Chapter officers use the Chapter Center in the Portal to manage their chapter information and members. This article explains how to turn on that access, choose which committee positions can use each Chapter Center task, decide how long access continues after a position ends, and replace the Chapter Center pages with your account’s page design. To learn how these permissions work after you grant them, see "How Chapter Officer Permissions Work" in Related below.
Where to Find It
In the Membership & Committees Console, go to Setup › Chapters › Portal Settings.
Turn On Chapter Officer Administration
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter Officer Administration | Switch | Off | Allows chapter leaders to manage chapter tasks in the Portal for the whole account. There is no per-chapter switch. |
Tip
Turning this on is only part of the setup. Chapter officers can reach the Chapter Center only after the Chapter Management feature is also installed in your Portal, and that should happen before anyone signs in to the Portal. If you turn on Chapter Officer Administration before that feature is installed, especially while the Chapter Center template override setting is also on, chapter officer administration can stop working correctly.
Define Permission Rules
After you turn administration on, add one or more permission rules. Select Add Chapter Permission to open the rule dialog.
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership Position(s): | One or more active committee positions, or blank | Blank | Chooses which committee positions this rule applies to. |
| Grace Period: | Number of days | None | Sets how many extra days an officer keeps this access after their committee seat ends. |
| View Chapter Roster, Update Chapter Details, Update Contact Information, Update Member Records, Sign Up New Members, Renew Existing Members, Change/Update Chapter Officers, Manage Chapter Documents, Download Saved Queries | Checkboxes | All off | Grants the matching Chapter Center task. |
| Saved query rows (only when Download Saved Queries is checked) | Chapter-roster saved queries or membership custom saved queries, each with a Portal display name | — | Requires at least one query after downloads are allowed. |
When an officer downloads a saved query from the Portal, Rhythm limits the results to that officer’s own chapter. This applies to both stock chapter-roster queries and membership custom saved queries.
A committee’s own Portal visibility is managed on that committee, not on this page. Review each committee individually if you need to change whether members can see it. The Portal’s committee overview page also always shows its standard experience; you cannot make it open to a pre-filtered set of committees or remove its search and other built-in elements.
Warning
Leaving Leadership Position(s) blank does not restrict the rule to chapter committee members. It grants the checked tasks to every Portal contact who reaches the Chapter Center, including someone who is not on a committee. If this rule is for chapter leaders, choose their positions instead of leaving the list blank.
Change/Update Chapter Officers lets someone reseat committees, including moving themselves into a more powerful position, so grant it carefully. Manage Chapter Documents lets a chapter leader organize the chapter’s document library in the Chapter Center, including moving files and folders, not just uploading them.
Administrative Forms and Page Layouts
If any rule grants one of these three tasks, choose the matching form or page layout before you save.
| Setting | Required when | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| What form should be used when leaders update member contact info? | Any rule grants Update Contact Information | Shows this Rolodex contact form in the Chapter Center for contact edits. |
| What page layout should be used when leaders update membership records? | Any rule grants Update Member Records | Shows this membership page layout in the Chapter Center. |
| What page layout should be used when leaders update chapter information? | Any rule grants Update Chapter Details | Shows this chapter page layout in the Chapter Center. |
If you try to save without the required form or page layout, Rhythm refuses the save. See Validation and Errors below.
Tip
These permission rules control chapter officer tasks, not whether an ordinary member can change their own chapter in the Portal. If you do not want members changing their own chapter there at all, remove the chapter-selection component from the form they use instead of looking for a setting here.
Individual documents and folders in a chapter’s file cabinet do not have direct links you can place in other content. To point someone to a document, link to the related chapter or committee page instead. Access to the file cabinet is then controlled by the member’s own role and permissions.
Replace Chapter Center Pages
Two switches let you replace Rhythm’s Chapter Center pages with your account’s HTML. Each template includes a merge-field picker above a code editor.
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Override Chapter Center HTML Template | Switch | Off | Replaces the Chapter Center home page. The template can use Chapter and Chapter Type merge fields, including their custom fields. |
| Override View Chapter Member HTML Template | Switch | Off | Replaces the page chapter leaders see when they open one member. This option is available only while Chapter Officer Administration is on. The template can use Contact and Membership merge fields. |
Tip
A chapter custom field, such as a logo image, does not appear on the default Chapter Center overview by itself. To show it, reference its merge-field token in your override template the same way you would reference any other Chapter field, such as in an image tag’s src attribute for a logo. You can also use the override to restyle the built-in chapter information card, such as making the description span the full width of the box, as long as your markup follows the card’s own structure.
Warning
The template editor highlights Handlebars syntax, but the Portal renders the template with a different templating engine. A simple field substitution like [contact.first_name] works the same either way, but more elaborate Handlebars syntax may not render as the editor suggests. Test your template in the Portal before you rely on it.
On the member view template, only eight roster fields carry a value. Other membership merge fields in the picker render empty.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Turning Chapter Officer Administration off hides the permission rules, forms, and view-member override cards, but keeps their saved values. When you turn it back on, your earlier setup returns.
- These settings share the same underlying record as your account’s general Membership settings. If someone edits both screens around the same time, the second save can overwrite the first.
- The forms and page layouts listed here come from your account’s active web forms. If you deactivate one after choosing it here, the Chapter Center can be unable to render that page.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- A permission rule takes effect for officers as soon as you save it. There is no separate publish step.
- To undo a template override, turn its switch off. The Chapter Center then returns to Rhythm’s page.
- Deleting or editing a permission rule affects officers the next time they open the Chapter Center. It does not change anything they already did there.
Permissions
Changing chapter officer permissions and Chapter Center pages is a Membership administrator action in the Console. If you cannot reach Setup › Chapters › Portal Settings, ask whoever manages your Rhythm account’s security roles for access.
Validation and Errors
| What you see | Meaning and what to do |
|---|---|
| "A contact form must be specified when one or more chapter officers have the ability to modify contact information." | A rule grants Update Contact Information, but no contact form is chosen. Choose one. |
| "A membership page layout must be specified…" | A rule grants Update Member Records, but no membership page layout is chosen. Choose one. |
| "A chapter page layout must be specified…" | A rule grants Update Chapter Details, but no chapter page layout is chosen. Choose one. |
| The save is refused for a template override | The switch is on, but the template box is empty. Enter template text, or turn the switch off. |
| "You have not added any queries - please add at least one saved query." | This message appears next to Download Saved Queries. Add a query row before saving, because downloads require one. |
| "Unable to save settings" | The save failed for the reason shown in the message. Fix the issue and save again. |