When a member leaves your group or passes away, you naturally want to remove them from the list of active members in the database.


  • If your group is a chapter/club within a "parent" organisation which also uses HarmonySite (this includes various SAI regions, Harmony Inc areas, BHA, BHNZ, IABS, SABA, etc.), then you will see only one button: "Terminate membership". There is no "Delete member" button because the "parent" organisation also needs to keep a record of all members.

  • If the above does not apply to your group, then you will see two buttons: "Terminate membership" and "Delete member".


These buttons will be at the top of a member's profile page, like so:




The "Terminate membership" button


We recommend that you use the "Terminate membership" button. This leaves a record of the member in the system, but it marks them as inactive/former and removes their ability to log into the website, among other things. You can also use this button to remove the member's personal/contact details, for data protection reasons.


When you click the "Terminate membership" button, it will open a popup box like this:



  • If you click "Left the group", then the member's status will be changed to "Former" when you confirm the termination.
  • If you click "Passed away", then the member's status will be changed to "Deceased" when you confirm the termination.


You can click either of these links to find out what they'll do. They won't do anything immediately.


Rather, they will take you to a confirmation page, which lists all the changes that the system will make. Nothing will happen until you scroll down the page and click "Terminate membership" a second time.


Next to each action, there's a tickbox. Most of these are ticked by default. If you don't want the system to do one of these steps, then you can untick that box.



The most important actions, which will be ticked by default, are:

  • Change the membership status to "Former" or "Deceased"
  • Change all participation statuses to "Inactive"
  • Change any fee schedules to "Inactive"
  • Mark any outstanding bookings/invoices as "Cancelled"
  • Remove the member from positions
  • Remove the member from committees/teams
  • Delete the member's login (i.e. remove their access to log in to the website)
  • Remove the member's stated availability from future events
  • Subscribe the member to the "friends" mailing list


At the bottom of the page, you'll also see a section called "Privacy":

If you want, you can tick these boxes to clear the member's personal information from the database. (You may want to do this for data protection reasons.) The options are:

  • Clear personal information stored on the "Member Details" page
  • Clear personal information stored on the "Membership Details" page
  • Delete responses to Member Audits


If you're happy with all the selected actions, and you're ready to make the member inactive, then click the "Terminate membership" button at the bottom of the page.



The "Delete member" button


The other button, "Delete member", is more drastic.


It will delete all historical records of the member's existence from your site. These historical records – such as attendance records, membership invoices, records of purchases or downloads of copyrighted files, etc. – will not be accurate anymore. We don't recommend using this option.


⚠️ Deleting members is dangerous! If the member added a lot of events, songs, documents, etc., and you don't read the "Confirm Delete" page carefully, you can accidentally delete most of your website! If this happens, and you don't have our "Nightly Backup" option, then we would need to charge you to restore the data.


There are exceptions to this, of course.  If the member was added by accident, or is a "test" member, etc, then it's perfectly safe and reasonable to delete them.


ℹ️ The "Delete member" button is not available on the websites of chapters/clubs that are part of a "parent" organisation that also uses HarmonySite. This includes organisations like various SAI regions, Harmony Inc areas, BHA, BHNZ, IABS, SABA, etc. The reason is that the parent body also needs access to the details of the member you want to delete, so no one chapter/club is allowed to remove a member. Having said that, if the member was created in error, or is a test member, you can contact us at support@harmonysite.com, and we'll delete it for you.


If the above doesn't apply to your group, and you decide that you really do want to permanently delete a member from your system, then click the "Delete member" button at the top of the member's profile page. (Note that you'll need to have "Webmaster Access" to see this button. You won't see it if you only have "Data Administration Access".)


You'll be taken to another page that outlines the reasons why we don't recommend that you delete members...


If you click "Terminate membership", then it will take you to the "Terminate Membership" page, as above.


If you click "Delete member", then it will take you to the "Confirm Delete" page.


⚠️ You must read the "Confirm Delete" page carefully! Otherwise, you may accidentally delete most of your website! If this happens, and you don't have our "Nightly Backup" option, then we would need to charge you to restore the data.


The "Confirm Delete" page shows you all the "related records" linked to this member. Some of these are part of the member profile, such as memberships, participations, and logins. However, this also includes things which were simply posted on the website by this member – songs, events, documents, etc.


Some of these records should be deleted, and some of them should not be – you'll need to read each item carefully to check what it's saying.


Depending on the type of record, the system will give you some of these options to choose from:

  • Set each [item] to no longer refer to this member
  • OR: Delete each [item] as well
  • OR: Associate each [item] with a different member (choose member below)


For records like Memberships and Participations, it's fine to choose "Delete each [item] as well". This is because these records don't make sense without reference to the original member.


For Posts/Documents, you should select "Associate each post with a different member (choose member below)":


For Events, you should select "Associate each event with a different member (choose member below)":


For Logins, you should select "Delete the login as well". ⚠️ Otherwise, the member will still be able to log in!


For Songs, you should select "Associate each song with a different member (choose member below)":

For Song Files/Resources, you should select "Associate each file/resource with a different member (choose member below)". ⚠️ Otherwise, all these files will be deleted!


If you're not sure about which option to select, contact us at support@harmonysite.com and we can advise you.


At the bottom of the page, select the appropriate member from the dropdown: "If you have elected to associate any of the items above with a different member, select that member here".


Finally, click "Confirm Delete".