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Golf associations typically offer membership programs to their members. These programs are typically used in conjunction with Master Roster Registration. After players register to the Master Roster, they can also register for one or more membership programs. When becoming part of a membership program, common benefits include:
Eligibility for selected events
Discounted entry fees
Early registration
In this article, we will discuss how to set up and manage membership programs. We will also discuss how to set up the membership program benefits (listed above).
Assigning Payment Gateway for Membership Programs
When using the Membership Program feature, you will need to set up a payment gateway to collect credit card information and process payments. The first step is to connect a Stripe merchant account for this purpose. To connect and assign a payment gateway, follow these directions:
Navigate to Customer Center > Directories & Registration > Membership Programs (as shown below).
Click "Connect Stripe Account."
Follow the prompts from Stripe.
Once the process from Stripe is completed, you will be redirected back to the Membership Program page, and the Payment Gateway will be assigned (as shown below).
Creating a New Membership Program
After connecting a merchant account, you can create your new Membership Program by following these directions:
Navigate to Customer Center > Directories & Registration > Membership Programs (if not already there).
Click "New Membership Program" (as shown below).
Fill in the following information:
Name: Name of the program.
Abbreviation: Abbreviation for the program. This abbreviation will be used in areas (e.g., Master Roster) where the full program name cannot be displayed.
Join Fee: Entry fee of the program. If the program is free, enter $0.00 (which will bypass the payment page during the registration process).
Renewals: Many membership programs have a renewal process where players can renew their membership program subscription once it expires. This allows them to continue to receive the benefits of the program. The renewal fee can be the same as the original program fee or a discounted fee. Players can have their subscription automatically renewed (credit card automatically charged), or they can have reminder emails sent to renew. Click Here to view more details on renewals.
Discount: Members of this program can receive discounts for event registration. Select the default discount percentage that is typically applied. This can be changed on an event-by-event basis if needed.
Dates: Open and close dates of the program. Registration will automatically be opened and closed on these dates. You can also manually open and close the registration using the toggle on the top right of the form.
Player Eligibility: Criteria that need to be met (if any) to register for the program. More details on the player eligibility criteria can be found in the Registration Eligibility Criteria article.
Description: Description of the program. The description will be shown on the Membership Programs Portal Page. The description of the program can also include custom fields (as shown below) (Note: Custom fields will only work if the golfer is in the master roster or signed in with email and password.)
If you're using dynamic fields on a publicly available Membership Program portal page, golfers who aren't signed in will see descriptions with missing information or blank spaces. This can make the message confusing or incomplete.
To ensure everyone gets a clear picture, you can use the option to create a default message. Just check the box "Show a default description if the golfer is not signed in or not found in the Master Roster" (as shown below). This message will automatically appear for anyone not signed in when they view a membership program, ensuring the information is always complete and easy to understand.
Terms & Conditions: Fill in the terms and conditions presented to the players at the time of registration. If Terms & Conditions are not supplied, this page will be skipped during registration.
Manager Notifications: When a player registers for a program, Customer Managers can receive an email notification. Select the manager(s) who should receive these notifications.
After completing the setup for the program, click "Save." On the Membership Programs summary page, all of your programs will be listed (as shown below).
Action to take on Existing Membership Programs
When clicking the actions dropdown, you can select from the following:
Edit: These changes will immediately go into effect for any programs being offered.
Archive: Once archived, the program will no longer be listed on any portals.
Delete: Only programs without members can be deleted. Once deleted, it cannot be recovered.
Active Members: View the list of active members who are currently subscribed to the program.
Expired Subscriptions: View the list of members who have expired subscriptions to the program (if renewals are set up).
All Members: View a list of all active and expired members of the program.
Activating/Deactivating a Membership Program
When activating a membership program, you have two options:
Setting an Automatic Open/Close Date: When creating a Registration form, you have the option to set the opening and closing registration dates (as shown below). This is outlined in the previous section. Note: You can always edit the program and establish these dates at any time.
Manually Opening/Closing Program: If you did not establish an automatic opening/closing date, you can also manually open and close a program. To manually open/close a program, edit the program by clicking the action dropdown from the Membership Program page. Use the Open/Close toggle and click "Save" (as shown below).
Offering Membership Programs on your Portal
After setting up your membership programs, the next step is to make these programs available on your portal(s). You can do this by adding the Membership Programs Portal Page (as shown below) to any portal (event portal, Master Roster Registration portal, or other portals).
All of your membership programs (open or closed) will be listed on the page (as shown below).
Membership Program Registration Process
When players access the Membership Programs Portal Page, they can view the membership programs (as shown below).
If a player is logged in, they can register for one or more membership programs by clicking the "Add to Cart" button (as shown below).
If the player is not eligible for a membership program, the membership program will be listed with a gray icon, and the "Add to Cart" button will be disabled (as shown above for the "Women in Golf" program). If the player clicks on such a program, a message explaining why they are not eligible will be presented.
When the player selects "Add to Cart," the Terms & Conditions (if any) for the selected program will be presented. After the player accepts the Terms & Conditions, the membership program will be added to the cart. At this point, the player can add other programs (if desired) to the cart. When the player is ready to check out, they can click "Membership Programs Cart" to enter their billing information and pay for the program(s).
