🗂 Member records

Two things worth checking on a membership database that has been going a few years, neither of which Pavilion could tell you about before 9.99.165 because nothing anywhere looked: whether two members share a membership number, and whether anybody is on the books twice.

🔢 Membership numbers

New members are numbered from one scheme, set under Settings → General → Membership Settings: a prefix, a separator and how many digits. Leave the prefix blank and your club’s own name is used. The example under the box shows exactly what the next number will look like.

Numbering carries on from the highest number already in use, whatever shape it was written in — a club upgrading from an older version often holds three or four different shapes, and starting again at 1 would hand a new member a number somebody already has. A number that is already taken is skipped rather than issued twice, and typing a number by hand that belongs to somebody else is refused with a message saying whose it is.

Nothing ever renumbers an existing member. Those numbers are on membership cards, in the accounts and in the minute book, and are not software’s to change. The one thing this screen will do on request is fill in the blanks — give a number to everybody who has not got one, which after an import is usually the entire club, because the importer used to allocate none at all.

A number given to two people matters more than it sounds: the till, the clubhouse kiosk and the check-in screen all look members up by it, and whichever record they find first is the one that gets used.

👥 Possible duplicate members

A duplicate is a second subscription chased, a second membership card, a second set of reminder emails and a playing record split down the middle. They arrive honestly: somebody joins online having already been added by hand, an import runs twice, or a member who left in 2019 rejoins and nobody spots it.

Two members are flagged when they share an email address — two people cannot have the same one by accident — or when they share the same name and at least one other thing, such as a postcode or a phone number. A shared postcode and a shared landline on their own describe a household, not one person twice, so a married couple is not reported.

Members who have left are included, because somebody rejoining is the commonest case of all — and their old record has their history on it, so restoring it is usually better than starting again.

There is no merge button, deliberately. Merging two membership records means deciding whose payment history, whose competition entries and whose date of joining survive. That is a judgement for the membership secretary, not for software that has matched two postcodes. Where it really is one person twice: decide which record the club is keeping, move anything that matters onto it, and record the other as having left.

The same check runs when you approve an application, which is the last moment a duplicate is cheap to avoid.

Common questions

Can I renumber the whole club to a new format?

No, and on purpose. Changing the format changes what new members are given; everybody who already has a number keeps it. Those numbers are printed on cards, written in the accounts and quoted in twenty years of minutes, and a piece of software should not decide to change them all one afternoon.

Everybody we imported has no membership number. Can I fix that?

Yes — the Member Records screen offers to give a number to everybody who has not got one, in your club’s format, carrying on from the highest number in use. Nobody who already has a number is touched.

Two members have the same number. Which one should I change?

Usually whichever was added most recently, or whichever has never had a card printed. Open their profile, clear the number and type the next free one — the screen shows what that is. Check first that they are not actually the same person, which is the other half of this screen.

It says two members might be duplicates but they are husband and wife.

Then they are not, and nothing needs doing. The check flags a pair for you to look at, never as a verdict — a father and son can share a name and an address, and a couple share a postcode and often a landline. If it is a household, consider linking them on a household membership so only one subscription is chased.

Somebody who left has rejoined. Should I create a new member?

Better to restore the old record: their playing history, their appearances and their past subscriptions are on it, and their long service still counts. Members → Leavers shows past members and brings them back as lapsed so the subscription is dealt with properly.