Using the Activity Front Desk

With MemberTies Professional, you can use a special "Front Desk" window to quickly search for members and check them into and out of activities. The Front Desk window is designed to simplify the use of bar-coded membership ID cards. (The assumption is that the ID cards contain a bar code with the member ID encoded, and that you have entered the appropriate member ID value into the corresponding membership record within MemberTies). However, there is no requirement to have an ID card to use the Front Desk window. You can manually enter a value in any of the search fields.

The search criteria area works just like other MemberTies search windows. You can enter one or more criteria values, and when you click the Search button, the system will try to find the matching record. If you have the member ID on a bar-coded membership card, you can leave the cursor in the Member ID field, and when the card is scanned, the system should automatically display the member if the ID matches a record in the system. The bar code needs to contain the exact matching member ID, and the scanner you use needs to terminate the scan with a "carriage return" or "enter key". This simulates you pressing the Enter key on your keyboard, which triggers the Search button.

When the record is found, general information is displayed in the Member Synopsis area. If more than one record matches the search criteria, a list of matching records will be displayed so you can choose the desired record to use.

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Favorite Search Field - This field enables you to choose the search criteria field the cursor should return to when you press the Escape key. If you're using a scanner to display membership records, you can essentially scan the card, see the member, click "Check In", and press Escape to reset the screen for the next person.

•	The Add icon enables you to add a new membership record immediately. When you save the new member, it will automatically be selected and displayed in the Member Synopsis area.

•	If the End Date on the membership record has passed, the date will be displayed in red text as an informational warning to you. The system will not stop you from checking someone with an expired End Date.

•	The member's name is a clickable link to open the full member record.

•	The Comments icon enables you to change the comments field on the membership record without opening the full record.

•	The "Hide Photo" checkbox can be selected if you don't typically use member photos and would prefer to hide the empty "Photo Not Available" box.

•	A Dues icon can be displayed by enabling the Allow Dues Activity Front Desk preference. This allows the creation of dues entries directly from the Front Desk. This can be helpful if the person using the Front Desk doesn't have access to the membership record.

•	The information displayed in the Member Synopsis can be limited by the Limit Synopsis Data Activity Front Desk preference.

The Activity Check In/Out section controls the process of actually assigning a member to an activity. When the member checks IN, the start date and time are set. When the member checks OUT, the end date and time are set.

Note: The information icon displayed next to the Activity field can be used to quickly display a synopsis of the activity, and the current number of attendees checked in or out.

Activity - This dropdown contains the names of all activities that are "active". An activity is listed if the current date falls within the activity start and end date, or if the activity has no end date, or no dates at all.

The following fields enable you to setup entries that will automatically be "stamped" on each member attendance entry.

Date/Time - The selected date and time. This is normally used when you need to enter something other than the current date and time. If you would prefer to enter the current date and time, select the Use Current Date and Time checkbox instead.

Comments - This is a freeform text field for additional details about the attendance entry.

Income/Exp - Choose either Income or Expense, as appropriate to the entry. Income entries increase the overall activity balance, while expense entries decrease it. If everyone coming to the activity must pay $15.00 to get in, for example, setting this field to "Income" and the Amount field to $15.00 will streamline the recording of incoming fees by automatically entering that amount for each attendee.

Description - This is a freeform text field for additional details about the income/expense entry.

The ability to check-in via the Front Desk is controlled by several preferences.

1	Setup the appropriate data in the Activity Check In/Check Out section.

3	Click "Check In." If the member has already been checked in to the current activity, you will be prompted to confirm an additional entry.

2	The "Current Attendance Entries" list in the Activity Check In/Check Out section will display all entries for the selected member.

Note: The Hide Closed Entries checkbox will filter out all entries that already have a Check Out date/time.

Select the Current Attendance Entry you want to close, then click "Check Out". The end date and time will be set to the current date/time.

Any entry shown in the Current Attendance section can be opened for editing. Just select the record and click Open.

Once the Activity Check In/Check Out section has been set up with the appropriate values, you can click "Unattended Mode" to open a special full screen window that is designed to accept incoming card scans. When the window opens you are given the opportunity to create a password to secure it. This is helpful if you want to prevent one of your guests from simply closing the window and accessing your entire database. If you do not want a password, you can leave it blank.