Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, custom apps have a technical support cost of about 10% of the development total, renewable on a yearly basis, paid on a monthly basis. If your app development cost is $10,000, a monthly fee of $85 would be applicable.

We have certainly done this before.

If your app idea brings benefit to the platform, and with your permission, we would undertake the development cost of the entire app and make it available for all subscribers.

No problem. We would enter into an agreement which would detail all the particulars of your app.

All such apps are treated on a case by case basis as development costs and responsibilities would change with the nature of the custom app.

You own all of the code produced for your custom app - meaning we will not resell it or make it available for anyone else.

If you want to license your app through Members Village to others, both parties would enter into a partnership agreement.

Yes. There is no limit to how custom your app can be as long as it uses Members Village at its core, for security and performance reasons.

Applicants and members will be able to pay for membership fees by credit card. E-transfer, cheque and bank transfer are other optional methods.

While we offer a preferential rate plan through Elavon other payment gateways for member payments which are supported, and carry no additional cost, include:

• Authorize.net
• Braintree
• Global Payment
• iATS
• Moneris
• Paypal
• Square
• Stripe
• WorldLine

We regularly add new gateways as they become available.

E-transfer, cheque and bank transfers are accounted for manually once they appear in your bank account.

The member options which are supported out-of-the-box are:

1. Annual or anniversary based
2. Individual membership
3. Group memberships
4. Multi-year memberships
5. Applications/renewal with approval process

Members Village is built with the ability to run concurrent membership cycles with their own member options and pricing. These cycles run independently to offer you multiple paths for membership and/or certification.

For example, your association could run a yearly membership cycle and a certification cycle which renews every 3 years.

Volume discounting is available at no additional cost and built right into the member management module of Members Village.

Your association also has the option to implement a preferential group pricing model via discount codes.

As you build and manage your database within the Database Builder the following things happen: your search options will adjust themselves for any new fields, your Excel import and export will adjust itself too, validation rules are automatically applied, and any forms which depend on your database also self-update.

Of course, that is the why we created the tools found within Database Builder. You can build simple or complex databases or have our data experts do it for you.

Your data will be backed up nightly.

Absolutely!

Members Village is a powerful relational database - meaning it can be configured by your association to be very simple or store complex data sets. You are in full control of the database nomenclature.

As you make changes to your database the software will also adjust itself to factor in the new data and enable you to easily manage your database. As you configure your database Members Village will provide basic business intelligence into your data.

Not a database nerd? That's OK! We offer enterprise support which will painlessly help you configure your database just the way you want it.

For each organization in your CRM, an organization manager is identified. That manager can then add, edit and remove personal profiles from the organization enabling group membership renewals. Members Village will also ensure that group membership discounts are factored in during the member renewal process.

Of course - and that's the idea! Among other items, your members will be able to get an exact idea of where they are in terms of professional development.

Members Village was designed to be extremely flexible and give you full control over the data your association keeps. The Members Portal will provide access to change their personal information, view their financial transactions, view and update their submissions (such as a Call for Papers or certification data), get notified of membership renewals, view newest Groups functionality, view new documents, manage their Classifieds, manage their Job postings and view their personalized events schedule.

The Members Portal comes included with Members Village and is fully usable right away. There are no additional fees to activate or use the Members Portal.

Personalization or custom functionality addition would carry an investment - except in the case where we deem the request beneficial to Members Village and implement such functionality as part of the core product.

Automatically! There is nothing else for you to do to have articles of all types be SEO friendly.

Yes! That was easy.

Of course, you'll be easily able to define different sections of your newsletter and can create menu items, known as anchors, to help your members navigate each issue.

Yes! You'll have access to our expert crafted Blocks, images, videos and configuration options to make stunning newsletters.

Of course, you'll have access to over 50 supported languages and can mirror you articles as you see fit.

Always. You are in full control of your website menu/navigation. This also includes creating menus for the general public or menu items for members only.

You bet. You can choose from over 50+ supported languages and mirror your content as you see fit.

Naturally! You'll have an assortment of call-to-action Blocks available at your fingertips to help you create the ideal website experience.

You bet! You'll have the ability to choose from over 15 apps to enhance your website pages and improve your visitors' experience. This includes anything from membership purchase options to selling event tickets.

Absolutely. Blocks supports crafting content which is meant for a certain audience if needed. Available on any page across your website.

Of course, Blocks integrates with your YouTube account to make all videos available to you for insertion as a media item within your content or block background.

Blocks are designed to automatically work on all devices without any additional effort, the built-in testing tool will help you ensure your content looks fantastic no matter what device someone is using.

Of course, we provide a $50/month discount on those accounts which bundle Members Village with an Elavon account for credit card payment processing.

Of course! Batch membership renewals and payments are available out-of-the-box and without additional fees.

Furthermore, you have control over whether there groups who are renewing receive any sort of discounts based on the number of members they renew.

Our association software + database cloud is fully located within Canada so you are going to comply with various rules and regulations right out-of-the-box.

