Provisional Memberships

Some clubs require new members to go through an application or provisional stage where certain requirements must be met before gaining full membership.

USE CASE EXAMPLES

This configuration is used for a few different requirements across many of our organisations. Each use case is individual, and so you will find some varied instructions for different ways to configure your system below. 

Some examples include:

• Your organisation requires a provisional membership on joining, to ensure that the new member fits the eligibility requirements of membership.
• Your organisation wishes to have a free application available to new members, where they complete all their information, and the applying members details must go to a board/committee meeting where they will be approved. Once approved, the new member will then be rolled over into the full membership where they can pay.
• Your organisation offers a free 1 month trial membership to new members before they commit to purchasing a full membership. This also allows the club to ensure the new member is a good fit before offering full membership.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. Should your provisional member have all of the same access within your website as the full member?
2. Will the provisional members receive the same automated emails as the full members?
3. Do you need to retain the custom membership form field data for your provisional member in the membership form when they roll over into full membership?

If you answered "yes" to both of these questions, then the you can make a provisional  membership product within your existing membership level. Therefore you can skip the first step below in regards to creating a provisional membership level.

If you answered "no" to the above questions, then the best course of action is to create a membership level especially for your provisional members.

SETTING UP A PROVISIONAL MEMBERSHIP PROCESS

You will need to be signed in as a Site Administrator to implement this process. This documentation assumes you already have a full membership level and product configured. You may already have implemented some of these steps or membership levels if your site is live.  Please skip any steps already completed to integrate this process into a live site.

Step 1: Create Provisional Membership Level

NB: if you answered "yes" to the questions in "things to consider" then you can skip this step.

From the membership admin area add a new membership level.  For more details see the page Membership Level Setup.

Call the level Provisional Membership (or something else suitable).  Set the remaining options as appropriate to your requirements (more information and meanings of these fields can be found at Membership Level Setup).

Click SAVE & CLOSE.

Activate the level by clicking the square to turn it green  

Step 2: Configure Automated Emails

Follow the steps in this document for configuring the automated emails: Managing Automated Membership Emails.

Keep in mind, that if you have set up a separate membership level for your provisional members, then these emails can be aimed specifically at them. However if you are adding your provisional membership as a product within the main membership level, then you will want to generalise your emails in order to include both the provisional and full members.

You will want to modify the content for the following emails:

• Manual Approval: this is the first email the provisional member will be sent when they sign up (assuming your membership level does not have auto approval for sign ups ticked in the membership level settings).  Modify this content so the new member knows what requirements they must pass before being approved.
  If your level settings are to auto approve renewals, but manually approve sign ups, then only the provisional members will receive this email, so it can include specific information aimed at just the provisional members.
• Approval Email: this email is sent when a pending provisional member is approved by an administrator. This email is sent at the same time as the sign up welcome, so is blank by default.
• Signup Welcome: this will be sent to the member once an admin has approved their membership once all provisional requirements have been passed.  Modify this content with instructions on how to become a full member
• All other automated emails can be left blank so nothing is sent

Step 3: Create Provisional Membership Product

You now need to create a membership product within your membership level. This product can be free or a paid product based on your requirements.

Follow the help document here: Managing Membership Products and Prices.

• Set the Product Type to sign up only (this will ensure that only new members can sign up to this membership, and no one can renew the provisional product)

Step 4: Restrict Full Membership Product

You now need to restrict the full membership product. How you do this depends on if you have configured your provisional membership product in its own separate membership level, or if it is a product within the main membership level:

For provisional memberships within their own dedicated membership level:

Go to your main membership level, and edit full membership product. 

• In the Public Product checkbox, select No. 
• Select the Allowed Role from the drop down options to the full membership role, and the membership coordinator role. This will ensure that no one can see this product on the public membership page other than those already with full membership.
• Click SAVE to apply the changes. 

MANAGING THE PROCESS FROM PROVISIONAL MEMBERS TO FULL MEMBERS

1. Your new provisional member will sign up via the join now page on your website.
2. Any payment amounts due for the membership are paid by the member upon submitting this form.
3. The "Manual approval" email is automatically sent to the potential new member.
4. Administrator will approve the provisional member, and the "Sign up welcome" email is automatically sent to the new provisional member. (NB: If a pending membership application is rejected, any refunds will need to be processed manually by the administrator)
5. The provisional member now has membership access to the website and the mobile app.
6. Once the provisional member has completed the membership term, and their expiry date is within the "expiry/renewal reminder" days set in the Membership General Settings the "renewal reminder" email will be sent.
   
   What happens next depends on if the provisional membership is within its own dedicated level, or is a product within the main membership.

• There will be no public products available for the provisional member to renew into. So an administrator must transfer the provisional member into the full membership level to enable them to renew their membership as a paid full member. See Transferring members between levels

If the provisional membership is a product within the full membership level:]

• There is no action needed on behalf of the administrator. When the renewal reminder is sent to the provisional member, they will be able to click renew and only see the Full membership option to select and pay.