The core of the RAMCO system is the membership module. This module allows you to accept new members and charge existing members dues. Before you can take advantage of either of those pieces of functionality, you must setup the necessary system data in CRM. This article will provide the instructions necessary to complete that setup.
Member Types
The member type entity is the starting point for membership setup. For more details on the Contact entity including field descriptions, click here.
RAMCO comes preloaded with the 6 standard NAR/NRDS member types. These types are:
- REALTOR®
- REALTOR® Associate
- Affiliate
- Institutional Affiliate
- Non-Member
- Staff
Associations can also setup custom member types (e.g. MLS) to track memberships that are not reported to NAR or NRDS. Only memberships tied to a Member Type with the NRDS Member Type field set will be transmitted to NRDS.
Membership Application Fees
Once you have a member type setup, you need to create one or more application fees to allow for membership applications. The application fee allows you to charge an fee (optional) and dues at the time of application. For more details on the Membership Application Fee entity including field descriptions, click here.
Here is a video walk through of how to update a Membership Application Fee. Link
Note - If you are setting expiration dates or end dates in RAMCO, remember that the date represents midnight of the day selected. If you want your memberships to expire at the end of the year/month, set the date field to the first day of the following year/month (e.g. 01/01/2013 not 12/31/2012).
Membership Application Fee Query
In addition to setting the type, you can also attach a query to the fee to to accommodate more than one application fee per member type. To do this, you can:
- Click the View Query button in the Membership Application fee ribbon. (see the above image)
- The Advanced Find window will launch the query. From this window, you can add criteria starting from the contact record to limit which contacts the fee applies to. Since this query is related to contacts, most associations typically have one application fee per member type OR they setup multiple application fees that everyone can view/select.
- Click Save and then click to close the query window.
Membership Requirements
Membership requirements allow you to set conditions that must be met before an application can be completed. For more details on the Membership Requirement entity including field descriptions, click here.
Membership Requirement Query
If you select a Query or Command Text requirement mode, you will be able to set a query. To do this, you can:
- Click the View Query button in the Membership Query ribbon.
- If you have selected Query for the mode the standard Advanced Find window will open. If you select Command Text for the mode, the command text window will open.
- Once you have defined your query, you can save and close the window.
Once you've configured all of these elements, you should have everything you need to start accepting membership applications.