Configuration Options

These Options are set by the U3A's Administration Co-ordinator. A default set of options is defined when the U3A was configured on MyU3A.

These options may be changed at any time.

There are 5 groups of Management options:

To retain a changed option in any group, click Update to leave the group or Cancel to ignore any changes.

When leaving the App, click Commit to retain all changes, or Exit to ignore all changes.

General Options

Lines Per Page

This setting describes the maximum number of lines of courses, members, locations etc listed in the page.
U3As with larger numbers of members will need the ability to use larger pages to avoid continuous use of the Continue button. The disadvantage of larger page sizes is that it is cumbersome continually scrolling down to the bottom of the page to reach the action buttons.

There will be a page size that optimises these two disadvantages and makes for comfortable operation. A little experimenting with various page sizes might be worthwhile.

Login timeout

if a workstation has been idle for this number of seconds, the operator must log in again. This is a security measure.

Email Backups To

This is the email address to whom the daily backup of the database is to be sent. If this address is not given or is invalid, you will not receive a daily copy of your U3A's database backup.

Payment Service

This specifies the external payment service used for online payment of fees. Currently the options available are:

None if no external payment service is used.

PayPal if the PayPal system is used. In this case, the PayPal Email option must contain a valid email address.

eWay if the eWay Payment system is used. In this case the eWay API Key and Password must be entered in the Config section. These must be entered by a level 2 support person. normally, the API values for the eWay sandbox will be entered for the Practise and Support databases.

Paypal Email Address

This is the email address you defined when you set up your PayPal Merchant account. If this address is not suppled, or the Payment Service is not set to PayPal, the PayPal on line payments facility will not be enabled. If this address is invalid you will not receive payments and the money will be returned to the payee after 30 days. PayPal will email a warning to the merchant account holder if this occurs.

Logo URL

If a logo other than the standard logo is to be used, install the logo on the U3A's personal website and place it's URL here.

Back End CSS URL

This is the URL of a Cascading Style Sheet (css) that is to override the standard css for the back end apps.

Front End CSS URL

This is the URL of a Cascading Style Sheet (css) that is to override the standard css for the front end apps. This is used to achieve a uniform appearance for the front end class lists linked directly to the user-u3a's webite.

Omail Result

Enter the email address of an admin person to get a copy of the result email for omail. (Optional).

Omail Email

Enter the email address of an admin person to get a copy of the each email sent by omail. (Optional).

AGM Date

The date of the next Annual General Meeting in d/m/y format.

Membership Only

This is selected if the online Member Services are to handle membership applications and renewals only (no requests for places in classes, forums or social events). This overrides the Next Year Options for preferential and open enrolment dates in online member services, but not the Enrolment Administration app.

Pay by CreditCard

Selected "yes" only if your office has credit card facilities.

Pay by EFT

Select "yes" if you allow direct payment to your bank account. After checking with your bank, the amount paid must be entered via the Enrolment app.

Pay by Money Order

If you accept money orders, select "Yes".

Payment Details

This is only used if you are need to provide details for bank deposits. It is less cumbersome if you raise your bank deposit slips manually in conjunction with the Daily Cash Report.
If you select "Yes", you must enter:

Office Volunteer Email Edit

If you need the Office Volunteer role (and those with higher access levels) to be able to edit member email addresses in the Enrolment Administration app, select "Yes", otherwise editing is enabled only for Office Manager and above.

Membership Options

There are two ways of handling membership renewals (selected in Configuration options): If you have selected the Cyclic Renewal of membership:

Renewal Reminder

A reminder that membership needs to be renewed is sent this number of days before the expiry date.

Renewal followup

If the membership has not been renewed this number of days following expiry, a remonder is sent.

Renewal Available

Membership may be renewed this number of months prior to expiry.

Expired Members

When membership has expired, selecting "Rejoin" charges a joining fee (if applicable) when the membership is renewed.

Member Badges

As each member U3A will want a different member badge format, the information for producing badges is placed in the inout folder for downloading to a local workstation where the badge can be produced in the desired format using a mail merge application (e.g. Microsoft word). If you require this information to be produced, click either Renewal or Payment option depending on whether the badge is produced either on renewal of membership or payment of the membership fee. Badge information is produced in the Members app for download to local computers where a Mail Merge is used to produce member badges in the preferred format.

Badge with email

The email address is included in the badge data. This option is not recommended as it is a major security breach.

Optional Date of Birth

By default, a date of birth is required when applying for membership. If you don't want this to be enforced, click Yes (not recommended as it removes an important aspect of data privacy).

Home Language

If you want to capture the language a member uses at home, click Required.

EmergencyContact

If Required is selected, an enrolling member must supply at least one emergency contact name and phone number. This is the recommended option.

Country of Origin

If you want to force capture the country of origin for a member, click Required.

Occupation

To force entry of the occupation prior to retirement, select Required.

Skills

To force entry of the members skills, select Required.

Patrons

If you request donations from your members, click Renewal to make this request only when renewing or joining, and Continual to place the request on the member Application page of the enrolment apps.
If your U3A offers members to become Patrons (at a price) clicking either Continual or Renewal will offer patronage options when joining or renewing memberhips provided the Patron table has been set up.

