This article will explain how to setup and use the Membership Module. We will create a non-paying Membership package and then step through adding a contact, and discuss options for migrating contacts onto these packages.
Reference Data Setup
You should first check the reference data (drop down list items) for the Membership module. 1. Navigate to the Reference Table Maintenance screen, available from the System menu, locate Reference Data and select Create and Maintain
2. Select Membership Categorisation from the Select a table to maintain drop down list and click Display
a. Click the Add new entry link to bring up the edit page, and add the following items one at a time: Full, Associate, and individual
3. You may choose proceed to create Category and Sub Category values for each of these Types if you like.
4. From the Reference Table Maintenance screen, select Membership – Cancelled Reason and click the Display button
a. Click the Add new entry link to bring up the edit page, and add the following items one at a time: Moved, Retired, Financial, unsatisfied, unknown and Other
b. Using a standard set of cancellation reasons aids in reporting.
Create Membership Package
1. Navigate to the Add Membership screen, available from the Membership menu, and select Create
2. We will enter full for categorisation, 2019 Full Membership for the Description 1 Jan 19 for Start, 31 Dec 19 for End
3. Contact will be our Structure for this membership. This means this membership is for contacts only. Membership structures can be contact, organisation, or both
6. If you would like to collect payments for your membership, check the Is Chargeable checkbox. We will be leaving it un-checked.
7. If you would like the Membership module to automatically generate and maintain Distribution Lists for electronic communication containing your Members and Prospects, then check the Maintain Distribution List checkbox. We will check this box.
9. If you would like to track renewal dates, select yes for the Track Renewal Dates Field. This will be covered in a separate document
10. Member No. Settings can be used to generate member numbers with prefixes, suffixes, or padding.
8. Click the Save button to save your Membership package.
a. You will be taken to the Membership Details display page
Add Members
You are now ready to add members to your membership package. You will arrive here after creating a membership package or from selecting one of your membership packages available by navigating Membership > Maintain
1. Click on the Create link in the Members tab located on the membership display page to create members with Member status. To create members with Prospect status, click create from the prospect tab.
2. In the Add Member screen, click on Find link to search for the Contact you would like add to your Membership Package
3. Since we chose to have our Membership Package generate Distribution Lists for us, you should next select one of your Contact’s available Email Addresses from the Address drop down list. The system will select Business Email address if one exists as the default. You may select any of the contacts addresses to use
4. Click on the Add button to add this contact to your package.
a. You will see the Member Details display page now shows that contact listed as a Member.
5. If you have added your contact as a prospect and your membership Package is not chargeable, to make them a Member, click on Manage Member from inside the prospect members tab and then Edit, to be taken to the Modify Member screen, where you can toggle their status to Member and click Update.
a. If your Membership Package is chargeable, then to make them a Member, you click on the Manage Member link and then record information about that payment.
i. There is support for part payments and full payments.
Manage Membership Packages and MembersYou can manage your membership packages and your Prospects, Members and Cancelled Members from the following places within ChilliDB:
Membership tab on the Contacts screen
Membership tab on the Organisations screen
Steps for Contact/Organisation page:
1. Use the Contact/Organisation search to search for a Contact/Organisation within your system.
2. From your search results, click on one of the records to bring up the Display page:
a. Locate and click on the Membership tab on the Display page
b. You will see any Membership Packages which that Contact/Organisation is associated with
i. You will be able to click on the Manage Member link to toggle the Members’ status, or to alter other information about that member’s membership.
ii. You will be able to click on the Cancel Membership link to cancel that member’s membership on a particular membership package.
iii. You will be able to click on the Expire icon to expire that member and remove them from the package completely.
iv. You will be able to click on the Membership Package to jump to the Membership Details display page.
Communicating with your Prospects and Members
If you chose to automatically generate Distribution Lists for your Membership Package you can then send electronic communications such as Email through ChilliDB to those contacts.
1. To view your Distribution Lists, navigate to the Distribution Lists screen, available from the Utilities menu, locate Distribution Lists and select Maintain
2. Select Membership from the Type drop down list.
3. Click the Display button to show all Distribution Lists of Type Membership. You may also filter the list by:
a. Category or Sub Category
b. Current, or Expired lists
4. You can then see the members of the list and you will also see one list for Prospects and one list for Members. These are the same lists displayed on the Membership Details display page.
5. If you wish to communicate with the members, within ChilliDB, select the Send Message link from the top right hand corner of the screen above your name.
a. When the Send Message window pops up, click on the Find link to access the address book.
b. Switch the Filter on the address book to Distribution Lists and then click the Search button and locate your Distribution List and then add it to the BCC box.
c. ChilliDB requires that you have an address in the To box, so selected yourself.
d. You may also like to use the ChilliDB Merge Tokens for HTML emails to personalise the email to each of your recipients.
Annual Processing
Each year you should create your Membership Packages for the year ahead. You can then Import your members (Prospects, Members, and Cancelled Members if you choose) from one or more existing Membership Packages to save time. They will import as Prospects and you would then proceed to contact your prospects and carry out necessary business steps to convert them to Members for the next year.
1. Once you have created your new Membership Package, from the Member Details display page, you can click on the Import Members link begin the process of importing members from one or more of the previous years’ Membership Packages. Members can only be imported as prospect members.
2. Select the Membership Package from which you would like to import members from the From Package drop down list.
3. Check the Include “Cancelled” Members checkbox if you would like to import the cancelled members from the package you selected.
4. Click the Import button to complete the process.
5. You will see all of those contacts shown as Prospects on the Membership Details display screen