Applications

Use Applications to set up membership application forms, review submitted applications, and move approved applicants into member accounts. The most important thing to remember is that application form setup happens in the Club Management Portal, but application review and approval happen on the website.

Who can use this area?

This area is usually managed by Administrators and Application Managers.
Some clubs let more than one person review applications, while only a smaller group changes the form itself.
If you do not see one of these pages, your club may have limited access to it.

Understand the two parts of the applications workflow

Application Forms in the Club Management Portal

Use Application Forms when you need to:

create or edit the form an applicant fills out
connect the form to a specific Membership Type
add instructions, questions, and Member Custom Fields
choose whether that form is currently Active
arrange the order in which forms appear to applicants

Application review on the website

Use the website Applications page when you need to:

review submitted applications
move an application to In Review
approve, dismiss, or decline an application
add internal notes
upload or remove supporting documents
enter an offline application from a paper or PDF form

Setting up an Application Form

Open Application Forms in the Club Management Portal.
Click Create.
Enter the form Name.
Choose the Membership type this form belongs to.
Add any introduction text you want applicants to read before the form fields.
Use Add New Question to add custom questions, text blocks, or Member Custom Fields.
Turn on Active when the form is ready to appear on the application page.
Save the form.

Create a separate application form for each membership type you offer.
Only one active application form can be used for a membership type at a time.
Application forms can be reordered from the list page.

What every application form already includes

Every application form already includes these fields:

Email
First Name
Last Name
Phone
Country
Address
Address 2
City
State
Postal Code
Opt-In for Electronic Communications
Signature

These fields are built in, so you do not need to add them yourself.

Adding questions to an Application Form

You can add these question types with Add New Question:

Text, Single Line for short answers
Text, Multiple Lines for longer answers
Dropdown with single choice when applicants should pick one option
Checkboxes with multiple choices when applicants may pick more than one option
Checkbox, Yes or No for a single required or optional acknowledgement
Date for date-based answers
Number for numeric answers
Text Content (not a question field) for instructions or section headings inside the form
Member Custom Field when the answer should become part of the member record after approval

A Member Custom Field can only be added once to the same application form. If a field should carry into the member record after approval, this is usually the best option.

Reviewing submitted applications

Submitted applications are reviewed on the website, not from the Club Management Portal.

Open the website Applications page.
Use the status filter buttons to narrow the list.
Click View beside an application.
Review the application details, answers, notes, and documents.
Use the application buttons on the detail page to move the application forward.

Statuses you may see

Valid means the application was submitted and is ready for review.
Invalid means the application has a problem that needs correction before it can move forward.
In Review means the application has been locked for committee or board review. The applicant can no longer edit it.
Preapproved means the club has decided to approve the application, but the applicant still needs to verify their email address before the member account is created.
Approved means the member account has been created or updated and the application is complete.
Dismissed means the application was closed before approval, often because it was incomplete, spam, or otherwise not moving forward.
Declined means the application was reviewed and not accepted.

What the review buttons do

In Review locks the application so the applicant cannot make more changes.
Approved creates or updates the member account if the email address is already verified.
Approved changes the application to Preapproved if the email address is not yet verified.
Dismissed closes an application before approval.
Declined closes an application after review when the applicant is not accepted.
These decision buttons should be treated as final.

Email verification and applicant editing

New applicants usually need to verify their email address.
If an application is approved before the email is verified, Clubistry marks it Preapproved and waits for verification.
When the applicant verifies the email address, Clubistry automatically finishes the approval and creates or updates the member account.
Applicants can edit their own application only through a unique edit link.
That edit access is time-limited, and moving an application to In Review stops further applicant edits.

Notes and documents

Notes are for internal use only and are not visible to the applicant.
Documents are also for internal use only and can include files such as JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and PDF.
On the application detail page, authorized reviewers can upload supporting documents or delete documents that should be removed.
Offline applications may include attached files with more complete information than the typed answers on screen.

Adding an offline application

Use Add Offline Application when someone completed a paper form, PDF, or another offline process and you want that record inside Clubistry for review.

Open the website Applications page.
In the Add Offline Application area, choose the correct application form.
Click Add Application.
Enter the applicant's member-data fields such as name, email, address, and phone.
Complete any Member Custom Fields that matter for the member record.
Upload documents if you want to attach a scanned form or supporting files.
Use the optional application-content section only when you want to type in answers from the original form.
Submit the application.

Offline applications are helpful because they let your club review paper and online applications in one place.

Using Applications in the Club Management Portal

The Applications resource in the Club Management Portal is mainly for review, spam cleanup, and limited corrections. It is not the main place where approval decisions happen.

What you can edit there

You can edit only a small set of fields:

First Name
Last Name
Email
Phone
Admin Notes

Other application details such as answers, signature, status messages, spam status, and system notes are read-only there.

Where to find application actions there

Resend Email Verification and Manually Verify Email appear as inline actions on the Applications list.
Delete All Spam Applications is a page-level action on the Applications list and does not require selecting rows first.
The Spam filter lets you switch between Show Non-Spam, Show Spam, and Show All.
The Applications list does not use bulk selection checkboxes.

Changes to name, email, and phone from this page are logged so your club has a record of those corrections.