Statuses (often referred to as "membership types") control one of the most basic aspects of membership records. The status of a member can trigger a lot of different functionality, especially if you are using MemberTies Professional.
Status codes can control:
•the automated processing of membership records that have expired (i.e., the End Date has passed), determining whether they should be converted to a different (usually inactive) status, deleted, or left alone.
•the yearly dues payment amount for each status, whether that amount is prorated, and how. This information is used on the Dues Calculator.
•whether a record with the status should be linked to another record. For example, a "Family" status might be expected to always involve more than one membership record, so the status can be defined to require that another membership record be associated with any record with that status.
•which status is the default used on new records.
•Interest charges* to be automatically applied to "past due" memberships with a negative dues balance
•automatic "scheduled" postings*, for example, to automatically post a dues charge to members with the status on the 15th of each month, the 1st of January, etc.
•the automatic setting of the "Include in Mailings" and "Include on Reports" flags when the status is selected (or when automatically changed to this status by an expiration behavior).
•the number of activities a member can attend*.
Status Flow
The system comes preloaded with several statuses, but you can remove any or all of them, or just rename and redefine them. You can create as many as you need in addition to the default DELETE status that is required by the system. It is a good idea to draw out the flow of statuses in your organization before setting them up.
For example:
PROSPECT changes to DROPPED 30 days after the End Date
DROPPED changes to (DELETE) 90 days after the End Date
REGULAR changes to ALUMNI 90 days after the End Date
ALUMNI never expires and never changes
The above example indicates that once a Prospect status record expires (reaches the End Date), there is a 30 day grace period before it changes to an inactive Dropped status. The idea being that if you haven't heard from then within 30 days you want them removed from the active roster. If another 90 days passes without contact, the record should be deleted because they apparently aren't interested.
Regular members, in the above example, might be people who are truly members that you don't want to forget about. Those records shift to an inactive Alumni status if they don't renew after 90 days, and they remain as Alumni indefinitely.
Note: When an automatic status change occurs, the Include in Mailings and Include on Reports flags are automatically updated to reflect the settings defined for the new status.
Note: Any membership record that is set to the "(Delete)" status (manually or automatically via "Next Status") will be automatically deleted when you exit the program, unless the Auto Delete (Delete) Status preference is turned off. (You will be prompted to confirm the deletion however, unless another preference controlling the prompt itself is also off.)
Working with Status Codes
1.On the Home ribbon, choose Lists from the Settings section.
1.On the System Lists window, expand the Statuses section.
2.Choose Statuses.
3.The following fields are available:
•Status - name to display for the status in lists.
•Code - an abbreviation or code representing the status. You can use this as you wish, typically on reports when you don't want to display the full name. The Code must be unique across all statuses.
•Default - indicates the status is the default status for new member records
•General Behavior
oActive Member - indicates whether a member with this status is considered "active" or not
oAssociations - indicates whether the system should require an association between the member and another member or group. This might apply to a "family" status where at least one other record must be associated in order to qualify.
oDefault Mailings - controls whether the Include in Mailings flag should be set automatically on records when this status is set
oDefault Reports - controls whether the Include on Reports flag should be set automatically on records when this status is set
•Dues
oYearly - the yearly dues amount. This amount is used on the Dues Calculator, as well as when entering dues payments manually. When a status is selected when posting dues, this amount is displayed for quick entry.
oProrate - indicates how dues amounts should be prorated, if at all. This setting is used by the Dues Calculator to pre-select the dues proration option. If you expect to prorate dues on a monthly basis, setting this option makes it easier to remember to do so when using the calculator. Note that you can override this setting on the calculator if you wish.
oCustom Amt - if you decide to prorate the yearly dues amount, it will do so based on 12 months or 365 days, as appropriate. If you enter an amount here, then this amount will be used instead of the amount calculated by dividing the amount by 12 or 365. (Of course, if you enter a custom prorate amount based on monthly proration, and then change to daily when using the dues calculator, you may get unpredictable results.)
•Expiration Behavior
oExpire On - If you want the system to automatically change the status of the member record, select the "trigger" for the change.
▪End Date -- causes the status to change when the End Date arrives. Note that the Reset End Date membership preference controls whether the End Date is reset when the status changes.
▪Age -- causes the status to change when a person reaches a certain age. i.e., you could have a "Junior" status that automatically changes to "Adult" status when the member reaches the age of 18 .
▪Start +Days -- causes the status to change X days after the member's Start Date. i.e., you could have a "Probation" status that automatically changes to "Active" after 90 days.
Note that the appropriate data must be available for each option to work. i.e., if you choose End Date, it won't apply to records without an End Date value; if you choose Age, it won't apply to members without a full birth date; and if you choose +Days, it won't apply to members without a Start Date.
Status changes are processed when MemberTies starts.
oNext Status - the next status to set for the membership record when it expires.
oGrace Period ... Day(s) - the number of days after the trigger (Expire On) date to wait before initiating a status change. This can be used to provide members with a few weeks to "get current" with their dues before they're changed to another status. An entry of "0" (zero) or blank will cause status changes to occur immediately when the End Date passes. Note that the Reset End Date on Expire preference controls what happens to the End Date when such a status change occurs.
•Attendance Limit - the maximum number of activities a member with this status can attend. When a person is about to exceed this limitation at check-in time, the system will display a warning, at which time you may choose to allow the check-in to proceed. You can also specify a per-activity attendance limit by status. Any limit defined here will take priority over any per-activity limit. In addition, each activity has an option that controls whether limits apply to it at all. See Working with Activities for more information.
•Hide - if you do not want this status to be available for use on membership records, this will hide it. (The status will remain on any records that currently use it, but it won't be available for any other records.) This is intended as a way to "retire" an old status that is no longer needed.
* Professional Version Only