Ask how

If you track the effectiveness of your promotion campaigns, you will want to know how new members heard about U3A. If you are not interested, select None. The easiest method is to set up a series of questions in a dropdown list from which a member may select the most appropriate. Select Dropdown. A less accurate method is just to accept any text the member may be prepared to contribute. This is the default.

Verify Address

Use the Data Tools site to verify member addresses (additional charge).

Associate Check

Associate members must be current members of another U3A. Click Yes if your U3A requires a valid receipt from the other U3A before allowing this grade of membership.

Postal address

If you wish to collect both a member's residential address and postal address, click Yes. The default is to collect just one address.

Rsrv places - New Members

If you wish to reserve class places in certain classes for new members, click Yes. The default is to treat new members as any other member enrolling at the same time. To use this option reserve the desired number of places in each class affected. When a new member attempts to enrol in a class, a check is made to see whether there are any reserved places in the class. If so, the member is enrolled in the class, the reserved count is reduced by 1. If the reserved count is zero, the enrolment application is treated in the same way as any other member.

Coursebook Option

Select "Yes" if a member can elect to have a course/class catalogue posted out in either the online member services or admin Enrolment app (update profile).

Recent Members

All member data is retained on file even if the member has not been active for several years. If you want to restrict the members displayed in the Member app to just those who have been active this year and last year, click Yes.

Receipt password

Select Yes if you want the member's password to be shown on the Receipt handed to the member at the conclusion of the back end Enrolment process. This should only be used for the first enrolment day after introducing MyU3A. It should then be switched off to maintaing privacy of member information.

Display Prior Member

If a new membership ID was generated during takeup, the membership ID from your previous system will have been recorded. This option determines whether the ID from your previous system is displayed throughout MyU3A.

Pay before Enrol

Enable this option if you want to prevent a member being accepted into a class prior to their membership fee being received. With this option enabled, members will not be given the opportunity to request places in classes until the membership fee has been received.

Payment Required

In Office Enrolment, insist outstanding payment be recorded before continuing the process. The Next button does not appear until payment is registered.

Fee Basis

Membership fee payment nbased on date of renewal or availability of a place in the first class.

Join Online

if you want to prevent new members from joining on line, click No. The default is Yes.

Password Emails

Selecting No prevents the Admin Enrolment app automatically emailing the generated password to the member.

Newsletter Choice

To prevent members with an email address from selecting the Post option, click No.

Cancel Unpaid

To automatically cancel membership for members who have not paid the membership fee following the Grace Days after joining or renewing, click Yes. Currently, this only applies to Cyclic Membership.

Record New/Renew

These are the options for producing badges in the Members app.

Grace Days

The number of days permitted for a membership to be overdue for repayment before the membership is cancelled. (Applies to cyclic renewal only at this time).

Minimum Age

Enter the minimum age for membership if you have one. You must set the Date of Birth option to Required or Year Only for this to work.

Class Options

SummerSchool

If you operate a Summer School over the Christmas Vacation, enable this option. You must also define the dates of the summer school in the Term Calendar as Term 5.

Replace Absentees

Students who plan to miss one or more sessions of the class are expected to apologise via the On Line Member Services or phone the office where the apology is entered via the Apology app. If a student is absent on Max Absences number of consecutive sessions without apologising, that student may be terminated and a student from the wait list offered the place. If Auto is selected, this is actioned during the end of day backup process and the student with earliest request date on the wait list is offered the place.

Temporary Places

If a student apologises for minimum number of consecutive sessions, a student on the wait list may be offered a temporary place in the class during that period. If Auto is selected, this is actioned during the end of day backup process and the student with earliest request date on the wait list is offered the temporary place. e

Roll Type

If students must sign in when they attend classes as opposed to just ticking to indicate their presence, nominate the Signature options. With this option selected, the Attendance Report provides space for signatures and covers just six sessions.

Alternatively, the Tick option provides an Attendance Report with narrow columns for ticking when a member attends. This roll covers a whole term or semester.

Roll: Suppress paid

If Membership is selected. the Paid column in the Attendance Report will display an entry for the member's membership status Yes (Membership paid) or No if the membership has not been paid.

If In Full is selected, the Paid column in the Attendance Report will display an entry for the member's financial status NO (member has one or more outstanding payments due) or Yes the member has NO outstanding payments at the time the Attendance listing is prepared.

If Suppress is selected, the Paid column in the Attendance Report will NOT be displayed in the attendance listing of either type (tick or Signature).

Include Tutors

Include all tutors other than the prime tutor (position 1) in the count of students for the class.

Prior Class

Where new course/class codes are assigned during takeup to MyU3A the course/class codes used in your previous system will be captured. Selecting this option displays the code from your previous system in course/class pages in MyU3A.

Tutor Portal

The attendance Only option limits functions within the tutor portal to priniting Attendance Reports and Roll Marking. This applies only to the online tutor portal. The admin Tutor Portal app still allows dates and classes to be updated.

