New Club Setup

Use this page as a practical checklist after your club's tenant site already exists.

Important context:

this repo is the tenant/club site codebase
club creation, subscription management, and some account-level setup flows live outside this repo in the separate landlord system
because of that, exact first-login, provisioning, or account-management screens may vary from club to club

A practical starting order

For most clubs, this is a sensible setup sequence:

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.

Common first steps:

fill in core club information in 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.

Common setup work includes:

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

This work often takes time, and it is 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.

Helpful examples:

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.

Those settings affect things like:

how memberships are labeled
renewal timing
dues amounts
grace periods
membership-specific roles
renewal reminder timing and related renewal 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.

Typical setup work includes:

creating or reviewing the application form and workflow
deciding who reviews applicant submissions
confirming what happens after approval
setting 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 first 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.

Helpful detail:

the import stops at 40 members if the subscription has not been upgraded first
completing the upgrade before import helps avoid a partial import and cleanup work later

7. Import member accounts near the end of setup

Once your main site setup is largely complete, you can 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.

Typical setup work includes:

importing or creating member accounts
checking membership-type assignments
reviewing communication and privacy settings while testing
confirming the right staff have member-management permissions

Helpful detail:

clubs usually handle member-account management through admins and member-management staff in the portal

8. Set up board positions and assignments

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

Typical setup work includes:

creating or reviewing the list of board positions your club uses
adding board-position details such as labels, ordering, and optional contact information
assigning 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.

Good checks include:

public navigation and page content
member login
/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 tenant 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.

Helpful detail:

custom-domain and account-level provisioning workflows are handled outside this tenant-site repo, so use the current account-management or support instructions provided to your club rather than relying on older screenshots