37. MEMBERSHIP SET-UP T here are two main things to do when configuring CiviMember. Configure your membership types, and (if necessary) configure your membership sign up and renewal pages which enable visitors to your website to sign up and renew their memberships online. If your memberships are paid, you'll also need to do some basic configuration of CiviContribute and set up a payment processor.
MEMBERSHIP TYPES Membership types are the various membership categories that your organization offers. You can configure an unlimited number of membership types and set various options for each of them. T o define your membership types, click on Administer > CiviMember > Membership Types > Add Membership Types. T he membership name is displayed throughout the system, on both public and backend pages, so it is worth choosing a good one (though you can always always change it later). A membership organisation is required for each organisation. T his membership that the membership type will apply to. For most organisations, this will be your organisation. If you want to model membership of multiple organisations (including branches of organisations) you can set the organisation here for each organisation that you want to model the membership of. T he minimum fee field is the place to enter your desired membership fee. Zero indicates a free membership. You can choose a contribution type that the membership fee will be recorded as. By default you should probably use 'member dues' but it might make sense for you to choose a different type. T his type can be overridden when recording a membership in the backend and for specific public membership sign up pages. Auto-renew options allow you to set a membership to automatically renew. T hese work well when combined with payment processors that support recurring donations. You can set memberships to offer or require auto-renew. You then need to implement this option on a membership sign up and renewal page (see below). There are two options for period type. Fixed means that the membership for al members starts at a specific point in the year. Rolling means that the membership will start on the date that the membership is entered into the system. For fixed period memberships you can also identify a rollover date: the point after which new memberships are entered as belonging to the next dues period. Note that you can override start and end dates when entering memberships manually via the backend. Membership can be inherited from one contact to another, which is useful in situations such as one finds in professional trade organisations, where they sign up another organisation as the member, but employees of the organisation receive the benefits of membership. Select the Relationship T ype to specify which related records should receive membership through the parent record. You can use the visibility option to make sure certain membership types are handled by an administrator manually (e.g., honorary and lifetime memberships). When you restrict their visibility, they will not be available to add to membership signup or renewal pages on your website.
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