Glossary
The words, and what we mean by them.
Membership software has more names than it needs. These are the terms used across this site, what each one means, and where two of them mean the same thing.
- Membership platform
- Software that connects the whole job of running a membership organisation — member records, renewals, payments, websites, events, learning, communications and reporting — around one shared record, rather than as separate systems that have to be reconciled.In Agend: The category Agend describes itself in. It covers what an AMS does and adds the websites, learning, events and community experiences members actually use.Read more
- Association management system
- The operational system of record for a membership organisation: who the members are, what they have paid for, and what they are entitled to. Historically administration-facing rather than member-facing.In Agend: Agend covers the work organisations commonly expect from an AMS, but describes itself as a Membership Platform because it also carries the member-facing experience.Read more
- Member record
- The one profile every interaction attaches to — joining, renewing, paying, registering, learning, posting, opening an email. Its value is that no part of the organisation has to ask another part who somebody is.In Agend: Every Agend product reads and writes the same member record. There are no imports, sync jobs or middleware between them.Read more
- Member portal
- The signed-in area where a member handles their own membership: renewing, paying, downloading invoices, registering for events, and managing their details and team seats.In Agend: One of the five core products in every engagement.Read more
- CRM
- The system holding people, organisations and the history between them. In a membership context it carries membership status, renewals and payments, not just sales pipeline.Read more
- CMS
- The system that runs the public website and its content. Member-aware when the site can identify a signed-in member and change what it shows them.In Agend: Agend's CMS reads the same member record as the CRM, so gated and tailored content follows membership status without a separate sync.Read more
- Corporate membership
- A membership held by an organisation rather than a person, with seats allocated to named individuals. The complication is that seats change hands while the membership itself continues.
- Renewal
- The point a membership is due to continue and the member has to act. Renewal rate is the share of members who do.In Agend: Renewals run as workflows against the member record, so a lapse is visible while there is still time to act on it.Read more
- Lapsed member
- A member whose membership has ended without being renewed. Distinct from a resignation, because the lapse is usually silence rather than a decision.
- CPD
- Structured learning a professional completes to stay current, usually counted in CPD points across a defined cycle and often required to keep a credential.In Agend: Completing a course in Learn awards the CPD points, issues the certificate and writes both to the member's profile.Read more
- Workflow
- A sequence of triggers, conditions, waits and actions that runs the routine follow-up an organisation would otherwise do by hand.In Agend: Agend workflows reach across CRM, Learn, Events, Loop and connected external tools, so staff see the exceptions that need judgement rather than the repetition.Read more
- Member journey
- The path a member takes across an organisation's systems and touchpoints over time. Gaps in it are usually places two systems do not talk, which the member experiences as indifference.Read more
- Data residency
- The country your primary data, backups and disaster-recovery copies are stored in. Distinct from where the company is based and from where support is delivered.Read more
- Data migration
- Moving membership history, organisations, payments, permissions and local exceptions out of a legacy system and into a new one, then checking that the result is right before going live.In Agend: Agend maps and imports the agreed records with purpose-built importers; the organisation approves at checkpoints, and a go-live decision follows validation.Read more
- Discovery
- The scoping work done before an implementation is committed to: the membership model, the data, the connected systems and the operating decisions. It turns an estimate into a scope people can approve.Read more
- Integration
- A connection between Agend and a system an organisation already runs, such as accounting or email marketing. The useful question is which system holds authority over a given field.Read more
- Non-dues revenue
- Income an organisation earns from something other than membership fees — events, sponsorship, advertising, job listings, courses and directory placements.Read more
- Engagement
- A measure of how much a member is actually using their membership, usually a weighted count of activity over a recent window rather than a single action.Read more
Also called: AMS, association management software
Also called: single member record, one record
Also called: self-service portal
Also called: member CRM, constituent relationship management
Also called: content management system, member-aware website
Also called: organisational membership, bundle, team membership
Also called: automation
Also called: data mapping, cutover
Also called: connector
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