Communal offers various types of memberships and the ability to configure them to ensure they match your organizational needs. In this article, you'll learn the various types and configurational options so you can start building your own memberships.

Membership Types:

• Base: Use this option for memberships that do not require a user to already hold another type of membership. Example: An annual membership to join a community centre.
• Add-on: These are memberships that are associated with base memberships. To buy this type of membership, the associated base membership needs to be already held or purchased at the same time.

Plans and Prices:

Once a membership has been created, you can apply the various pricing options by creating Plans. You have full control over how many plans are associated with your membership. A simple example of membership with four plans is outlined below:

Expiration Dates:

Communal has two different options for setting an expiration date for a membership.

• Specific Date: Designed for memberships that expire on the same date each year. 
• Rolling: Meant for memberships that expire exactly one year after the date of purchase. Example: A membership that is bought on October 7th, 2021 will expire on October 7th, 2022.

Automated Renewal Reminders:

There are three options for automated reminders that are sent to members regarding the expiration of their current membership. They can be turned on and off independently from one another. 

1. The first is a reminder that is sent before the membership is set to expire. You can configure when this message is sent based on the number of days before expiration. 
2. Another option is an email that is triggered the day of expiration.
3. The last option is a reminder that is sent after the membership has expired as long as the member hasn't renewed yet. You can configure when this message is sent based on the number of days after expiration.

Location-Based/Voting vs Non-voting Memberships:

You can choose to restrict access to a membership plan based on a user's address. Only individuals that live within a selected community boundary can purchase this membership. This is a common method of automating voting vs non-voting rights if your organization requires a user to live within a certain location to vote on organizational goals. Learn more about Boundaries here. 

Auto-Renewals:

Auto-renewal is a billing model where the customer's payment details are charged automatically without the customer having to take action. This option can be turned on or off for each membership. The member will still need to opt-in for their membership to be auto-renewed automatically.