New Registrant Settings

This is the first tab on the Manage Member Registration and Renewal Settings page.  These settings affect what happens by default when a new member registers on your web site, or is added to your database online by an administrator.  You can choose whether new members are automatically activated, how you are notified of new members that join, and whether the system automatically assigns ID numbers to new members that join online.

Each field that displays under this tab is explained below.

• When a new member registers, would you like their status to be active or inactive by default?: Most associations choose Inactive for this setting, so when a new member registers, they will be inactive (and thus unable to access Members Only areas) until you activate them.  If you prefer to have all new members be immediately active, choose Active here.
  
  If you use automatic credit card processing, you can set up your Online Payment options so that member paying by credit card are automatically activated.  In that case, you should probably choose Inactive for this setting.  That way, only members who have definitely paid are immediately activated; all others need to be reviewed by you first.  See Payment authorization for more information.

• When new members register, would you like a flat file of all members created or to receive an email? There are four options here.

• Neither: You will receive no notification of any kind when a new member registers.  Very few groups choose this option.

• Email: The most common option.  The Register Contact (see Setting up recipients of system notification emails) will receive an email each time someone registers.  This email links to a page where you can process your new members (see Processing new member applications as an admin user).

• Flat File: You will not receive an email when someone registers.  Instead, our system will create downloadable files of your new members by member type.  You can return to this page to download the files.  In other words, each new member is saved both to your member database and to a separate file.
  
  This option is used mainly by associations that want to keep an offline database up to date, since you can download the flat files and upload them into your offline database, clearing the flat files each time.

• Both: You will receive an email, and the system will generate flat files as well.

• When new members register, would you like to automatically populate their Association Member ID with an incrementing numeric value? Each member needs a unique Association Member ID.  If you want our system to automatically assign an ID to each new member that registers, choose "Yes" here.
  
  NOTE: If possible, we highly recommend you choose "Yes" here.  The only groups that should choose "No" are groups that use some non-sequential ID numbering scheme (for example, social security numbers or a prefix of one or more letters).  If you choose "No," you are responsible for assigning a number to each new member manually.

•  What do you want the next numeric start value for your auto-populating Association Member ID to be? If you chose "Yes" above, you need to fill in this field with a number.  The next new member will get this number, and then it will increment by one for each new member thereafter.
  
  NOTE: If you do an upload, you may need to adjust this number to ensure that you don't assign duplicate ID numbers.  When in doubt, make the number large enough to ensure no duplication.  ID numbers don't have to be sequential – just unique.

• Upon saving this page, do you want to auto-populate all nn records currently in your on-line database without an Association Member ID with this auto-populating number? If you chose "Yes" above to have the system auto-assign ID numbers, you'll see this option.  The nn will be replaced by the current number of records in your database that have a blank Member ID.  If this number is greater than 0, read on.
  
  If you choose "Yes" for this option, and then save your settings by clicking Submit at the bottom, the system will immediately assign ID numbers sequentially to all the online records that don't have one, beginning with the number you entered in the field above.  That way, all your records will be guaranteed to have an ID number, so that you'll be able to do uploads in the future without creating duplicate records.  From this point forward, all new records will get an ID number as well, greatly increasing the ease with which you can do future uploads.

The next tab on this page is Membership Renewal Settings.