Roles

Roles control who can access what — both in the Club Management Portal and on your public website. Every member has at least one role, and most clubs use a combination of built-in system roles and custom roles they create for their own needs.

Where to find Roles

Roles is listed under Club Management in the Club Management Portal. Only Administrators can view, create, or manage roles. If you don't see it in the menu, your account doesn't have the right permissions.

System roles

Clubistry includes a set of built-in system roles that handle the most common access needs. These are marked with [System] in the role title and cannot be edited or deleted.

The system also includes a Super Admin role, which has full access to everything including system-level tools. Super Admin is not a role that club administrators can grant — it is assigned by Clubistry staff only. Clubistry may add a staff member with Super Admin access to your site when needed to troubleshoot an issue or manage platform-level features. Super Admin is hidden from the normal role list, but in the Members list, Super Admins are identified by an asterisk next to their name.

Custom roles

Custom roles are the ones your club creates. The most common custom roles are the ones tied to your Membership Types — for example, an "Associate" role for Associate members or a "Voting" role for Voting members. Beyond membership types, custom roles are also useful for committees, volunteer groups, instructor teams, special-access groups, or any time a defined set of members should share access to specific pages or documents.

Creating a custom role

1. Go to Roles in the Club Management Portal.
2. Click Create.
3. Enter a Title that your team will recognize at a glance.
4. Save.

Clubistry generates the internal name automatically from the title. You can optionally add a Description to help future admins understand what the role is for.

Editing or deleting a custom role

Only custom roles can be edited or deleted — system roles are locked. Before deleting a role, click the Detail [] button on the role row to open its detail view and check the Assigned Members list. If the role is connected to an application form, deleting it will disconnect the form and make it inactive.

Membership types and roles

Each Membership Type is linked to a custom role. This is how Clubistry knows what pages and documents a member of that type should be able to see.

Multiple Membership Types can share the same role when they should have the same access. For example:

In this setup, both Associate and Family Associate members see the same content, while Voting and Family Voting members share a different set of access. Plan your roles around what people need to see, not how they're billed.

Assigning roles to members

Roles are assigned from the member record, not from the Roles page:

1. Open Members and find the member you want to update.
2. Click the member row to open their detail view, then click Edit [].
3. Look for the Roles Selector panel.
4. Choose the roles this member should have.
5. Save.

The Roles Selector panel is only visible to users who can manage roles.

One important exception: the Board role is managed through Board Positions, not assigned directly. When you assign a member to a board position, Clubistry automatically adds the Board role. When their last board position is removed, the Board role is removed too.

How roles affect page and document access

Pages and documents use roles to control who can view protected content. In the Club Management Portal, you'll see color-coded indicators that show each item's access level at a glance:

• Gray — public (anyone can view)
• Green — member access (any logged-in member)
• Orange — specific roles (only members with certain roles)
• Red — restricted (admin or task-role access only)

Keep in mind that a role can grant Portal responsibilities without automatically making every website page visible. For example, a Content Manager can edit pages in the Portal but can still be locked out of an orange-level "Board Only" page on the website.

Roles and lapsed members

A member keeps their roles on record even if their membership lapses. Whether they can still view protected content depends on the page and document permissions and any lapsed-member restrictions your club has configured. Be aware that setting an admin or task-role member to Lapsed can remove their access to the Club Management Portal entirely.

Tips

• Use clear, recognizable titles. Your volunteers should understand what a role means without explanation.
• Reuse an existing role when two groups need the same access — don't create duplicates.
• Check the assigned-member list before deleting any role.
• After creating a new role, go set up the page and document permissions that use it.

Related topics

• Members - Assign roles on member records.
• Membership Types - Connect membership types to roles.
• Pages - Set page permissions using roles.
• Document Library - Control document access with role-based permissions.
• Permissions and Access Control - Understand how access rules work across the site.
• Board Positions - Manage the Board role through position assignments.
• Lapsed Members - Understand how lapsed status interacts with roles and access.