After all updates, check your work on the live page on multiple devices. I can’t emphasize how important this step is.
Introduction / Summary
The PMPro membership system goals are to reduce workload, achieve best accuracy, and capture more consistent payments from members “automatically.” New members will register themselves as in the old system, and Luis will approve them similar to the old system. Renewing members will login and pay for the next year, similar to the old system. Renewing members will remain in approved status.
10/11/22: All members “not yet in the website database” have now been added or deleted from the listserv due to lack of interest for five or more years.
Melitta will be automatically notified by email of members paying by bank transfer and will confirm receipt of payment, see below.
Melitta will be automatically notified by email of members that Luis approves in the system and will add their emails manually to the listserv, see below.
On the Members admin List, the dropdowns show those at each yearly payment, and eventually these all want to be the current year. The system keeps a record of Old Members as we noted. The website member lists can be exported at any time using the “Export to CSV” link at the top of the page. Then sort in Excel as desired. Note: The addresses are included in the last columns in this list. They can be hidden using the Screen Options, and will still be included in the export.)
Process Summary:
- Our new website system records a renewal (new yearly payment) as “success,”
- PayPal emails the website admin proof of payment from the IPN log, and
- you see in the Member admin and an export that the member is indeed at the new yearly level.
The automated emails contain much of the information needed to understand each transaction/process and they serve as a receipt to the member. The Orders page summarizes the activity, see below.
There is an “Extra Expiration Warning Emails” add-on which I can enable once most members are caught up. It will only pertain to renewals.
Member Process (on live website)
New Members
These persons should go to the New Applicants page and select the next year’s regular or retired/student membership. They will be asked to fill out a profile in the process, can then choose to pay by credit card or bank transfer, and will be added to the system. (They will also need to be approved as a member, and if paying by bank transfer, the payment confirmed prior to approval as described below.)
Member Renewals
Members wishing to renew or pay for the first time should select the appropriate link on the Membership page.
Member Notifications
Members will receive automatically generated emails at appropriate steps in the process.
Membership Admin
Member Lists
Membership status can be reviewed by selecting the desired dropdown in the Membership List. Many of the columns can be sorted by clicking the link at the top of the column.
I still reference User Lists at times, but the Member Lists have everything needed. Use the Screen Options to hide fields as desired in each of these lists.
The list can be exported at any time using the “Export to CSV” link at the top of the page next to the title. This export will not have all of the “year” columns as your historical member list did, but will show the latest year paid. Use “Data Sort” as desired to analyze in Excel. See additional comments below.
When we believe that no additional members in the “2019” categories will renew, they can be individually edited and changed to “Old Members” by changing “Role” to “–No Role for this Site–” and “Current Level” to ” –None–.” I will help at this time.
Orders
The orders tab or link under Memberships summarizes all recent activity. I used this to bring your historic member list up-to-date. You can continue to use and update the historic member list until comfortable with the new system. This is also the best/first place to review to match up/confirm PayPal payments.
If you want to see all orders on one page, click this link.
Confirm Payment by Bank Transfer
Melitta will be copied by automatic email when a new member chooses to pay by bank transfer.
Melitta: When you confirm that a bank transfer payment is received in your bank account, go to the Orders page, locate the invoice at or near the top of the list. It will be shown as “pending.” Click the order number in the Code column, and change the payment status from “pending” to “success.”
Note added 16-Dec-21: The member will receive an automatically generated email receipt when you change them from pending to success. If you ever need to re-send an invoice/receipt, open the order and simply click “Save Order” again at the bottom (not the Email link at the top).

If a lot of credit card payments come in and/or if Melitta updates receipt of bank transfers less frequently, the “pending” orders could start moving down the list. (Keep in mind that new applicants will want to be approved in the system by Luis quickly after making their bank transfer.) To filter the orders to see only pending, select Show “Within a Status” and filter by “pending,” then click Filter. To see the full list again, select Show “All” and click Filter.
We discussed by email on 14-Dec-21 that an order will appear “cancelled” when the member has paid for the next year. A more complete order history and member level history can be reviewed on the member profile by clicking on their name.
There has been at least one instance of a member selecting Pay by Check and then deciding to pay by PayPal, making the same yearly level show twice in the Orders page. The Pay by Check that was incomplete should be opened in the Orders page and payment status changed to “error.” This will result in the proper total payment for the member in their profile.
Membership Approval Process
Luis will be notified by automatic email when a new applicant has completed registration. Luis will discuss with colleagues and decide if member is to be approved.
The new member registration process (for 2022 or future recurring) will place the person in an “Approval Pending” status, accessed under the Memberships admin menu. Luis will receive an automatic email notifying that there is a member awaiting approval (at the same time as the initial registration email).
The approval section of the website will open to the “Pending” tab for ease of use (and you can further refine with the dropdowns). Luis: First verify that the member is fully paid by going to the Orders page, and look for “success.” Then locate the member in the Approval Pending list, and in the Approval Status column click “Approve.” The member will be informed by email and they will then have access to member-only pages, and Melitta will be automatically copied so she can add them to the listserv.
If you’d like to see All approvals on one screen click this link. We discussed by Zoom that those that show simply “Approved [X]” are those who had already been approved when imported into the new PMPro system, and those who have actually been approved in this system show the date.
Only new members require approval, and everyone that has already been approved will automatically stay in approved status upon renewal. This process wasn’t working correctly for one month after launch. Some existing members went into the approval queue again after renewal. I believe this is corrected as of 3-Dec-21.
