Approving new members

When someone applies to join through your portal and your organization requires approval, their membership arrives as Pending — they can’t use anything until you decide. Pending applications live on the member roster; filter Status to Pending to see the queue at a glance.

Before deciding, click the applicant’s name to open their profile — their contact details, chosen tier, and any registration answers are all there.

Approve an application

1. Click Members and find the pending row — pending members show a checkmark button next to the ⋯ menu.
2. Click the checkmark to approve.

What happens next depends on the tier:

• Paid tiers (and free tiers without auto-activate) — the membership moves to Awaiting payment and the member is emailed to complete payment.
• Free tiers with auto-activate — the membership activates immediately, with the tier’s default guest passes granted.

Either way, Memberley emails the member that their membership was approved, re-attaches any family members from a previous membership, and records the approval in the activity log.

Applications are approved one at a time — bulk Set status on the roster changes statuses directly and skips the approval flow, so it won’t send the approval email or pick the right activation path.

Note

If your organization requires a member photo for activation, a free auto-activate tier can’t be approved until the member has one — Memberley shows an error instead.

Reject an application

1. Open the pending row’s ⋯ menu and click Reject application….
2. Enter a Reason — it’s required, and it’s shared with the applicant in the rejection email.
3. If the applicant paid an application fee, check Refund the … application fee to return it to the card they paid with.
4. Click Reject application.

The applicant is emailed that their application was not accepted, along with your reason. If a refund fails, the rejection still goes through — Memberley tells you so you can retry it from the Payments page.

Caution

Rejecting is the only status change that notifies the applicant with a reason. Setting a pending member’s status by hand skips the email and the refund option, so use Reject application… for real rejections.

Where approvals overlap with the waitlist

Applications to a full tier don’t arrive as pending — they join the tier’s waitlist (when your waitlist is enabled). Inviting, rejecting, and activating those members happens on the Waitlist page, with the same application-fee refund option when rejecting.

Related

• The member roster
• Waitlist
• Membership tiers
• Features