Membership Status
Active - a current membership where the start date has passed but the end date is in the future
Lapsed - a membership where the end date has passed
Cancelled is for a membership which is terminated before the natural end. Lapsed is for a membership which has completed, where the end date is in the past.
Future is for a membership which has not yet started, where the start date is in the future.
Incomplete - a partially completed record with key information missing
Pending - a membership record where a member has not fully completed the sign up process (usually due to a missing payment).
We re-use the same terminology for a person (member). We look across all membership records to determine the status of a member (some organisation allow concurrent memberships).
Member Status
Active - a current membership exists
Cancelled - the member has cancelled prematurely
Lapsed - (ex-member) the person didn't renew their membership when it lapsed
Future - isn't currently a member but will be when the start date of their membership passes
Pending - a member who has not been activated
Membership Contacts
Admin Contact - The contact person or organisation who manages the membership. (If different to the main member).
Billing Contact - The contact person or organisation who pays for the membership.
Dates:
Member joining dates:
member_original_join_date"Member since (original join date)" use to capture historic joining date
member_since"Member since (continuous)" calculated field giving the start date for continuous membership. (a break in membership longer than the grace period will cause this to reset)first_membership_date"Member since (first ever)" calculated field giving the start date of the first recorded membership
Sheep keeps a record of each membership period. Some client want to import the full membership record but for many the effort of collating the data out weighs the value. For those not importing a full history use the member_original_join_date on the contact.
last_membership_created"Membership (latest) created" this date represents the most recently created membership record for a contact. If you allow multiple concurrent memberships then be careful reporting with this field - you won't know which membership it is referring to.fixed_end_dateA plan with a fixed end date will set that end date on all new memberships. Use this on membership plans where you have a calendar or seasonal membership plan. The fixed end date will not carry over when the membership is renewed so year 1 annual membership will end on 31st December 2018 whenever it is purchased but when renewed it will revert to a standard 12 month membership. You need to decide when to stop offering new membership for one year and begin offering the next year.first_available_datecontrols the earliest start date for a membership. Memberships registered through the app before that date will get that date as the start, membership registered after that date will get todays date.
Member Tags
Sheep will add automatic tags to contacts to help with reporting.
🐑 auto-renew
🐑 auto-renew no-mandate
🐑 member
🐑 linked-member
🐑 multi-linked member (have more than 1 active linked membership)
🐑 multi-member (have more than 1 active membership)
🐑 qualifying member (active or lapsed and within grace period)
"Last" membership fields
⚠️ If you allow multiple concurrent memberships then be careful reporting with this field - you won't know which membership it is referring to.
last_membership_admin_contact - URI of admin contact
last_membership_admin_contact_name - Name of contact
last_membership_created
last_membership_end_date
last_membership_member - URI of member (may be a membership linked through admin or link)
last_membership_number
last_membership_start_date
last_membership_type - URI of membership type
last_membership_type_display - name of membership type
last_membership_updated
last_membership_uri - URI of membership
Active membership fields
Any active membership fields should only considered when looking at contacts with an active membership.