Membership defines a member's relationship to the organization, the benefits the member receives and the member's obligations to the organization. Membership types are typically defined in the organization's bylaws or constitution, have a cost, a limited duration and grant privileges to the membership holder.

Each organization has rules determining which types of memberships are available to which classes of potential members, and how many memberships of a given type a member may hold at any one time. Once a membership has been acquired according to the organization's rules, one or more types are automatically assigned to the member to classify the member and convey roles that grant Web site access. Unlike other User Types or Company Types, types granted through a membership cannot be assigned or revoked manually. Access granted through a membership cannot be removed without disabling the membership or deactivating the member.

Figure 18.1. Types assigned through membership

Fred's Board membership just expired and was replaced with a Sponsor membership. When the Board membership was archived, the 'Board' User Type was automatically removed. When his Sponsor membership became current, he was automatically assigned the 'Sponsor' User Type.

Each of an organization's membership types has a corresponding custom type or set of types that are assigned to members of that type when membership is granted. Company Types are created for company memberships and User Types for individual memberships. These are all custom types crafted to reflect the organization's membership structure, so the same Company Type may be assigned through different types of memberships or multiple Company Types may be assigned through a single membership type. Frequently, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the Membership Type and a companion type named after the membership type, such as in the preceding example. When a membership is acquired, the type is automatically assigned to the member, and can then be used to retrieve and manage members holding this type of membership.

The rules governing membership acquisition and renewal are often complex. Because membership information is widely published and adherence to the process is so important, Kavi Members tools allow membership types and processes in the membership layer to be defined in far greater detail than other classification layers in the system. The following documents clarify how Kavi Members supports and helps define an organization's process for managing membership signup and renewal.