |
Work Information
You can enable a panel to collect a member’s work information for clubs and associations that people join through their personal lives. For clubs and associations that people join through their business/professional lives, these fields appear by default.
Column | Format/Size |
Work_company | 100 chars |
Work_title | 100 chars |
Work_phone | 24 chars |
Tollfree_phone | 24 chars |
Emergency Contact Info
If the Emergency Contact columns are specified, be sure to enable this panel on the People Options screen.
Column | Format/Size |
Emergency_contact_name | 55 chars |
Emergency_contact_relationship | 50 chars |
Emergency_contact_phone | 24 chars |
Emergency_contact_email | 100 chars |
Additional Member Data
See Collecting Additional Data from Members
If your club or association has additional member data (questions) that are asked of each member, the answers should also be listed in individual columns, with the column header linked to a question defined within Additional Data Questions. Be sure that the values in the spreadsheet exactly match the values entered for each question.
If you defined a True/False question with values of “Yes;No”, be sure that the spreadsheet column contains the values of “Yes” and “No” only (not “Y” and “N”, or “True” and “False” or “YES” and “NO” – case is important!)
This is also true of Select List questions; the values in the spreadsheet must exactly match the list items defined online for them to show up in a member’s Profile.
If you are using Check Box or Multi-Text Box questions, each value should be in a separate column of the spreadsheet.
Assume a list of favorite colors and members can check more than one. These should be entered in the spreadsheet as follows:
Member | Color_1 | Color_2 | Color_3 | Color_4 | Color_5 |
John Smith | Red | Blue | Red | ||
Mary Brown | Green | Red | |||
Dave Chen | Blue | Purple | Yellow | Green | White |
Values can be in any order but must exactly match the allowable values defined for the Check Box or Multi-Text Box question. They should also fill each column from left to right.
It is important to predefine in the online database each Additional Member Data question referenced in the spreadsheet before you send it to us.
In general, if you define an additional member data question that matches a built-in column (for example, date_of_birth), we will use the built-in column unless we receive explicit instructions otherwise.
Interests, Chapters and Committees
If you track interests, chapter assignments or committee membership for members, this information can also be imported.
Use one column for each interest, chapter or committee, with the column heading matching an interest group or chapter defined in your ClubExpress website. If a member has that interest or belongs to that chapter or committee, put “Yes” in that column, otherwise leave the column blank.
Be sure to respect the chapter settings defined for your member types.
If secondary and tertiary members must be in the same chapter as their primary member, this should be specified in the spreadsheet.
Secondary and Tertiary Members
If your club or association supports secondary and/or tertiary memberships (family or business members linked to the primary account), it is best if these are listed as separate rows in the spreadsheet below the primary member.
Recall that secondary and tertiary members are both attached to the primary. Secondary members have a username and password and can login to the website, while Tertiary members cannot login.
Create a separate column called “Level” then put a 1 for primary and solo members, 2 for secondary, and 3 for tertiary. This column cannot be blank.
Create another column called “Temp_Primary_Member_Number”. Leave this column blank for primary and solo members but for secondary and tertiary members, enter the member number of that person’s primary member.
This will allow us to import these secondary and tertiary members and link them to the correct primary membership. Otherwise, they will not be imported.
For family memberships:
Member Type | Member# | First_Name | Last_Name | Level | Temp_Primary_Member_Number |
Family | 110 | John | Smith | 1 | |
Family | 111 | Mary | Smith | 2 | 110 |
Family | 112 | Paul | Smith | 3 | 110 |
For corporate/business memberships:
Member Type | Member# | First_Name | Last_Name | Level | Temp_Primary_Member_Number |
Corporate | 110 | John | Smith | 1 | |
Corporate | 111 | Mary | Jones | 2 | 110 |
Corporate | 112 | Paul | Brown | 2 | 110 |
Corporate | 113 | Alice | Chen | 3 | 110 |
For family memberships, everyone generally has the same address and often the same last name (though this is not necessary). For corporate or business memberships, everyone generally works for the same company, although the names and sometimes the addresses will be different. We use these guidelines to verify the data as it’s being imported.
We will import this data as best we can, but we cannot guarantee that it will be perfect. If changes are necessary, you can make them once the import is done, by going into the People Manager and clicking the Primary/Secondary Changes button.
Just to recap: all level 2 and level 3 members must have a primary member number specified. This primary number must be on the spreadsheet or already in the system and must belong to a level 1 member.
Mailing List Categories
Members (and non-members) can be assigned to one or more mailing list categories (for example, Press; someone who attended a specific event; someone who donated into a specific fund; etc.)
To have these assignments imported, create a column for each mailing list category. Put “Yes” in the cell where the member will be assigned to that category; leave the cell blank if the member is not assigned to that category.
Business Directory
If your association will activate the ClubExpress Business Directory module (to promote business members to the public), you can append the following columns to the spreadsheet for each member.
Many of these columns replicate information linked to the individual member but the Business Directory module allows each member to specify different information than what’s stored with their personal account (for example, an “office” address rather than their home address.)
Column | Format/Size | Notes |
Business_name | 100 chars | |
Contact_name | 50 chars | |
Text_description | 250 chars | The system also supports a long and fully-formatted description but there is no way to import this. Members can create it when they login the first time. |
Email_address | 100 chars | |
Address1 | 50 chars | |
Address2 | 50 chars | |
City | 30 chars | |
State | 5 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Zip/PostalCode | 10 chars | |
Country | 3 chars | Use standard abbreviations |
Phone | 24 chars | |
Toll_free_phone | 24 chars | |
Fax | 24 chars | |
Website | 100 chars | |
Special_offers | 250 chars | |
Facebook_address | 100 chars | |
LinkedIn_address | 100 chars | |
Twitter_address | 100 chars | |
Pinterest_address | 100 chars | |
YouTube_address | 100 chars | |
Instagram_address | 100 chars |