Membership Setup

Membership Setup is used to configure the values in the drop-down lists for the fields within a Membership profile page.

Navigating to Membership Setup

To Navigate to the Membership Setup:

Open the Modules Menu and select Membership.
On the Membership Overview, click the Membership Setup icon.

You can also select the Membership Setup link from the Membership Overview Group Item drop-down list.

Member Types

Member Types are used to identify the different types of Memberships within an Association. Member types may have different dues rates, benefits, discounts, and other privileges associated with them. Member types are set up from the Association Profile.

Example: Full member, associate member, affiliate member, student member, honorary member.

For a detailed description of Member Types and step-by-step instructions on adding new Member Types view:

Member Type Status

Also part of Member Type setup is Member Status. Member Status is an optional value that may help provide additional information about a customer's membership

Example: Active, Pending, Terminated.

Member Type Dependency

Also part of Member Type setup is Member type dependency. Member type dependency is an optional value that is set when the Membership being created depends on the Member also being a Member of another Membership group first.

Member Type Benefits

The final piece of Member Type set-up are the Member Type Benefits. Member Type Benefits are optional values that may be set when you want the Membership being created to also include specific benefits such as a Membership Directory.

To specify that option in the drop-down menu when you click on the Add Member Types Benefits link, you must first create those benefits on the Member Benefits child form, described below. If you do not follow those steps first, the Member Benefits drop-down field will be empty.

Note: You will still have to physically add this benefit to your Membership Packages during setup. However, this function is for informational purposes for Association staff.

Chapter Types

A Chapter Type in netFORUM enables you to distinguish between the different Chapters your organization uses (if any). Chapter Types are often geographical in nature such as State, Regional, or Eastern. If you only have one type, such as State Chapters, you must add that type to netFORUM since the Chapter Type is a required field when adding a chapter record to netFORUM. A general Chapter Type such as State can be added to Membership Setup with individual State Chapters such as Virginia State Chapter, Maryland State Chapter, and so on. The specific Membership attributes can be added separately. See the Chapters topic for more information.

To add a Chapter Type:

Go to the Membership Setup page.
On the chapter type child form, click Add.

In the Add - Chapter Type window, enter the chapter type.
Click Save.

Notice that your newly created Chapter Type has no Chapter Status initially. Similar to a Member Type and Member Status, when you create a new Chapter Type, it will also have an initial status that will be set when purchased. To add a chapter status, such as Active, click the add chapter status link and add any chapter status states you want to be able to set for your chapters.

Member Benefits

The member benefits child form enables you to specify the benefits that should be provided with specific Memberships and that will appear, as a result, in the Member Benefits drop-down field when setting up a new Member Type. For example, you may decide that you want a Member Directory to accompany each Associate Membership. Clicking on the Add Record button allows you to enter a new benefit description so that it appears on the child form as seen below.

Once you have created the benefits, they will appear as an option in the Member Benefit drop-down when you click the add member type benefits link when creating a new Member Type for a new Membership.

Please note that member benefits are for informational purposes only and do not affect other netFORUM processes.

Membership Termination Reasons

An Association may terminate a Membership for a variety of reasons. Many Associations desire to keep track of termination reasons in the event that a Member wishes to Rejoin. It is helpful to know why the Membership was terminated. There is a drop-down field in place within netFORUM for you to keep track of Membership terminations, seen below.

Through Membership Setup, you are able to specify the Membership Termination Reasons that will appear in this drop-down field through the membership termination reason child form, pictured below.

Use this child form to add your Association's membership termination reasons. If you do not specify your termination reasons here, the drop-down will remain empty.

Removing Values from Drop-Down Lists

You may decide that you want to delete a value from a drop-down list that you have previously created. netFORUM allows you to either delete a previously created value or to hide/disable it. There is a slight difference between the two. The rules are:

You may delete a value if it has not been used elsewhere. For example, if you have created a Member Type Status that is now in use, you may not permanently delete it from future use. You must hide and disable it from future use.
If you hide and disable a value and then decide you want to use it again, you must recreate it. There is no 'show' option.

Deleting Values

To Delete a Value From a Drop-down List:

On the Membership Setup page, on the appropriate child form, find the record you would like to delete and click the Delete button.
You will receive a warning message. Click OK to delete the item from the child form.

Note: After a drop-down list item is used, you will not be able to permanently delete the item. However, you can hide the record so that it does not show in the list by disabling it. To disable the record, check the hide/disable record? check box (see below).

Hiding/Disabling Values

To Hide/Disable a Value From a Drop-down List:

On the Membership page, on the appropriate child form, find the record you would like to hide and click the edit button.
Select the hide/disable record? check box and click Save. This removes the value from all of the drop-down lists.

Note: There is no show option to reverse the hide option. If you need the value again, you must add it again.