[OSMF-membership] New member and grace periods

Jonathan Bennett jonobennett at gmail.com
Fri Jan 23 17:17:18 UTC 2015


CiviCRM manages members' membership status according to a set of rules
based mostly on time periods. As well as the usual expiry date, the
default configuration includes two states called "New Member" and "Grace".

The former happens when a member first signs up, and the default period
is three months.

The latter is for a month after the official expiry date by default, and
allows people to retain their "member in good standing" status for a
short while if they forget to renew their membership or they're away for
a while.

Both these could potentially be used to alter when a member is allowed
to e.g. vote in elections or on motions, but don't have to be used.
While I don't believe the foundation currently has any rules like the
ones this system implements, I do have a recollection of one Board
election having restrictions over who could vote based on when they joined.

My question to the group is: Do these look like useful facilities to
implement, or should we override them and have plain membership start
and end dates, and if we do use them what are appropriate lengths of
time for new and grace periods?

These are a matter of policy, and may even be governed by the AoA, so
the board will probably have to approve any decisions. That doesn't mean
we, as a group, shouldn't make a recommendation to them.

Thoughts, everyone?

J.



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