If your organization wishes to control access to facilities like clubhouses, pools, etc. then the Access Control feature should help alleviate many of your concerns.
In this article, we’ll cover getting the feature installed and walk through each of the options available to you.
Requirements
- You must be an organization admin
- You must be logged in
Installation
All features are installed from the Settings screen listed under Organization Menu. Once installed, you can configure various options before enabling the feature which makes it visible to your members.
1. Main Menu
Once logged in, hit the menu icon in the top left to open the sidebar. Scroll down to Organization Menu and select Settings.
2. Settings
Once on the Settings screen, scroll to Features and select Access Control.
If a feature is not installed, the circle next to the name will be gray. If a feature is installed but not enabled, it will be yellow. Finally, if a feature is installed and enabled it will be green.
3. Access Control
On the Access Control screen, you should see a short description as well as an Install button. Go ahead and select Install. You will be presented with a confirmation message. Select Continue.
4. Feature Configuration
The Access Control feature has several configuration options which we will cover below. Read each one carefully so that you fully understand how best to configure the feature for your organization.
Guest Passes
This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you allow your members to bring guests, then you’ll want to select Enable guest passes. If not, leave it unselected and move on to the next configuration.
Typically, guest passes belong to members, which is the default setting. However, if your members are grouped into accounts (i.e. households) and guest passes are owned or distributed an on account-basis, you’ll want to select Account for Guest passes belong to. Note that any future change to this setting will remove all existing guest passes and reset them to your new setting. This cannot be undone!
Default guest passes represents the number of guest passes assigned when a new member or account is created. The default value is 10 but you are free to change this to any number from 0 to 15.
Expiration
By default, and for obvious security reasons, all access passes are set to expire which means each time your member loads their access pass in the app, a new time-based access pass is generated and is valid for five minutes at which point a new access pass will automatically be generated.
This prevents your “less honest” users from taking a screenshot of their access pass and sending it to a non-permitted person to enter your facilities.
Your organization may not care about this, in which case you can disable this setting. In the event that you print physical passes as well, note that you can set specific access passes to not expire while leaving expiration in place for all other access passes.
Fastlane
This experimental feature utilizes the location data from your members’ phones at the time they load their access pass. This data is passed to Memberment to determine if a member is within a geofence you define on a location.
The intent is two-fold. First, if a user is within a geofence the attendant will be notified removing the need to scan the pass which makes for a faster check in process. Second, if you make Fastlane required, then a member’s access pass will not be displayed unless they are within a valid geofence. This added security measure prevents someone off site from taking a screenshot of their access pass and sending it to someone at your facility to beat the five minute expiration time.
The recommended setting here is to Enable Fastlane but not Require Fastlane. The reason for this is that many members may not feel comfortable sharing their location from the mobile app and this should be respected when possible. By not sharing their location, they will never be able to load their access pass if Require Fastlane is enabled.
Locations
You should enter any location that your members will be gaining access to. This might include a pool, club house, etc.
When adding a new location or editing an existing location, you can opt to Enable Geofence and select a Fence Radius to be used by Fastlane.
Attendants
Attendants are organization members tasked with scanning members into a location. All organization administrators can perform attendant duties.
Add this capability to a non-administrator (i.e. lifeguard, security, etc.) to allow them to perform this role at your facilities. They will only have the ability to scan members in and cannot view or edit member information.
5. Enabling Access Control
Once you’re satisfied with your configuration, select Save in the top right of the screen.
When you’re ready to allow your members to view their access passes, select the red Disabled button to enable the feature.
Notes
In the off season, you may wish to disable the Access Control feature to remove the access passes from your member’s screens. This is acceptable and will retain all access pass and guest pass information for all of your members including photos, arrivals, guests, etc.
Uninstalling the Access Control feature should be thoughtfully considered before proceeding. When uninstalled, you will lose all member photos, guest passes, and perhaps most important.. arrival information. This action cannot be undone!
Conclusion
In this article we’ve covered installing the Access Control feature and touched on all of the very configuration options and how they impact your organization.