FederationConnector checks a participant's association membership when you register for a club program — this article explains how the check works, what each message at checkout means, and what to do about it.
Who this is for: members and parents registering for a club program, and club administrators supporting them.
Where in Uplifter: the profile selection pop-up shown during club program registration on Uplifter Club 1.0.
What this is: an explanation of how your association membership is checked at checkout, and what to do about each message you might see.
When you register for a program at a club, the club may require the participant to hold a current membership with their governing association — the provincial, territorial or national organization that governs the sport. This is usually an insurance and reporting requirement, set by the association rather than the club. Uplifter checks for that membership automatically, at the moment you register, so you are not asked to type in a membership number or upload proof of anything.
Most of the time you will not notice the check happening at all. If it cannot confirm a membership, you will see a short message explaining why. This article covers what each of those messages means. Skip to the message you are looking at rather than reading end to end.
How the check works
- You start registering for a club program and choose the participant's profile in a pop-up.
-
Uplifter looks for that participant on your association's membership
records, matching on
three things exactly:
- first name
- last name
- date of birth
- If a matching profile is found and it holds a current membership of the type the program requires, you continue to your cart. Nothing else is asked of you.
- If not, a message appears explaining what is needed. Where the fix is to buy or renew a membership, the message links you to your association's membership page.
A tooltip under the participant's name lists the memberships this particular program accepts. It is worth reading before you go looking for something to buy — associations often sell several memberships, and only some of them satisfy a given program. Each one is named using your association's own naming convention, so what you see here matches what you will find on their membership page.
Two accounts, two payments. Your club account and your association membership account are separate, and so are their payments. The club's program fee is paid on the club's site; the association's membership fee is paid on the association's own portal. That is why you are sent across to the association's site rather than paying for both at once.
⚠️ Your spot is not held while you are away. A place in a program is only reserved once you reach the final cart. If a program has limited space and you leave to buy a membership, register again as soon as the membership is in place.
What each message means
The message names the membership the program requires and the participant it checked. Find the reason it gives in the first column below.
| The message says | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Membership expired | The participant was found on your association's records, and so was the membership — but its valid dates have passed. | Renew the membership on your association's page, using the link in the message. Register again once the renewal is issued. |
| Membership not approved | The participant and the membership were both found, but the membership is not in a state the check accepts. The most common reason by far is a membership bought very recently that the association has not issued yet. It also covers memberships that were cancelled, suspended or refunded. | Do not buy a second membership. Sign in to your account on your association's site and look at the membership's status. If you bought it in the last day or two, wait for the association to issue it and try again. If it shows as cancelled or suspended, contact the association. |
| Check participant info | No profile on your association's records matched the exact name and date of birth on the club profile. Either the details differ between the two sites, or this participant does not have a membership yet. | Compare the participant's club profile with their association profile — full legal names, spelling, and the exact date of birth. To fix the club record, use the Edit participant button and try again. To fix the association record, sign in to your association account or contact them. If the participant genuinely has no membership, buy one on your association's page. Common causes are listed below the table. |
| Request failed | The check itself failed. There is nothing wrong with your account, the details you entered, or the participant's membership — and neither you nor your club can fix it. This is ours. | Email support@uplifterinc.com with the details listed in the next section. Do not buy a membership in response to one of these messages — it will not resolve them. |
Common causes of a details mismatch
The check matches on first name, last name and date of birth, and all three have to match exactly. When a participant does have a membership but is not being found, it is almost always one of these:
- A nickname on one platform and a legal name on the other.
- A missing or extra hyphen or space in a surname.
- A two-part surname entered in a different order.
- A transposed date of birth — month and day swapped.
- A parent's own details entered instead of the child's.
That last one is the most common of all. The details that have to match are the participant's, not the account holder's.
About "contact system administrator." Several of these messages ask you to contact a system administrator. There is no system administrator for you or your club to contact — send these to support@uplifterinc.com instead.
And never pay twice. If a message appears after you have already bought a membership for this participant, the membership almost certainly exists and is waiting to be issued. Buying a second one will not speed that up, and it will need to be refunded.
What to include when you email support
Sending these five things with your first email usually removes a round of questions:
- A screenshot of the whole message, not just the last line.
- The club site you were registering on.
- The program or event name.
- The membership named in the message.
- The date and time it happened.
Full walkthrough
This short walkthrough follows a member registering for a club program, and shows each of the messages above on screen as it appears.
Prefer a different format? View this guide as a scrollable walkthrough or slide view.
✅ Your turn: before your club's registration opens, sign in to your association's membership portal and check that each participant's membership is issued and that its valid dates cover the season you are registering for.