Introduction
A common enrollment workflow is to have prospective users fill out a membership application to be reviewed for eligibility by admins. This works well when programs have open enrollment across a broad population and admins must ascertain whether applicants fit the criteria for the program. It also works well to limit the number of users in a given program by screening applicants to ensure that there are enough mentors for mentees, or vice versa, that match the needs of the individuals.
Why it matters: The membership application functionality greatly simplifies the process for admins enabling you to easily filter and manage your program population in advance, to be sure you have the right users for the best possible mentorship matches.
To use the membership application process, admins must select 'Apply to join' and 'Administrator approval required' for at least one role. Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Membership Settings
End User Application Workflow
Prospective user clicks 'Join Now' on the program overview page
Prospect is asked to enter email and captcha
Prospect receives individualized link via email (Email sent: "Complete Sign-up New Member Notification") Note: in this email, the URL will be populated by the tag ##{{url_signup}}
Prospect clicks link, fills out membership request form & creates password
Prospect receives confirmation email that application has been received (Email sent: "Membership request received Notification")
The membership request now has a 'Pending' status until the Admin approves or rejects it. Some admins wait until their enrollment period is complete to review and decide upon the applicants.
If accepted, user account is created. User receives email with link to fill out remainder of profile, if any. (Email sent: "Membership Request Accepted Notification") Note: in this email, the URL should be populated again by the tag ##{{url_signup}} which in this case will lead to a login page and then redirect to the profile.
If rejected, the user receives an email (this can be edited by the admin if desired, prior to processing rejections): "Your membership request has been declined" with a gentle message about the program participant limits.
Navigation: Manage > Program Configuration > System Emails
The Membership Requests tool shows all pending, approved, and rejected applications to your track while also keeping track of the total number of membership requests received. From here, you can either approve, reject, or ignore an incoming membership request.
You can also review information that users were requested to fill out during the application process can be accessed by clicking the Show more link beneath the Sent date to help you decide whether or not the individual should be accepted with the role they applied for.
You can also segment requests using the Views or filter feature and export application reports for selected users as needed.
Reviewing Membership Requests
By default, you will land on the Pending tab of the Membership Requests tool when accessing it. The most recently submitted application will appear at the top of the list, followed by second most recently submitted request and so on. This can be changed by clicking the Recent first dropdown on the right side of the screen and selecting one of the other options (Oldest first, Last Name (A-Z), Last Name (Z-A)).
Each entry on this page shows you the applicant's name, which role they requested to join as, and the date and time the request was submitted by the applicant. When you created your program's profile in the Profile tool, you designated which profile fields should be part of this membership form—to review an applicant's responses, click the Show more link just beneath Sent:
You can use this information provided by the applicant to determine whether or not they should be approved to join your program. To hide the responses again, click Show less. Only mandatory profile fields marked are required in order for the application to be submitted.
Taking Action on Requests
After determining whether or not an applicant should be accepted, you have two ways to take action on the membership request.
If you are just reviewing a couple of applications, your easiest course of action would be to click the Accept button to the right of the application, or the drop-down arrow to the right of the Accept button to take an action other than accepting the application. All courses of action from these two buttons are defined below:
Accept: Approves the request and adds the applicant to your track with the role(s) they applied for. Unless disabled, the applicant will be sent a system email informing them of their acceptance once you take this action. This also moves the application from the Pending tab to the Accepted tab.
Edit Request: Edits the data entered by the applicant. You may wish to use this feature if an applicant reaches out to you informing you of a mistake they made during their application process.
Send Message: Sends the applicant a message through the system, which is sent to them as an email. The applicant can reply via email to answer your inquiry.
View Sent Messages: Reviews correspondence between track administrators and the applicant. Note that received messages from applicants will also be sent to the Administrator Inbox.
Reject: Rejects the application, moving it from the Pending tab to the Rejected tab. Clicking Reject also opens a dialog box where you can include a custom message to the applicant; this message will be delivered as part of a system email (unless the system email is disabled). This process also requires the admin to add a reason to the email that will go to the participant.
Ignore: Ignores the application, removing it from the system entirely and not informing the applicant in any way. You may wish to use this feature if an applicant applied under an incorrect email address, applied for the wrong role, or if they need to fill out the application again for some other reason. Ignored applications cannot be retrieved or reviewed, so use this feature with caution.
If you are reviewing multiple applications, you can take bulk actions on selected requests at once by ticking the checkbox next to the applicant's name and clicking the 'Actions' button just beneath the Pending tab. Alternatively, you can select all requests on a page at once by ticking the checkbox just beneath the Actions button itself, next to the number of applications shown on the page:
After selecting the applications you want to take a bulk action on, click the Actions button and select the appropriate option. The bulk actions available are the same as the actions you can take on an individual request with the following exceptions:
Send Message: Sends the applicants a message through the system, which is sent to them as an email. Each applicant is sent an individual message; they cannot see the names of the other applicants that this message is sent to. Applicants can reply via email to answer your inquiry. To access their messages, you can either use the drop-down to the right of the 'Accept' button to review correspondence, or review individual correspondence through the Administrator Inbox tool.
Export as PDF: Exports the applicants' membership request forms as a PDF. The system will send you an email with the PDF after it has been generated. This report is most commonly used when applicants are being reviewed by a committee or require approval from a department head.
Export as CSV: Exports the applicants' membership request forms as a CSV. The system will send you an email with the CSV after it has been generated. This report is most commonly used for importing or viewing in other software.
Views, Filtering, and Reporting
The Membership Requests tool also comes with robust data filtering capabilities. Starting from top left to right in the image above, you can:
Create and utilize Filter Views (similar to User Views) so that only applicants meeting specific criteria are displayed in the tool
Filter by a set of date ranges
Filter temporarily by roles and application responses
Export content as a PDF or CSV
View Pending, Accepted, and Rejected applications
Switch between Grid View (default display; displays content as shown in previous screenshots) and List View (displays content in columns and rows)
Views
By clicking the down arrow shown in the screenshot above, you can access a list of Filter Views available in your track. By default, you will only have Pending Membership Applications as a view, but you can create a new one by clicking + Create a new view.
After clicking + Create a new view, you will see the box above. Select the roles you wish to filter by, then select the membership form fields you wish to include in the user view. You can click the + Add button to add additional membership request fields to the criteria.
Once you have selected the criteria for your Filter View, click Next to name it; type the name, then click Save to save the view and access applications that meet the criteria you specified.
To switch between Filter Views, click the down arrow near the title of the Filter View and select the one you wish to use.
FAQs
If I reject an applicant, what happens?
Clicking 'Reject' opens a dialog box and requires you to add a message, 'Please specify a reason for rejecting the request'. This reason WILL be included in the system email that goes to the rejectded applicant (unless the system email is disabled).
What if my users are dormant?
If you have an SFTP feed set up and your users are already dormant, they can still follow the workflow described above.
What about the "Welcome" email?
A "Welcome" email is not sent as part of this workflow. In all other enrollment workflows, a "welcome" email is sent after the user sets their password.
What if the user is joining from another track/program?
If the user is not completely new -- meaning, they are already an active member in another program track or applying for a another role, the email sent will be "Add Role Request Accepted Notification".