New Club Setup

Use this page as a practical checklist after your club's site has been created. It walks you through the major setup steps in an order that avoids backtracking and gets your site launch-ready.

Important context:

This checklist covers the tenant/club site — the website your members and visitors will use.
Club creation, subscription management, and some account-level setup happen in the separate landlord system, so exact first-login and provisioning screens may vary.

A practical starting order

For most clubs, this setup sequence works well:

Review Site Settings and branding.
Build your website content, including Pages and other content areas such as documents, news, and events.
Complete Stripe setup at any point before you enable paid workflows.
Create or confirm Membership Types, including renewal timing and renewal messaging.
Build Applications and set up any payment steps used in the application process.
Upgrade your Clubistry subscription before importing members if your club has more than 40 members.
Import Members once the rest of the setup is close to ready.
Set up Board Positions and assign members after the member import is complete.
Test the public site, member experience, and any payment or application flows.
Complete the domain switch or go-live step when the site is ready.

1. Configure your site basics

Start with the settings that shape your club's visible identity.

Fill in core club information in General Site Settings
Review your theme and fonts
Upload logos, header images, or other branding assets as needed

2. Build your pages and other content

After the basic site settings are in place, spend time building the actual website content your club needs before launch.

Review Pages and navigation
Update home-page content and other key public pages
Add documents, news, events, and other content your club wants available at launch
Review the seeded member-area pages and the signed-in experience

This work often takes time, and it's one reason many clubs wait to import members until the rest of the site is close to launch-ready.

3. Complete Stripe setup before paid workflows go live

You can connect Stripe at different points during setup, but it must be finished before any workflow that accepts online payments can be used.

E-commerce cannot accept payments until Stripe is connected
Forms with payments cannot be completed until Stripe is connected
Application payment steps cannot be used until Stripe is connected

4. Set up membership structure

Before importing or creating many member accounts, review Membership Types. These settings affect how memberships are labeled, renewal timing, dues amounts, grace periods, membership-specific roles, and renewal reminder timing and messaging.

This is one of the most important early setup areas because it affects both member management and renewals.

5. Build applications and related payment steps

If your club accepts online applicants, set up Applications before importing members.

Create or review the application form and workflow
Decide who reviews applicant submissions
Confirm what happens after approval
Set up any required payment step for the application process

If the application process includes payment, make sure Stripe is already connected before launch testing.

6. Upgrade your subscription if you have more than 40 members

If your club has more than 40 members, upgrade your Clubistry subscription before you run the member import. The import stops at 40 members if the subscription hasn't been upgraded, and finishing the upgrade beforehand avoids a partial import and cleanup work later.

7. Import member accounts near the end of setup

Once your main site setup is largely complete, begin working in Members. For many clubs, member import is one of the last major steps because gathering site content, application setup, and other launch details can take time. Waiting helps reduce the chance that imported member information is out of date by the time the site launches.

Import or create member accounts
Check membership type assignments
Review communication and privacy settings while testing
Confirm the right staff have member-management permissions

8. Set up board positions and assignments

You can define Board Positions earlier in setup, but you can't fully assign people to those positions until the related member accounts exist.

Create or review the list of board positions your club uses
Add board-position details such as labels, ordering, and optional contact information
Assign members to positions after the member import is complete

9. Test before sharing widely

Before announcing the site broadly, test the main journeys you expect members to use:

Public navigation and page content
Member login
Member Dashboard, Member Profile, and Roster
Any application forms your club uses
Any online payment flow your club enables
Any board or member-directory pages you expect members or visitors to use

10. Switch domains or take the site live

Your club may use a Clubistry-hosted domain while building the site, and some clubs later move to a custom domain. Treat the domain switch or go-live step as one of the last parts of launch, after content, setup, imports, and testing are complete.

Custom-domain and account-level provisioning workflows are handled outside this tenant-site system, so follow the current account-management or support instructions provided to your club.