Images

Include class images in the public class list. Up to 3 images per class are permitted. There are severe restrictions on the pixel sizes of images and a precise naming convention.

Class Grace Days

The number of days between acceptance in a class and withdrawal from that class before the class charge becomes payable.

Offer Validity Days

The number of days after an offer of a place in a class is made before the offer is withdrawn if not accepted.

Class Times Resolution

When entering start and finish time for classes in the Class Management app, times are verified to avoid typing errors. This defines the number of minutes for resolving times. For instance, if you classes start on the hour, quarter hour, half hour and three-quarter hour, the resolution is 15 minutes. For a resolution of 10 minutes, classes start at 10,20,30,40,50 minutes past the hour and on the hour.
This option can be overridden for a specific class in Class Manager Class Update function by selecting "All Day".

Max Class Length

The maximum number of hours to be permitted for a class. This check can be overridden by selecting the "All Day" option in the Class Profile of the ClassManagement app.

Office Email Address

This is used on publicity material and for the reply address in the emailers.

Office Phone

The office Phone number is shown against classes on the public web site where specific contact with the tutor is not required. (Defined in the Class Profile).

After Hours Phone

If you offer phone contact outside of your normal U3A office hours, please enter the phone number here.

Publicise year

When this option is selected, classes for the next year are displayed on the public class lists prior to any enrolment dates.

Next Year

These options refer to the initial enrolments at the start of each academic year. Some U3As use a variety of rule-bases to determine a priority for enrolling in high-demand classes.

Next Year

Must be this (current) year until you set up for next year in which case, it will be one year more than the current year.

If your Memberships are for a calendar year (Annual):

Membership Opens

The date memberships open for the next calendar year.

Bonus Membership

If a member joins for the next calendar year, membership may be offered for the current year as well. The Bonus Membership grade is set up in the Member Type table and that table ID is entered here. The member is converted to a normal member on change of Year. When defining the Bonus Membership grade set the Applies option to "Y" and all other options to "N". The description should be something suitable such as "Paid member for the coming year may also enrol in current year classes." This enables the new member to enrol in any classes that are available (not full or Closed) and also in the Summer School (if your U3A runs a Summer School) without having to pay the current year's membership fee.

Bonus for Lapsed Members

This tick-box should be ticked if previous members are also allowed to participate in bonus membership, rather than just new members.

Cease Renewals

This is the date from which further membership renewals/joins for the current year are no longer permitted. The year for which enrolments are ceased is shown after the date.

Priority Rule

This can get quite complicated, depending on which option you enable. These rules only apply during the preferential enrolment period. Once the Open Enrolment date is reached, all the priority rules cease and any member can enrol in any class in which there are places available. All re-enrolments from one year to the next are dependent on re-enrolling being permitted. This is defined in the Class Profile - see the Class Planning Manual.

Max Classes

The maximum number of classes in which a member may enrol preferentially under any of the above priority rules. Zero indicates no limit.
If the tick boxes for Forum or Social are ticked then the corresponding course types are counted in the maximum number.
A tick of the wait list tick box causes any classes on the wait list to be counted if the enrolment of the class type would be counted. A member at the limit requesting another class of a counted type will be put on the wait list if the W/L tick box is not ticked. If the W/L tick box is ticked all such additional class requests will be rejected. If Priorities are in use then members with a priority level may enrol in the number of classes specified in the particular priority line. If a priority level does not specify a class limit then a member with that priority does not have a restriction on the number of classes in which she may enrol. When the priority period has passed the Max Classes under the heading Classes is used to restrict the number of classes in which a member may enrol

Re-enrolling Members

This is the date from which all existing members may enrol in classes for the next year. It excludes new members.

Our Members

This is the date from which all members, excluding associates, may enrol in classes for the next year.

Open Enrolment

This is the date all preferential enrolments cease and enrolment is open to all members in all classes - subject to a place being available.

Priority Enrolment

When the Merit Score rule is applied, merit scores can be allocated at up to 5 levels of priority for acceptance in classes. There are a lot of different ways this may be done and if you are planning to use this process you should first consult the "Merit Score Allocation" manual.

When the date in level 1 is reached, those members with a merit score at level one may enrol in up to the number of classes specified. When the Level 2 date is reached, both the level 1 and level 2 members may enrol and so on. All preferential enrolments cease when the Open Enrolment Date is reached.

Scores are set up in a spreadsheet, transferred to the MyU3A server and processed in the General Upload app.


Venue Options

Prior Venue

Where new codes are assigned during takeup to MyU3A the venue codes used in your previous system will be captured. Selecting this option displays the code from your previous system in venue pages in MyU3A.

Optional Contact

If you do not want to enforce the entry of the contact names for booking outside venues, activate this option.

Student Transit Times

The Online Member Services and the Enrolment App both check the classes in which the member is enrolled for time comflicts between them. An allowance is made for transit between the classes. The default is 15 minutes for classes in the same venue and 30 minutes for classes at different venues. These two parameters allow the default values to be overridden.

For further assistance, contact support

Created: 10th May 2011     Modified:9th February, 2017, 10th September, 2018

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