With Member Groupings, you can automatically select people according to certain criteria. For example:
All active full members of the club/chapter
All active singers within the ensemble (note that is subtly different from the previous grouping)
All prospective members
All the tenors
All former members
All people who help out but are not actually members
All spouses and partners
It's important to note that Member Groupings are automatic. You don't add members to groupings one by one. Rather, HarmonySite will automatically select all the relevant people that match the criteria you specify in the grouping definition.
This means that when new people join your group, or somebody changes from Bass to Tenor (for example), the Member Groupings will update by themselves.
A word of advice: Beware of ticking too many boxes! If you're too specific, you might accidentally exclude people.
The following Member Grouping administration topics are detailed here:
- The Member Groupings page
- Adding a Member Grouping
- Updating and Deleting Member Groupings
- Configuring Member Groupings
The Member Groupings page
All your HarmonySite member groupings can be viewed on, and administered from, the Member Groupings page. To access this page, proceed as follows..
- Log into your website as an administrator
- Click on the Admin link at the top-right corner of the page to take you to the Admin Dashboard.
- Scroll down to the Members section, and click on the View Member Groupings link to the right of this in the Admin Pages column. This displays the Member Grouping page, the main body of which is shown below..
The columns in this table are as follows:
Member Grouping name - The names of your member groupings. The groupings displayed as a dark-grey button are the groupings that appear as tabs on the Member List page.
Used for - this column shows where, if anywhere, this member grouping is used to define a subset of members in the system. For example, in the screenshot above we can see that the Active Singers member grouping is used to specify the following subsets of members: Members that can be assessed on songs, Members that we track attendance for. Changing which member grouping is used for each subset is done on the Website Setup and Configuration page (the section below called Configuring Member Groupings describes how to do this). Additionally, this Used for column specifies a link to any mailing list(s) that are based on each member grouping. If there is none, the Create mailing list link is displayed to allow you to create one.
Shown on List page - a check in this column means that the member grouping is displayed as a tab on the Member List page.
Members - shows the number of members in this member grouping, and gives the opportunity to list those members by clicking on the [List] link. The list of members is displayed on the Member List page.
The final column on the right provides options allowing you to update the details of each member grouping, or delete them.
Adding a Member Grouping
A member grouping is a named set of criteria for selecting members from the member database. Any time you want a new member grouping, you need to specify these criteria and enter a name for them. To do so, click on the Add new grouping button at the top-right of the Member Grouping page (circled below)..
This displays a Member grouping Details page. To create a new member grouping, proceed as follows:
- Enter a name for your new member grouping in the Name field shown in the image below...
- Under the Name box is the Display ranking field. Entering a number in this box determines whether this member grouping appears as a tab on the Member List page, and if it does, what order/sequence it appears there. The grouping with the lowest number appears first on that page. Leaving this field blank means that this member grouping will not appear on the Member List page.
- The next section allows for the specification of Member Details criteria.
You can specify State or Postcode criteria for your member grouping. If these criteria are not relevant to the specification of your member grouping, then you simply leave them as Not specified, as shown in the image above. - The next section, Membership Details, allows for the specification of membership criteria. The default member groupings called Regular Members and Members and Helpers are examples of groupings that make use of membership criteria (and not participation criteria). By default, the Membership Details section appears like this...
If the definition of the subset of members you want includes membership criteria, select your club/chapter from the drop-down list. This is optional. If the subset of members you want is solely based on participation criteria such as section/voice part, then you can leave this as "Not specified".
To specify membership criteria, select your club/chapter from the drop-down list. When you do this, a list of membership criteria is displayed, as shown below...
You can now specify criteria based on membership Type/Role, Level, Status, Dues Payable, Dues Schedule, Happy to be on Mailing lists?, membership Expired?, and a number of different Date range criteria. - The next section, Ensemble Details, allows for the specification of criteria based on each member's participation in an ensemble. The default member grouping called Active Singers is an example of a grouping that make use of participation criteria (as opposed to membership criteria). By default, the Ensemble Details section appears like this...
If the definition of the subset of members you want includes ensemble participation criteria, select the relevant ensemble from the drop-down list. This is optional. If the subset of members you want is solely based on membership criteria, then you can leave this as "Not specified".
To specify ensemble criteria, select the relevant ensemble from the drop-down list. When you do this, a list of ensemble participation criteria is displayed, as shown below...
You can specify ensemble criteria based on the member's ensemble Status and Section, whether he/she Has a special role?, and whether he/she is on the Front row?. - Once you have specified all the necessary criteria for your member grouping, click Save at the bottom of the page.
Important Notes about Selecting Criteria
- Ticking all boxes for a criterion is the same as ticking none. For example, the following two examples of criteria are functionally identical...
...is the same as...
That may seem counter-intuitive, or even wrong. But it works like this: The first example means "When selecting members, the Section field is not important". The second example means "When selecting members, match members in the Lead, Bass, Baritone or Tenor sections (i.e. in any of the four Sections)". - Ticking n/a may not do what you think it does. For example, the following criteria...
...does not select members with any Level. It does not mean, "When selecting members, Level is irrelevant/not applicable" (or in other words, match members with any Level). Instead, it means "select members that specifically have n/a ticked in their Level field".
Updating and Deleting Member Groupings
Member groupings can be updated or deleted from the Member groupings page, using the icons in the right-hand column (circled below)...
Clicking on a grouping's "Update" icon will allow you to modify or update the member grouping details, in described above in the section called Adding a Member Grouping.
Clicking on a grouping's "Delete" icon will allow you to delete a member grouping entirely from the system.
Important: Ensure that there are no mailing lists associated with the member grouping before you delete it. If there is one, visit the Mailing Lists page and delete it first. Also ensure that there is nothing for that member grouping in the Used for column. If there is, visit the Website Setup and Configuration page, and wherever this member grouping is selected in one of the drop-down lists, select some other member grouping. The section below called Configuring Member Groupings describes how to do this.
Configuring Member Groupings
As a HarmonySite administrator, you can configure which member grouping is to be used for specific areas of the site. For example, you can specify which subset (member grouping) of members can be assessed on songs, or which members to track attendance for. This is done as follows:
- Logged in as a webmaster, click on the "cog" icon in the top-right corner of your page
- On the Website Setup and Configuration page, click the cog next to HarmonySite
- Click the Configuration tab
- Scroll down to the Member Groupings section...
The left side shows the areas of HarmonySite where a member grouping is required, while the right side shows the member grouping currently used for that area. The member grouping for an area can be changed simply by selecting the name of a different member grouping from the drop-down list. - Click Save at the bottom of the page.