Several sample statuses are loaded in MemberTies. You can keep these statuses, modify them, or delete them entirely and add your own. See Statuses for more information.
The following explains the intended use for each of the default statuses,
•Alumni - an inactive regular member whose normal term of membership ended. This is essentially an entry in the membership archives. This is a member we want to keep track of, but is someone who no longer attends events regularly. The alumni status would not be set up to expire or pay dues, and is marked as Inactive.
•Couple - one of a pair of active members. The couple status is setup to require an association to at least one other member or group record.
Note: Each record in a relationship is controlled by its own End Date. If a record with one date is related to another record with a different End Date, they will expire and change statuses (if appropriate) as their individual dates arrive, not together.
•Distinguished - an active member whose dues are paid for life by the organization.
•Dropped - members who have reached their End Date, but are not to be deleted from the database. Prospect, Newsletter, and Social members would typically be set to change to Dropped members when their End Date is reached.
•Honorary - a person affiliated with the group, but who does not pay dues and cannot vote. They are still considered active members in every other way.
•On Leave - a member whose membership is "on hold". We don't want to make them Alumni, or Dropped, because we expect them to return, but they aren't really active right now.
•Prospect - a new potential member. If they do not choose to join, typically they would be set up to change to Dropped a short while after the End Date passes.
•Newsletter - a non-member newsletter subscriber. If they do not choose to join, typically they would be set up to change to Dropped a short while after the End Date passes.
•Regular - a normal active member. If a Regular member does not renew their membership, they would typically be set up to change to Alumni after 90 days.
•(Delete) - a system-defined status that cannot be changed or removed. Any membership record set to (Delete) will be automatically deleted by the system. You can set statuses to expire and change to this status if you want to purge them automatically. Note that certain Log Off preferences affect the process of automatic deletion of these records.
Note: As mentioned above, many active membership status types would typically be set up with Expiration Behavior such that when the End Date is reached, possibly including a grace period, the status changes to Alumni or another inactive status. None of the sample statuses are set up this way to avoid unpleasant surprises for users who are unaware of how statuses can behave. If you want to add Expiration Behavior, simply modify the settings of a status. See Statuses for details.