How seasons work
A season is the dated container your membership runs in — it holds your membership tiers, your members’ memberships, and a shareable registration link. Most clubs run one season per year. Each season sits in a registration phase that controls who can join and when; you move it through five phases as the year progresses.
The five phases
Section titled “The five phases”Every season shows its phase as a pill next to its name. Phases are pure gates — moving between them never changes member data. They control exactly two things: whether the public registration link accepts sign-ups, and whether automatic waitlist promotion runs.
| Phase | Pill | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Setting up | Nothing goes out. Review tiers and dates; the registration link shows an “opens soon” notice. |
| Renewals | Renewals | The stage for releasing renewal invitations to returning members. The link still shows “opens soon”, and waitlist promotion stays paused so renewing members get first claim on capacity. |
| Waitlist | Waitlist | Automatic waitlist promotion turns on and fills any capacity renewals didn’t use. The link still isn’t accepting sign-ups. |
| Open | Open | The registration link accepts public sign-ups. Waitlist promotion keeps running. |
| Closed | Closed | The link shows a “closed” notice and waitlist promotion stops. Existing memberships are untouched. |
Move a season forward
Section titled “Move a season forward”- Click Seasons in the sidebar, then Manage on the season.
- In the Registration phase section, click the advance button for the current phase: Open renewals, then Open waitlist, then Open to public, and finally Close season.
The Season kickoff — next steps checklist at the top of the page walks the same phases in order and checks off each one as you advance.
There is one guard: you can’t move a season to open after its end date has passed. Memberley shows an error asking you to extend the end date first — otherwise new sign-ups would activate into an ended season and immediately expire.
Move back a phase
Section titled “Move back a phase”Advanced too soon? Each phase after setup has a move-back button — Back to setup, Back to renewals, Back to waitlist, or Reopen registration on a closed season. A confirmation dialog spells out the consequence before anything changes:
- Moving back from Open stops public sign-ups; the link shows “opens soon” instead. Waitlist promotion keeps running.
- Moving back from Waitlist pauses automatic waitlist promotion.
- Reopen registration on a closed season starts accepting sign-ups again and resumes waitlist promotion.
Renewal invitations that already went out keep working after a move back, and existing members are never affected.
Schedule public registration to open automatically
Section titled “Schedule public registration to open automatically”Instead of clicking Open to public at midnight, schedule it:
- On the season page, click Schedule open (shown while the season is in setup, renewals, or waitlist).
- In the Schedule public registration dialog, pick the Opens at time. Memberley interprets it in your organization’s timezone.
- Click Schedule.
The page then shows an Opens chip with the scheduled time; click the × on the chip to cancel. Within a few minutes of the scheduled time, Memberley advances the season to open and the link starts accepting sign-ups. Advancing to open by hand clears any pending schedule.