Collecting information: Which form to use

Summary:

What kind of forms can I have?

Event, subscription or membership form?

Typical information organisations collect and which form to put it in

Deselecting Your Form

Forms - an introduction

Forms are an incredibly flexible way of collecting information about your members.  You can structure your questions in different ways (e.g. using dropdowns or checkboxes), choose whether members are required to answer or not. However, sometimes too much choice can make life complicated.  So this article (we hope) will help you figure out how to get the best out of your forms.

What kind of forms can I have?

You can use your form in 3 different ways:

• As a membership form
• As a subscription form
• As an event form

You can use the same form for multiple events, or for multiple subscriptions.  However you can't use the same form as your membership form and as a subscription form or event form. 

Event, subscription or membership form?

Before you start creating your form, it is worth thinking about what the form is for, and which is the best type of form for collecting the information you want. It is quite likely that you will end up having a range of different forms (e.g. a form you use for member events, one for training, one for open events, a membership form and a couple of different subscription forms).  If you do, keep a mental note of what you have asked for on the other forms, so you don't start asking members to repeat themselves...

Here is a quick summary of when a member is asked to complete each.  For example, if you want to collect a person's Date of Birth, you only want to ask them once, not every time they sign up for an event, so this might be better collected in a membership form.

• Event Form:  Every time the member buys a ticket for an event which has a form.  One form per ticket (see multi-form filling for exception)  Useful for collecting information about their participation in the event (e.g. medical consent, emergency contact details while they are at the event)
• Membership Form:  Once when the member first interacts with your organisation (applies for membership, buys their first ticket/subscription).  One form per member.  Useful for collecting information about the member themselves.  So if you have a membership form, there is no need to collect the same information on the event form (and you may annoy your members by asking them to repeat themselves..).  The only exception is if you hold an event that is open to non-members.  In this case tick the box for "open event" when setting up the event, and add a form for any information you want to collect about the people participating.
• Subscription Form:  When the member buys/renews a subscription.  One form per subscription (so if you have a group subscription that will be one for the whole group, not one for each member).

A typical new member will generally buy a subscription at the time they join.  So, if you add forms to everything, they are likely to be asked during the checkout process to complete a membership (one per group member if they are in a group), plus one for each subscription they purchase.  That can add up to quite a bit of form filling, so it is worth keeping your forms to just the information you really want.  Don't get carried away just because it's fun and easy to create interactive questions ;-)

Typical information organisations collect and which form to put it in

You DON'T need to include any of the following in your membership or subscription forms (because WebCollect collects these as standard fields):

• Name
• Title
• Email address
• Phone numbers (home, work, mobile)
• Date of birth (not compulsory)
• Address
• Who is in their family or corporate group - where you have family/junior/group memberships

If you are creating an event form, WebCollect collects all this information about the purchaser, but they may not be the participant at the event.  So if you want to know who is coming, add these fields to your event form, but call them "Participant Name" etc.

Some general advice as to which form to put your form question in:

• If the information is about the member themselves, put it in the membership form.  If it is about their use of the subscription (e.g. locker number) put it in the subscription form.  If it is about their participation in an event, put it in the event form
• If you only want to collect information from some members (e.g. Date of Birth from juniors), either put it in the relevant subscription form, or use radio buttons in the membership form (so only relevant members have to answer the question)

Here are a few examples that have come from some of our current clubs and societies:

• Referees (proposer/seconder):  Put in membership form
• Company (e.g. for professional societies).  If they are in a group, you will probably 
• Member types (player, referee, coach, sponsor...) that are different to your subscriptions:  Put in membership form
• Medical conditions that are relevant for your organisation's activities:  In membership form if it is for general info about the member.  In event form if you need to know about specific conditions of participants at an event.  
• Qualifications or experience.  Generally put these in a membership form, unless they are specifically relevant to a subscription or event.
• Emergency contact details:  Generally not necessary in membership form, because WebCollect collects phone numbers as standard fields.  Put in event form if you need a list of contact numbers to print off for the event.
• Age group

Deselecting Your Form

If you have used your form as a membership, subscription or event form and want to deselect it, so you can use it elsewhere:

• Membership Form:  To stop using it as a membership form, in the admin panel, click on Edit in the Customise Your Organisation section and select the Configuration tab.  In the form dropdown, select the top blank option (or a different form).
• Subscription Form:  To find out which subscriptions it is being used for, click on view all in the Subscriptions section of the admin panel.  You will see the form listed against the subscriptions it is being used for.  Go to each subscription and deselect the form from the dropdown.
• Event Form:  To find out which events it is being used for, go to the form in the admin panel.  There will be a list (top right) of events where it is being used.  Go to each event and deselect the form from the dropdown.

If you really want to be able to use the same form as both a membership form and an event or subscription form, then you can make a second identical form. Go to the form in the admin panel and click on "Add another one like this".  You can then use the new one you have created.  However, think carefully about this first - members are asked to fill out a membership form (one for each member in their group) when they first interact with your organisation.  If you use the same form for a subscription or event, then new members may well be asked to fill the same form out twice.