Administrator Email - 11/19/2020 - Announcing
Version 61 - Part 1
This is part 1. Click
here to read part 2.
We're excited to announce the first part of ClubExpress Version 61. (There is more to come for this release, towards the end of the year.)
For this release, we have redesigned the Control Panel to make it more modern, easier to use, and with less scrolling! We also added more features to Discussion Forums, as well as a number of other enhancements. For more information, click the sections on the left.
The new Control Panel has not yet been deployed. We wanted to give you advance notice before changing a function that almost everyone uses. There is a
new video tutorial you can watch now to learn how it works, and the online help system has been updated. We will deploy the new Control Panel on Tuesday morning, November 24. All other features listed here have been deployed.
We also wanted to let everyone know that Stripe is now fully deployed and available for those clubs and associations around the world that want to set up their own merchant account.
Version 10.1 Webinar
We will hold a webinar this coming Monday, November 23, to demonstrate the new features in version 10.1.
Time: 12:00 Noon Eastern, 11:00 AM Central, 10:00 AM Mountain, 9:00 AM Pacific.
As usual, this webinar will be recorded and available within 48 hours for those people who can't make it on Monday.
Here are the connection details:
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 813 9236 8707
Password: 225866
There is no need to RSVP but attendance is limited to the first 500 people. If you can't make it, this webinar will be recorded and an edited version will be available on the website within 48 hours.
In this issue:
Control Panel
(Note that this feature will be deployed next Tuesday morning, November 24. Since every club and association uses it, we wanted to give you a chance to view the changes and even watch the new video tutorial, so that you can have a running start in navigating this new interface.)
Many customers found the current Control Panel unwieldy and dated, with too many options and too much scrolling. There was no way to remove features that your club or association would never use, and too much space was taken up by configuration options that were only rarely used. So we took this feedback to heart and redesigned the Control Panel to address these criticisms. The new Control Panel is shown below.
It still has the same six tabs (or seven for our Aging-in-Place Village customers.) Frequently-used Admin Functions are in the top panel, including a new option for Reports. Our Website Modules (those functions that have both a "user" side and an "admin" side) are in the next panel, followed by the Setup functions that are used only rarely. Each option has a icon which will eventually carry over into the function itself. Clicking the icon or text takes you to the admin screen. For Website Modules, you can immediately see the module visibility, and you can also switch this panel between accessing the "user" side or the "admin" side.
A new option allows us to post Notices from ClubExpress. These will appear at the top but only once for each administrator. You can Hide or Show them at any time, and also view previous notices.
Click the Configure icon to configure how each function appears on the Control Panel. A popup dialog will appear with a list of functions for that tab on the left side. When you select an admin-only function, the right side of the dialog allows you to define coordinators for that function. When you select a Website Module, the right side of the dialog allows you to configure the name, visibility. and other settings for that module, as well as defining coordinators. There is a new option to completely "Disable and Hide" a function that you are not using. For example, if you will never use the Collectibles module, you can remove it from your active Control Panel.
The Support tab has also been redesigned to make it more accessible and responsive.
A new video tutorial is available on the ClubExpress YouTube page.
Using the Control Panel
Discussion Forums
The following features have been added to Discussion Forums:
- When users reply to a message and the Quote Message link is clicked, they will see a new popup screen where they can edit the message before it's pasted into their reply. Usually, this will involve removing text that's not relevant, or highlighting text that the author specifically wants to reply to.
- Members can now edit their messages on mobile devices, if editing is allowed for that forum in the first place.
- "<" and ">" characters are now supported in the forums editor.
- For multi-tier clubs with separate websites, members of a child club can now participate in forums at the parent level, including seeing thread and message counts, and viewing messages.
Aging-In-Place Villages
The following enhancements have been added to our support for Aging-In-Place Villages
- Further improvements to the new Automated Open Request Emails feature.
- New option on the Member Services Manager screen to view both dated and undated service requests on the same screen.
- After editing a service request, when you return to the Member Services Manager, you will be positioned with the service you just edited at the top of the screen.
- For Transportation requests that are round trips, you now have the option to split the request into two separate requests. This might be used if there is a significant break between taking members to their appointments/meetings, and picking them up to return home.
- On the Service Options screen, you now have additional choices when sending out the "Not-Needed" email to volunteers who have been added to a service request but who are not needed because someone else has been assigned.
- Many Service reports can now be filtered by Service Category.
- There are new reports showing scheduled vacations and volunteer availability.
Other Enhancements
And in other parts of the ClubExpress platform:
- We now have the ability to resend the initial welcome email to people who have not yet logged in. This can be done as many times as you need, but note that a new temporary password is generated for each member, each time.
- When admins record a payment, there is now more flexibility in whether to notify the member or non-member by email. This option is available for the "Comp" and "Paid through a Separate System" payment methods.
- Tertiary members can now be assigned to a committee.
- For clubs and associations with virtual membership cards and Business Memberships, we can now configure the platform so that a card for the business membership will show the business name above and the member's name below.
- We have improved the Print Page function on the Pending Payments page, for people who want to print an invoice to pay by check or cash.
Bug Fixes
The following bugs were fixed since our last version announcement:
- In the People Manager/People Lookup function, we fixed the following issues:
- Some customers were seeing a delay of 15-20 seconds in making changes in the filter panel.
- There was a problem in the filter panel if you removed all but the last filter, the panel would shrink and the "Add Filter" button would not be readily clickable.
- Dropped non-members were not being included in searches.
- In the "Membership" column for non-members, we now show if they are Active or Dropped. People who have been removed will now show a status of "Removed".
- Paging no longer refreshes the entire page, just the results table.
- When clicking the "Return to Previous Page" for non-member histories, you will now be returned to the People Manager, not the old non-member manager screen.
- There was an error when sorting by company name.
- On the People Lookup page, mailing list categories were not being shown unless you were on a multi-tier parent club. Categories will now be shown but only when category is included as a search filter. And users whoa re in multiple categories will appear separately for each category being filtered.
- When you add or remove notes for someone, the grid icon will now change immediately to show if there are notes or not.
- If you reinstated a Dropped member, then immediately clicked the status option again for the same member, the popup appeared as if the member was still dropped.
- In the Menu editor, the [Ctrl-arrow] keys were not working as expected to move menu choices left and right, up and down.
- On the Money Options screen, line breaks are now retained in the Other Payment Options panel.
- There was a problem with the Document Upload duplicate message notification.
- With additional member data questions, where the question could have multiple answers (check box list and multiple text boxes), if a slot was skipped, this was causing problems with Ad Hoc Reports.
- In the new Page Builder, we fixed the following issues:
- there was a problem with "%" signs being entered in text.
- We also changed the default visibility for new rows from "Hidden" to "Visible to All".
- Admins were unable to remove a custom web page from being assigned to a subgroup.
- There was a minor problem formatting dates for international users
- If a Widget title included an apostrophe, everything after that was being cut off.
- URL Validation was not allowing parentheses.
- There was a problem with the credit card refunds function, when the Description contained the "&" character.
- For Gift Memberships that were given anonymously, the email to the gift giver was using "Anonymous" instead of the giver's name.
- In Discussion Forums, it was possible for members using mobile devices to see messages that had previously been blocked and made visible to admins only.
Again, all of these problems have been fixed.