Before You Begin:
- You need permission to manage Staff Users and access levels (Settings > Staff & User Access).
- Have both email addresses ready: the person’s staff/work email and their separate business or personal member email.
- Know which organization record the staff role relates to, and which business/association member record the Info Hub access relates to.
In some organizations you may run into a situation when a member of your staff is also a member of your association through their business.
Best practice is to have separate accounts for the staff login to the back office versus the member login to the Info Hub. This requires there to be two separate contact records—one for the staff member, and one for the association member. The reason for this is two-fold.
First: assigning both staff access (i.e. back office access) and user access (Info Hub access) on the same contact record usually results in neither login working correctly. When logged in to the back office as staff, the staff member may not be able to access everything they should; when logged into the Info Hub, they may have access to things they shouldn’t. This is a result of the system using one email address for both logins and applying potentially conflicting access levels.
Second: if the staff member is let go or leaves the organization and both logins (staff and Info Hub) are tied to the same email/contact record, when the staff access is removed/deactivated/deleted this may also affect their Info Hub login access.
Step-by-Step Instructions
The setup for a staff member who is also an association member should be as follows:
- Create the STAFF contact record: tie the staff-level back office access level to one contact record, related to the organization record, containing their staff info (email, phone, etc.).
- Create the MEMBER contact record: tie the user-level Info Hub access level to a separate contact record, related to the business/association member, containing THAT business’s info OR their personal info.
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Confirm each record uses a different email address, so the two logins never share credentials or conflicting access levels.
That way, if the staff member leaves or is let go, you can simply deactivate their staff access and remove them from the organization record, and their member access to the Info Hub and their relation to their business is not affected in any way.
Example
Sam Taylor is a part time staff member with Nova Valley Chamber, helping out with entering payments and event coordination. Sam is also the owner of a boutique floral shop called Sam’s Blossoms, and the floral shop is a member of the chamber.
As a part time chamber staff, Sam has a sam.taylor@novavalleychamber.org email address. She also has her business email, sam.taylor@samsblossoms.com.
Sam should have two contact records, one with her staff email and staff access that is related to Nova Valley Chamber and one with her business email and Info Hub access related to Sam’s Blossoms.
Sam’s chamber STAFF record with staff access:
Sam’s chamber MEMBER record with Info Hub access:
Common Pitfalls
- Combining both access levels on one record: Assigning staff (back office) access and user (Info Hub) access to the same contact record with one shared email usually breaks both logins. Always use two separate records with two separate emails. Keeping staff and member access levels separate ensures that staff don’t run into unexpected challenges with their staff tasks, and allows for inactivation when needed without affecting their member access.