The laws you will comply with right away include:

1. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
2. Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
3. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Fraud detection and prevention is handled fully by Elavon. Your association will not be liable for any fees due to credit card fraud.

Absolutely! When we setup your Members Village installation on Elavon you are PCI DSS compliant right away, without any additional compliance paperwork for you.

As a certified partner of Elavon we can honestly say we're pretty impressed by the pricing and infrastructure offer. Elavon is currently in the top 5 credit card processors in the U.S and they've even got their own Wikipedia write-up.

Your experience will include a personalized review of your current payment processing details (if you have an existing account) to ensure we can save you some cash! Once we estimate what the savings will be, you'll complete an application and once the account is approved it will be automatically enabled in your Members Village installation.

You will be able to collect credit card payments in both Canadian dollars (CAD) and US dollars (USD).

Of course, Members Village will ensure that a single form will adapt itself to the use and hide or show any applicable fields to the person completing the form.

Yes, form logic or conditions (meaning fields appear or disappear based on a response) are supported.

The data collected through your forms is backed up nightly.

Yes, your association will be able to build comprehensive profiles of members through multiple forms each collecting different sets of data and consolidating that data in a central profile.

Your association will dictate whether what fields are collected on which form. We automate the process behind the scenes, but leave you in full control of what data you collect.

Your association will dictate whether directory details are fully automated or whether your members can control what gets displayed. All these decisions are made during the initial configuration and our experts will walk you through the benefits of each.

With privacy and security in mind, your member directory can be locked down and made available for members only. Should this requirement change in the future it can then be made public, or vice versa.

You bet! All the data coming out of your member directory will be easily access by search engines such as Google, and where appropriate, we make use of rich snippets to enhance the digestion of your data.

Easily! Once configured the member directory will ensure that visitors can search and find members who meet your business criteria, such as showing their basic profile, credentials or certifications. Once found, only the data you wish to display will show, ensuring your associations data isn't compromised.

Certainly! You have the option to attach a fully configurable evaluation form to any of your courses. You can then review the data within your administrator portal or export it for dissemination.

Of course! You'll have the flexibility to host both paid and unpaid courses on our Learning Management System. Whether you're looking to offer premium professional development or share knowledge for free, we've got you covered. So, feel free to mix and match as you please! Happy teaching!

Cohorts are fully supported, allowing you to create a sense of community and collaboration among your students. They can join courses as part of a cohort, making the learning experience more engaging and interactive. Embrace the power of teamwork and start building a fantastic learning community!

Our LMS is designed to make things easier for you and automated certificate issuance is on of its features. Once your learners successfully complete a course, they'll receive their well-deserved certificates without any extra hassle. Cheers to teaching and certifying!

Absolutely not! There are no limits on how many courses you can host within Members Village. We're also here to support your members' learning journey every step of the way should you need a hand through our Premium Support. Happy professional development!

Of course, there is a standard dashboard available to you within our membership software giving you an idea of the overall mass mailing performance and also business intelligence about individuals emails which have been sent.

With Members Village you can have as many member profiles, with as many mass mailing lists as you wish. And, oh yeah, you can send out as many mass emails as you like without fearing hitting a limit and being told to pay more.

To mitigate risk of mass emails being flagged as spam we use Postmark as our email distribution network, ensuring servers with a high reputation and reliable uptime.

We continuously adapt and improve the mass mailing functionalities to ensure Members Village meets and exceeds industry standards for successful delivery.

Members Village will ensure that marketing emails from the membership software comply by providing the recipient with a simple way to unsubscribe from future mailings.

Members Village will provide your association with an insights dashboard which will contain a snapshot breakdown of your event. Including, but not limited to: financial insights with sales and refunds, attendee breakdown, attendance list with export, additional completed forms.

Your association will be able to collect payments for event related charges by credit card, e-transfer, cheque and bank transfer.

Credit card payment gateways which are available, at no additional charge, to your association for event related payments including, event registration, conference registration, sponsorship payment include:

• Authorize.net
• Braintree
• Elavon
• Global Payment
• iATS
• Moneris
• Paypal
• Square
• Stripe
• WorldLine

Members Village can also support any other payment gateway for your association should you have a specific request.

Transactions for e-transfer, cheque and bank transfers will be entered manually into Members Village once received.

Absolutely! Keep your website as is as Members Village can run as an independent and secure members, database and payment portal.

You also have the ability to integrate your Members Village membership database through our API. It's secure and will provide your association with the basic functionality to authenticate, add, edit and delete members and users. Financial reports and other details will be available to your through our secure Members Village portal.

During the on-boarding process we will setup a vanity URL of your choice, so for example, you could use a subdomain such as: database.yourassociation.extension

Payment processing for membership payments and renewals is available to all associations on Members Village. We offer no-cost integration options with the following payment gateways:

• Elavon
• WorldLine
• iATS
• Moneris
• Global Payment
• Authorize.net
• Square
• Stripe
• Paypal
• Braintree