Managing multiple groups or chapters in a single Wild Apricot account
Some organizations need to manage separate chapters/groups within a single Wild Apricot account (and thus only one website).
Here's the current state of this functionality and links to related threads:
Each chapter can have its own website section and there can be web editors with permissions limited to a specific chapter section (existing functionality)
Members can be separated out into chapters through a use of Groups field or a custom field (existing functionality). One aspect that is currently missing is the ability to assign per-chapter membership managers. There is already a thread dedicated to this, see http://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308932-wishlist/suggestions/8825755-new-admin-role-membership-manager-limited-to-spe
Events can be separated out between chapters through the existing event tags functionality. There is currently no provision for chapter-specific event managers - all event managers would have access to all events. There is a request about adding event-specific organizers for each event (vs. current model of Wild Apricot account-wide event managers). See http://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308920-archive/suggestions/8831335-event-specific-administrators-10260 I believe this might meet need of chapter event organizers - and would appreciate your comments and thoughts on that thread.
Finally, there is a financial aspect. Currently, all payments in a particular Wild Apricot account flow into the same merchant account defined in settings. It sounds like some groups want chapter finances (event payments, membership payments) to flow into per-chapter merchant accounts - which is not currently possible. Something along these lines has been requested - see http://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308932-wishlist/suggestions/8825845-allow-multiple-online-payment-gateways-in-one-wa-a and I would appreciate your comments.
I would greatly appreciate comments about there or any other aspects of managing multiple chapters/groups within a single Wild Apricot account.
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Dmitry Buterin commented
Vera, sorry, we have not made any decisions about this year even in the best case it is more than a year away.
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National Administration
commented
Hi again,
There is also a financial aspect which we have just become aware of. We currently process event registrations for chapter events into the one PayPal merchant account and then transfer the appropriate amounts to chapter PayPal accounts. As it turns out the fees charged by PayPal are doubled by this procedure as PayPal fees are charged at the time of purchase by a member and then again when the transfer between PayPal merchant accounts is transacted.
Is there any time frame available with regards to this development project?
Vera Externest -
National Administration
commented
This scenario would fit our requirements exactly as long as it is still possible to process membership payments centrally, i.e. this needs to be a choice: use local or national account.
We need the ability for local managers to only view/edit their group's data.
We need the ability for local managers to have access to their local events only.
Our organisation runs events locally as well as nationally. So we would need to be able to designate an event as pertaining to a particular local chapter with fees going to that chapter or as a national event with fees going to the national account.
Vera Externest
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The genesis of this request comes from this thread:
This thread is dedicated to the scenario where each chapter in your organization is maintaining its own website/database and there is a need to consolidate all chapter data on the national level.
As of version 3.5 Wild Apricot does not provide any way to consolidate data from chapters maintaining separate accounts. This thread is to outline our vision of a possible solution and we would highly appreciate your input to flesh this out in details and prioritize this.
In this scenario each chapter runs its own website - based on a separate Wild Apricot account. Chapter events and registrations and chapter member self-service (applying for membership, renewals) are handled on that website and within that particular Wild Apricot account.
National organization also runs its own website using another separate Wild Apricot account. It handles global events and registrations as well as membership for members who are not affiliated with any chapter (if any) (aka members-at-large), its own contact database etc.
National organization can provide links to individual chapter websites for their respective event calendars - or can embed them within its own website via Wild Apricot widgets. In a similar way, it can provide links to chapter membership applications or embed them within widgets on its own website.
Now to the gist of the matter: national organization would have some special functionality to access/ consolidate the data, e.g. :
- it will be linked up and listing the websites of its subordinate chapters, including membership counts
- ability to search membership records across all chapters
- ability to send out emailing across all members in all chapters
- income report by chapter
- ability for national organization admins to log in into any chapter account
We would greatly appreciate additional details and examples!
