Members Database

The Members Database is a powerful database that allows you to keep track of contact information for individuals without accounts in your Users Database. It can be used for Alumni, School Board Members, Parents, Students, Volunteers, etc. By using the “Groups” features of the database you can have the Members Database serve multiple uses. This database Includes the ability to assign each member a username and password to access secure pages on your website, and the ability to send out mass emails to all or parts of your database. This database is integrated with the Calendar of Events tool which allows you to send emails with updates on events in your calendar.

There is a main website detail tool called Members Database - Opt-In Form that allows visitors to your website to request membership to your database. This is usually used when you have a secure page requiring a login or when you are setting up an alumni database. See Members Database Opt-In Form Tool article for more information about setting up this tool.

Access the Members Database

To access the Membership Database click on the left-side link found below your Navigation Builder link in the Main Website Administration. If this link is not visible, you do not have permission to access it. Access can be granted by the person who administers the Users Database.

Add Member: Allows you to add members one at a time
Groups: Create groups to categorize members. Each member can belong to more than one group
Edit Administrator’s Email: This is the email address that will appear in the From field of the email. The address will be prefilled with the contact email address in the CMS4Schools client database, or the address entered here. You may update this email address as needed
Import Data: Opens the Import Data screen where a txt file can be uploaded to mass add members and update groups. This is the fastest way to set-up/edit your Members Database
Logout/Pwd/Profile URLs: Provides URLs to add to a page to allow members to reset their password, update their profile, and provide an alternate page to bring the users to after they have logged out
Search: The fields indicated in the box allow you to filter your membership database by group(s), designate the number of results per page, and the order the results are shown in. Click Search to see members with the selected criteria
Email: Allows you to send a mass email to users
Download Data: allows you to download the current members in the database. This can be used as a starting point to mass update profiles or as the source to create mail merge name tags, labels, and letters

Groups

Groups are a way in which you can easily categorize members. Each member can belong to any number of groups. For example, a school might create School Board, Alumni, Students, and Parents as groups in your database.

From the Members Database, select Groups to open the Members Database - Groups screen.

Select Add Groups to open the New Database Group screen. Enter the Group Name and click Add to create a new group.

Add Members

From the Members Database, select Add Member to open the Add Member screen.

The First Name, Last Name, and Password fields are the only required fields to add a new member. However, the more information added, the more useful the database is. If a valid email address is entered, the new user will receive an email with their temporary password and a login link to their profile. After the member logs in and changes their password, they will be able to log in and update their own profile information.

Click Add to create the member in the database.

Import Data

Using the Import Data option is the fastest way to set up your Membership Database. Members and Groups can be created with the data import.

From the Members Database, select Import Data to open the Import Data screen.

This section provides the steps for preparing the membership data for upload. Use the attached prepared spreadsheet at the bottom of this article as a starting place for creating your import file to add users to your Membership Database
Leaving this check box unselected will allow the import process to update existing users by comparing existing usernames to usernames in the import file. If this box is selected, no current users will be updated and only new users will be created.
Note: Selecting this box can result in duplicate entries in your Membership Database
Checking this box will bring up an additional screen where you can delete any members that are currently in the database but were not included in the upload file
Choose the txt file for the import

Select Import Data to start the data import.

Once the import is complete, you will see a summary of the Import Results.

Search for Members

If a search field is left blank, all records will be included. You are able to search using any combination of the fields.

Search criteria:

The Last Name and First Name fields will search for users that contain both the text in the last name and first name. For example, if you search for Last Name: son and First Name: John. Your results will include; Song, John; Anderson, John; Peterson, John; Peterson, Johnae; etc
Clase Year: These groups automatically created by entering data “Class Year” field for members. The first time a year is entered the group is created. If the last member of a “Class Year” is deleted, the year will be removed from the “Class Year” list.
Note: This makes searching the Members Database, being used as an Alumni Database, easier because you will not have any empty Class Year groups. You will know that if a year is listed in “Class Year” that there is at least one member in that year.
Groups: By adding groups to the Selected Groups side, you will be able to find members within a group or groups.
Per Page: Allow you to view 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 members per page for your search criteria.
Order By: Allows you to order the search results by Last Name or by Class Year.

Once you have the desired search criteria, click Search. The search results will appear in a list.
Note: If you need to change your search, click on the Modify Search Criteria link on the top, left side of the page.

Email

From the Members Database, enter the search criteria to obtain the desired list and select Email to open the Mass Email to Members - Email Info screen.

Use the Click Here link to open the Search Results screen to manually Remove or Un-Remove members to the email list. Click Submit Changes to save any changes made to the email list.

Note: This can also be used to view the members that will be receiving the email.
Email Address to Send From: This is the email address that will appear in the From field of the email. The address will be prefilled with the contact email address in the CMS4Schools client database, or the address entered using the Edit Administrator's Email.
Reply To Email Address: This is the email address that will appear in the To field if the recipient clicks a reply to this email. This address will also be prefilled but may be changed.
Bcc delivery: Check this box to send the emails as a blind carbon copy.
Subject Line: This is the subject of the mass email.
Message: Add your email message in this text area.
Login Information: Check on this box to include each member’s login link and password. This is a great way to get passwords to each of the individual members.
Footer: Add a message if desired. If your organization has a “Mission Statement”, logo, or tagline that you like to see on all communications from your organization you may add it here.

When the email is ready to be sent, click Send.

Download Data

The download file can be very useful for updating/deleting current members, it can also be used as a source to create mail merge name tags, labels, and letters.

From the Members Database enter the search criteria to obtain the desired list and select Download Data and the Download Member Data screen will open.

Click on the Download button to create a csv file. This file can be opened using Excel or another spreadsheet application.
Note: If you are going to use this download to update your Members Database, we recommend all of your users be assigned usernames to prevent any duplicate entries. Follow the Import Data instructions after making the necessary updates to the file.