Add to Listserv
Melitta will be automatically copied by email on the above approvals so that the member can be added to the listserv. Melitta: add the new member’s email to the listserv.
Only the newer years have been set to require approval, and everyone that has already been approved will automatically stay in approved status upon renewal.
Member List Export to CSV
The exported list is arranged by user ID. Sort in Excel as desired.
All fields are defined as Text in the database and export as General in Excel.
- Since postal codes vary in structure between countries, I could not define it as a number. Those in the northeastern US will be missing the leading zero, such as my postal code which is 05673 but shows as 5673.
- Phone and fax numbers are entered in various configurations, too, so I could not define them any more specifically than text/general. The phone number field shows some long numbers (with no + or spaces) as an exponent, for example 5.73145E+11. These show correctly in the Excel edit field. You can highlight column AF, change the format to number, and then reduce decimals by two. You will have to do this every time you export the list, unfortunately, and only if it matters. You will likely only be copying the information for latest members, and only until you retire the historical member list.
- Foreign characters do not export well. You may have to remind people to use the Roman alphabet, or update their profiles yourselves.
- The address fields, columns F through N, from the old Ultimate Member system are blank. I did not know how to easily remove them. Hide or make narrow or ignore. Our newer profile fields are in columns Y through AH.
- I don’t know what the “fee” column Q means. The payments in column P match those in the Fee column on the website.
- I don’t know why the word “Month” appears beside 2019 Regular members in column R, nor could I find a way to remove it (because I couldn’t find it in the system).
The export only includes the levels shown in the admin Member List dropdown. For example, if you want to export only 2020 Regular members, select that in the dropdown “Show 2020 Regular.” If you want all members, select “Show All Levels.” This export will not include Old Members. You must export those separately after choosing Old Members in the dropdown.
Since the website is dynamic, I would suggest not spending a lot of time with any one export because you will not be updating the exported file. It is only for reference and to update the historic member list. The export will be like a back-up, a record at one point in time.
MailPoet Plugin
Added October 2022 for the purpose of emailing members in groups. Members were exported from the PMPro system and imported into yearly lists. The MailPoet system will remove and add people from lists as they renew yearly registrations. The system was used heavily in October 2022 to encourage renewals before the biennial conference and vote and it worked well. There were a few updates that worked improperly in the December mailing, but it was due to improper adjustments on my part and I maintain confidence that this mailing approach works well. I have not provided detailed documentation yet because I am always cautious about mass mailings. A simple approach is to duplicate a past mailing and update any necessary details before sending. Send a “test” first if in doubt.
Archive
Luis pointed out that we do not log into the website admin the same way as in the old system. When logging in, you are brought to your own membership account page. Click “Memberships” in the black bar at the top of your screen to open that section in the admin. Of course, any other section of the admin can also then be accessed.
Members not in the Website:
Old: Regarding people who are not in our website database (those on the Excel spreadsheet noted as “member not in database”) likely because they have paid by bank transfer (or perhaps provided credit card over the phone), I’ve created a new page for them in the Membership choices. I encourage you to send the specific link to them: https://istfp.org/membership-account/renew-and-establish-account/ and explain that we need them in our system for tracking and management. If you prefer to offer to do it for them, you can indeed enter them yourself if you get all the information, but we are trying to make members self-sufficient. I added a note that if they are in arrears, they should pay the proper amount indicated by our Treasurer. This also applies to new applicants who may inquire directly to pay by bank transfer, although you would first send them to the New Applicants link below. The choice to “pay by check” is at the bottom of the Payment page and it is explained that this means bank transfer. NOTE: All people who ere not in the website database have now been added (or deleted from the listserv).
Old: Members Not In Website Database: These persons should go to the Renew and Establish Account page and select the next year’s regular or retired/student membership. They will be asked to fill out a profile in the process, can then choose to pay by credit card or bank transfer, and will be added to the system. I added a note that if they are in arrears, they should pay the proper amount indicated by our Treasurer. (They will also need to be approved as a member, and if paying by bank transfer, the payment confirmed as described in two of the sections below.)
Historic Member List (Excel) Status
The historic member list (Excel spreadsheet) was updated as of 30-Nov-21 and sent to you for continued use as desired. It includes members through ID 670. I reference this occasionally.
- The first table is current, labeled 30-Nov-2021. The information in this table was originally taken from “Tabelle2.”
- I added two columns at left so that new members copied in will mostly align.
- I used a darker green and a “y” to indicate payments made in the new system. These were copied from the Orders page through ID 48.
- The yearly payments shown in yellow are bank transfers initiated through the new system and needing to be confirmed.
- I updated payments made prior to the new system going live in early November and after I established the “starting point” for the new system in early August. These were taken from PayPal and do not include any bank transfers during this period.
- You may copy new members from an export into the historical spreadsheet in alphabetical order (by highlighting a row and “insert copied cells”). The columns O through X will not match up perfectly, but you can easily adjust the information. Additionally, the email will want to be moved to the right two columns, and the first and last name reversed.
- I did not spend the time to copy addresses, degree, or affiliation in the far right columns for newly added members into columns E and F.
Whether to keep updating your historical Excel member list (spreadsheet) depends if you find the information in the system sufficient, see more below. The most likely reason you may want to keep your Excel list updated (the “second check” as Melitta noted in email) is to acknowledge that one-time payments made by credit card to PayPal are observed in the PayPal system. This is not necessary, however; only a double check until you gain comfort with the new system.