Everyone in your Wild Apricot database is a contact. A member is a contact who is assigned to a particular membership level. Members typically choose their membership level when they apply to membership through a membership application form.
When someone visits your Wild Apricot site, the options available to them depends on whether they are a member or a contact, and on their member or contact status. A member can see their membership status on their member profile. A member's status can be updated manually by an administrator or automatically by the system.
Members and contacts can have the following statuses.
Member statuses
Active
A member in good standing with full member benefits (e.g. listed in member directory, access to restricted pages, etc).
Lapsed
A member who has lost membership privileges because of unpaid membership fees. A member's status may be set to lapsed if they have not renewed their membership within a certain period following their renewal date. A lapsed member does not receive automatic renewal notices, poll announcements, or appear in member directories, and is not allowed to view member-only pages, register using member-only registration types, complete polls, add comments to blog pages, or post or reply to forum topics. Unlike a suspended member (see below), a lapsed member can restore their membership by paying the renewal fee. See Membership renewal settings.
Pending - New
A membership that has not been activated because it is awaiting administrator approval or payment of the membership fee. Members with a status of Pending - New will not be able to view member-only pages or register for events using member-only registration types. They will, however, receive event announcements and email blasts, even if sent to members only.
Pending - Renewal
A member's membership is up for renewal, and a renewal invoice has been generated, or the member has begun the renewal process, but hasn't yet paid the membership fee.
Pending - Level change
The member has initiated a level change but is either awaiting administrator approval, or has been not yet paid the membership fee for the new level (where required). Members must pay the full membership fee when they change levels. There is currently no pro-rating based on the previous membership level.
Suspended
A member whose membership has been revoked and now appears as a non-member contact. Suspended members do not appear in member directories or featured member gadgets, and do not receive emails sent to all members. A suspended member can apply for membership just like any other contact.
Note: To learn how to reinstate a suspended member or multiple members, view our article, Suspending members.
To search for suspended members, use the Contact properties criteria and set it to Suspended member. In export files, suspended members will have their Membership enabled column set to No and their Membership status set to whatever their status was when they were suspended. For more information, see Suspending memberships.
Renewal overdue is not a membership status but a statistical category that appears on the Member summary screen, indicating the number of members whose renewal date is in the past. These members can have different membership statuses depending on their situation, and on your renewal settings.
Contact statuses
Active
A contact who has not been archived, and therefore appears in the contact list.
Archived
A contact who has been removed from your contact list without being deleted from your Wild Apricot database. An archived contact is automatically excluded from email blasts – including event notices – and does not count toward your database limit. Archived contacts are automatically restored when they log in to your Wild Apricot site, register for an event, apply for membership, make a donation, or subscribe to a forum or forum topic. If the contact is a member, their membership level and status will also be restored with a Lapsed status. Archived contacts are not automatically restored if they pay an invoice without logging in, by clicking the link in the invoice email. See Archived vs. active records.
How membership status affects available functionality
When someone visits your Wild Apricot site, the options available to them depends on whether they are a member, a contact, or someone not in your database. If they are a member, then their options are further defined by their membership status. A member can see their membership status on their member profile. A member's status can be updated manually by an administrator or automatically by the system.
The table below summarizes the functionality available based on membership status, in the absence of any other restrictions you may have manually applied while setting up site pages, membership levels, and events. To view this table in a spreadsheet, click here.
| Functionality | Active | Pending New | Pending Renewal | Pending Level Change | Lapsed | Suspended | Archived | Logged in contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit profile | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| See membership fields in profile | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Appear in member directory | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Appear in featured member gadget | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| View member-only pages | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Apply for membership | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Renew or change membership | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Receive automatic renewal notices | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Print/download membership cards | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| View or register for events | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Register using member-only registration types | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ * | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Receive event announcements, reminders | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Receive email blasts sent to contacts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Receive email blasts sent to members only | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Receive poll announcements, complete poll | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Post or comment in blog | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create topics and comment in forum | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Can be added to bundle by bundle admin | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
* Members with a Pending - Renewal status who are overdue do not have access to members-only registration types
