Club administrators can require an association membership for any program using the Memberships Required field — this article covers turning it on, choosing more than one membership, and what to do when a member is blocked at checkout.
This article is for club administrators on Uplifter Club 1.0 whose programs require participants to hold a current membership with their governing association — the provincial, territorial, state or national organization that governs the sport. Associations require this for insurance and eligibility, and FederationConnector checks it live at the moment a participant registers.
It applies once Uplifter has configured the connection between your club's site and your association's Enterprise Portal. When that is done, requiring a membership is a checkbox on each program, and that checkbox is the only part you control.
Quick steps
- From your club's admin dashboard, go to Programs.
- Open Edit on the program you want to gate.
- Open the Advanced Settings tab and find Memberships Required.
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Check the memberships your association requires for this program.
- If you check more than one, a participant needs a current membership under any one of them — not all of them.
- If you leave it empty, no membership check runs on this program at all.
- Click Save.
That is the whole setup. FederationConnector does the rest at checkout, and the same checkboxes stay in place season after season.
Choosing more than one membership
This is the part most often misread. The memberships you check are alternatives, not a combined requirement.
If your association offers a Competitive membership and a Recreational membership, and either one covers this program, check both. A participant holding either will pass. Checking both does not mean a participant needs both — it means the first valid membership found lets the registration through.
Which memberships belong on which program is your association's decision. If the list on screen does not match what they told you, ask them before changing anything.
Why your list of checkboxes looks the way it does
Uplifter builds the connection before you ever see a checkbox, and how the options are grouped is agreed with your association during onboarding.
- One checkbox per membership, or several bundled into one. An association that sells fifteen memberships does not have to hand club administrators fifteen checkboxes — related memberships can be grouped so you see two or three meaningful options instead.
- The wording matches your association's own naming. Whatever a membership is called on their membership page is what you see here, and what a member sees in the tooltip at checkout. That is deliberate — it is how a blocked member works out what to buy.
- Renewals are handled for you. Each season Uplifter updates the configuration behind the checkboxes. Your programs keep the same options, and members keep seeing the same membership names.
- Both organizations need to be on Uplifter. FederationConnector reads live membership records from the association's Enterprise Portal, so it is available only where the association and the club are both Uplifter clients.
Changes go through your account manager. Adding a membership to the list, regrouping the checkboxes, renaming an option or changing where a blocked member is sent are all Uplifter configuration changes. They are not self-service, and they should not be worked around at the program level.
What your members experience
When a participant's first name, last name and date of birth match their record on the association's portal and the membership is current, the registration passes straight through to the cart. Most members never know a check happened.
A tooltip beside the participant's name lists the memberships the program requires, using your association's naming. Where a membership is missing or not usable, a banner explains what is needed and links to the association's membership page.
A blocked registration does not hold the spot. A place is only held once the participant reaches checkout. For a program that fills quickly, that is worth telling your members before registration opens — a parent who leaves to buy a membership can come back to a full program.
The best prevention is a reminder to renew with the association before your registration date, not on the night.
When a member is blocked
Ask for a screenshot of the whole message. The reason it gives tells you where it goes — and in most cases, it is not yours to fix.
| What the member sees | Who resolves it | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| The membership has expired | The member | They renew on the association's membership page and come back. Ask them to wait until the renewal has been issued before retrying. |
| The membership status is not accepted — recently purchased and not yet issued, or cancelled, suspended or refunded | The association | Tell them not to buy a second membership — they would be charged twice and need a refund. Point them at their account on the association's portal, or ask the association to check the record. |
| The name or date of birth doesn't match | Whoever holds the wrong record | If the club profile is wrong, the member fixes it with the Edit participant button and tries again. If the association's record is wrong, they contact the association. |
| A connection or system error | Uplifter | Send it to support@uplifterinc.com with the screenshot, your club site, the program name and the time. Do not advise the member to buy a membership — it will not clear the error. |
When you ask your association to check a membership, ask them to read the valid dates — not just the status. Depending on how their memberships are configured, a membership can keep an Issued status after its valid dates have passed. An Issued membership with a past valid-to date is expired, and an agent who reads only the status will tell your member everything looks fine.
What you can check, and what you cannot change
What you can check
- Open the program, go to Advanced Settings, and confirm the Memberships Required field has at least one membership selected. If it is empty, no check runs at all.
- Confirm the memberships selected are the ones your association intends for that program. Where more than one is selected, a participant needs a current membership under any one of them, not all of them.
What you cannot change — and should not try to
- Which memberships exist, and which statuses count as current. Those are your association's, set on their portal.
- The wording of the messages members see.
- The connection between your site and your association's records. If it is misconfigured, that is an Uplifter change — raise it through your account manager.
The club is never left holding a problem it cannot fix. Every outcome routes to the member, their association, or to us.
Full walkthrough
This walkthrough covers the whole picture: what FederationConnector does, the club administrator's setup, what members experience at checkout, and who resolves each outcome.
Prefer a different format? View this guide as a scrollable walkthrough or slide view.