Once program registration is complete, the player and manager(s) will receive a confirmation email.
Manually Adding a Player to a Membership Program
Managers can also add players to membership programs. This is sometimes needed when players prefer to register in person or over the phone.
To do this:
Go to the Membership Programs Portal Page (logged in as Manager)
Select the player you'd like to register to membership programs in the dropdown menu.
Select the membership program(s) for the player.
Go to the player's cart and check out. Enter their credit card and billing information or skip payment (if you are handling outside payment like a check, cash, etc.).
Using the Master Roster to View Program Members
A list of members for each program can be viewed by going to Customer Center > Directories & Registration > Membership Programs. Click the actions dropdown for a program, then select to view any of the following:
Active Members: View the list of active members who are currently subscribed to the program.
Expired Subscriptions: View the list of members who have expired subscriptions to the program (if renewals are available).
All Members: View a list of all active and expired members of the program.
You will then be directed to the Master Roster, which will be automatically filtered by the program and the selected member-type. A column with the program's abbreviation will also be listed. This column displays the date that the player registered for that program.
To change the filter, click the "Include" dropdown (as shown below) and select the desired program(s) and member type. Archived membership programs will not be visible.
You can also view Membership Program information for specific players by clicking on their name in the Master Roster to view their Player Roster Profile (as shown below).
When doing so, you can:
View the Membership Programs they are participating in and change their renewal date if permitted (Registration tab).
View the player's Membership Program Activity (Activity Log tab).
View the player's Membership Program transactions (Transactions tab).
Unsubscribing a Member from a Program
You can also unsubscribe members from programs. To do this, select the player in the Master Roster to view their profile. In the "Registration" tab, remove the player from any of their programs by clicking "Unsubscribe" (as shown below) and saving the profile.
If the player also needs to be refunded, go to the Transaction History and apply the refund.
Viewing Membership Program Activity
You can also view the activity of the membership programs by going to Customer Center > Directories & Registration > Roster Activity Log > Membership Program Log. This log will show the activity of program registrations and manager actions related to the membership programs (e.g., manager removes player from program). You can also filter the activity by player.
You can also see activity for specific players by going to Customer Center > Master Roster > View Master Roster, selecting the player, then viewing the "Activity Log" tab.
If you'd like to view the full transaction history for a membership program, go to the Transaction History and select the membership program in the "Event" filter dropdown (as shown below).
Using Membership Programs as Eligibility Criteria for Events
One of the benefits of offering membership programs is the ability to use the programs as Eligibility Criteria for events. To do this:
Go to the Event and League Registration form.
Select the "Eligibility Criteria" tab.
Under "Member Eligibility," select "Golfers must be a member of selected membership programs" (as shown below).
Select the eligible programs.
To be eligible for the event, a player must be a member of at least one selected program.
When navigating a directory, players will see a list of all events (whether they are eligible or not). The "Register" button will be disabled for any events where the player is ineligible. In this case, a message explaining their ineligibility will be displayed when the player hovers on the "Register" button (as shown below).
Using Membership Programs for Discounted Entry Fees
When registering and paying for an event, players can receive a discount if they are members of a membership program.
To set up discounts for an event, go to Event > Registration Payments. Edit a current registration option or create a new registration option.
In the "Membership Program Discounts" section, you can select:
No Discount: All players pay the full entry fee.
Default Discount: Members of the selected membership programs will pay a discounted entry fee (using the default discount for each program). Members of unselected programs will pay the full entry fee.
Custom Fee: Disregard the default discount(s) and enter the discounted entry fee for each membership program.
In cases where a player is a member of multiple programs, they will receive the best discount available.
When a player registers for an event, the discounted entry fee (if applicable) will be shown, along with a message (as shown below) indicating the full entry fee that would otherwise be applicable.
If there are membership programs available that offer better discounts, then a link to register for those programs will be available. In the example above, the player is receiving a discount because they are a member of a membership program. However, they can join the "Gold Membership" program to receive a better discount.
Using Membership Programs to Allow Early Registration
A common benefit of being part of a membership program is the ability to register for popular events before the general registrant population (or lower-level membership programs). To set this up for an event, follow these instructions:
Go to Event > Registration Center > Registration Dates.
Select the membership program and the opening date for players part of that membership program.
Click "Add opening date" to set early registration for any other membership programs (if applicable).
Select the opening date for all other players (not part of the membership programs selected in the previous steps).
Select the close date for all registrants.
Click "Save."
The registration dates will then be set. In the example below, early registration opens for players part of the "Preferred" membership program on February 19th. Early registration opens for players part of the "Standard" membership program on February 26th (a week later). All other eligible players not part of the "Preferred" or "Standard" membership programs will not be able to register until March 4th. On March 17th, registration closes for all players (regardless of membership program).
When viewing the Customer Center, you can filter by events where registration is open for any membership program (as shown below).
When hovering over the blue "Membership Programs" icon, you can see what membership program is currently eligible to register. In the example above, the "Preferred" membership program is currently eligible to register for the 2020 Spring Open.
When players view a directory, they will see the opening dates for the membership programs and the general registrants (as shown below).
If an ineligible player attempts to register for an event that is currently only open to specific membership programs, they will be presented with a message explaining why they cannot register (as shown below).
