Online member application form
Overview
- Wild Apricot comes with an integrated online member application form. If your Wild Apricot site does not have it yet, see How to add web pages.
- You can have multiple application forms on your site, and it is possible to adjust the settings on each application page so that only specific membership levels are shown.
- Once the application is submitted by a prospective member, the new member record is automatically added into your database and a number of automatic actions take place, such as application invoice is generated, password and application initiation emails are sent, etc. See Member applications workflow.
Application Process
Membership level selection page
The 1st step of the application process is the membership level selection, which will be followed by filling in the member details (this step is skipped if there is only one membership level enabled for this particular application form).
On this page, a prospective member can select what membership level they want to apply for.
- Each listed level is shown with Subscription period, Automatic renewal and Description fields (if entered).
- Levels are sorted alphabetically, so if you need to re-order them you would have to rename them (you can also use numbers in front of the names).
Only the membership levels the public are allowed to apply for will be listed here (vs. you can have some levels where members can only be added manually by the administrators), see Membership levels.
Filling in Member Details for selected level
This page shows all the application fields for the previously selected level and is generated automatically based on your settings:
- Common fields - These fields are common to all contacts and forms and display regardless of the level being applied to (see Customizing your contact database fields)
- Membership fields - These are additional fields that apply to members only. All custom membership fields can be restricted to specific member levels only, this way different member levels will have different fields. See Customizing your member database
So before you proceed you have to make sure that all of your Common fields and Membership fields are set up as needed.
On all registration forms the the Common fields are shown at the top while the rest of the fields (Membership fields in this case) are shown below.
Submitting the Application
- The application is submitted after you click [Confirm and proceed with payment] and only then is a new contact / member record added into the system.
- At this point there are a number of emails that can be automatically sent to the applicant:
- Invoice is automatically generated, and your Invoice and receipt settings determine if it is emailed to applicant
- Password is automatically generated and emailed (this password email can be customized from Settings -> Password email)
- Application initiation email can be sent depending on your Member applications workflow set-up
Paying for the Application
- On the Invoice and Payments page the user can pay the application invoice (plus any other open invoices e.g. for events) using the [Pay Online] button (assuming that online payment is enabled - see Online Payments)
Recap of what is required to setup your online member application form
Application page settings
After you have added the membership application form page you can edit it. It will allow you to set a description and whether or not you want to show all membership levels or just some selected levels. To start click on [Edit settings] button on top (left) panel. See Customization of functional pages.
Description
You can enter a text message which will appear at the top of your member application form (on both parts described above). You can also use formatting options and insert links, pictures, and documents.
Membership levels
You can specify what membership levels you would like to include on this particular online application form page.
In the simplest case, create one membership application page and select All levels.
Here is a more complicated setup:
Let's say you have created these membership levels and customized a different membership form for each one:
- Regular membership
- Premium membership
- Discounted membership for students
- Discounted membership for teachers
Thereafter you can create 2 separate membership application pages:
- Membership application (include Regular membership and Premium membership)
- Special discounted memberships (include Discounted membership for students and Discounted membership for teachers)
See also
Getting Started with Membership Management
Automating membership renewals
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