A section is a special-interest group a member can join with their membership, such as a practice area or research committee. Each section belongs to a section type, which controls the heading members see when they choose sections. A section can have dues, be limited to certain membership types, or stay hidden from the online application so staff can assign it by hand.
What This Controls
Creating or editing a section controls:
- The section name, description, and active status.
- Whether members see the section on the online application, or only staff can assign it.
- Which membership types, if any, can join the section.
- Whether joining the section is meant to cost money. You set the price separately on a dues product.
- An optional welcome email for members who join the section.
- Any custom fields your Rhythm account has defined for sections.
Where to Find It
Go to Sections in the Membership & Committees Console to search for a section, see how many sections are active, or create a new one. Search checks a section’s Name, Type, and ID. The search panel also includes City and State, but sections do not have addresses, so those fields never return matches.
Open a section from the search results to view its overview page. From there, you can edit the section, manage its dues products, or delete it.
Prerequisites
- Permission to create or edit sections.
- At least one section type must already exist, because every section belongs to one.
Create or Edit a Section
- Go to Sections and select Create Section, or open an existing section and choose to edit it.
- Choose a Type. This is required and controls which Portal heading the section appears under.
- Enter a Name. Rhythm suggests an ID from the name. You can change the ID while creating the section, but not after you save it.
- Optionally, write a Description for members.
- To keep the section off the online application while still allowing staff to add it by hand, check Hide this section from the portal. Membership cannot add a section to a membership automatically, so hiding it from the portal is how you make a section staff-assigned only. Otherwise, a member joins by choosing the section during the membership process, or staff add it later through a change-affiliation process.
- To limit who can join, check Only certain types of members can join this section and choose one or more membership types.
- To draft a welcome email for members who join, turn on New Member Welcome Email and enter the subject and body. Review the limitation below before you rely on this email.
- To record that joining this section is meant to cost money, turn on Section Dues. You set the actual price afterward from the section’s overview page.
- Fill in any custom fields your Rhythm account has defined for sections.
- Select Save Changes, or use Save & Add Another to save this section and start another one.
Result
The section is saved, and you land on its overview page. A new active section that is not hidden from the portal appears immediately wherever the Portal offers sections for its type.
Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Any active or inactive section type | — | Required. Groups the section under that type’s Portal heading. |
| Name | Free text | — | Required. Shown to staff and members. When you rename a section, the new name appears everywhere the section is referenced, including on members' own profiles and history, because those references point to the same record. |
| ID | Generated from the name; editable only while creating | Generated | The permanent identifier. You cannot change it after saving. |
| Status | Active / Inactive | Active | Marks the section as retired when set to inactive. See the retirement guidance below. |
| Description | Rich text | Empty | Shown to members wherever the Portal displays the section, except in the membership application's Choose Section component. That component currently shows only the section name and has no way to display a description. |
| Hide this section from the portal | On / off | Off | Keeps the section off Portal screens that honor this setting, without stopping staff from assigning it. |
| Restriction checkbox | On / off | Off | Shows the membership-type chooser when turned on. |
| Membership-type chooser | One or more active membership types | Empty | Controls which membership types can join this section. This chooser appears only while the restriction is checked. |
| New Member Welcome Email | On / off | Off | Shows an email editor with a subject, body, and preview button. |
| Section Dues | On / off | Off | Records that joining costs money. This setting does not set a price by itself. |
Restricting a Section to Certain Membership Types
Check Only certain types of members can join this section and choose one or more membership types to limit the section to those types. This restriction works in addition to any restriction on the section type. Only active membership types appear in the chooser. If you turn the restriction off, the chooser is hidden, but the membership types you selected remain saved.
Warning
If a membership type used in a restriction is later deactivated, it no longer appears as an option for new choices, but it stays on the section’s saved list. If that membership type is later deleted, the restriction still names it, and that entry no longer matches anyone because deleted membership types are not automatically removed from a section’s restriction list.
Adding a restriction to a section does not remove the section from members who already have it. Those members keep the section.
Section Dues
The Section Dues switch only records that joining the section is meant to cost money. It does not create a price. To charge for the section, save it first, then create a dues product from the section’s overview page. If Section Dues is on but the section has no dues product, members can select the section at no charge.
New Member Welcome Email
Warning
As recorded today, Membership does not automatically send this welcome email when a member joins a section. Use the Preview button beside the editor to check how the email would look, but do not rely on it being delivered without checking with Rhythm.
If you need section-specific confirmation messaging, use this section-level welcome email as the option to build out. The membership application's own confirmation email is written for the application as a whole, not for one section.
The merge fields in the editor come from the same set used for application confirmation emails: the contact, organization, application, order, membership, membership package, and membership type. There is no merge field for the section’s own name or description.
Custom Fields
If your Rhythm account has custom fields for sections, they appear in their own group on the form. Sections use the same custom fields you configure across Rhythm. See Custom Fields Explained for how to define and manage them.
Restrict a Membership Process or Application by Section
Two different section-related fields appear when you set eligibility or requirements elsewhere in Membership, so choose the one that matches what you need.
- To limit who is eligible for a membership process by section, use the dedicated Section members eligibility option instead of Advanced Rules and Logic. Turning it on shows a Specific Sections chooser where you pick the sections that qualify.
- The Sections (membership) field available in Advanced Rules and Logic is an array of section identifiers, not a single value. Because of that, an equals condition against it does not populate a value dropdown to choose from, and builders have reported that it appears unexpectedly empty. If you need to filter by section in Advanced Rules and Logic, use the Section members field or an array-style "contains" comparison instead of expecting a single-value picker.
- To require that an applicant choose at least one section before submitting an application process, use Section Restrictions on the application process and set a minimum of 1 for All Section Types. This is the supported way to enforce a section choice, rather than a custom form error rule.
Retire a Section
Switch a section’s Status to Inactive when you no longer want to offer it to people who join or renew. The section record, its members, and its history remain in place. Members who already have the section keep it after it is retired. A renewal built without the standard offering can still carry a retired section.
There is no confirmed self-service way to remove a retired section from every current and past member record by section name alone. If you need it stripped from every affected record, contact Support rather than looking for a bulk tool in the Console.
Delete a Section
You can delete a section only when nothing depends on it. The most common blocker is a dues product. If a dues product still prices the section, the delete is refused. Setup shows a generic failure message instead of naming the dues product that blocks deletion. Deactivate or delete the section’s dues products first, then try again.
When you delete a section, Rhythm asks you to confirm and warns that the action cannot be undone. You need permission to delete sections, which is separate from permission to create or edit them. Without delete permission, the delete option does not appear on the section’s overview page.
Related
- Section Types
- Section Dues Products
- Custom Fields Explained