A member may ask you to keep them out of your association’s directories, even if they cannot or do not want to change that setting in the Portal. You can make the same change for them from the member’s record.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- You need permission to edit memberships.
Hide a Member from Directories
- Open the member’s own contact or organization record.
- From the options menu, choose Edit Membership (or click the pencil icon on the Membership Info panel).
- Check Hide from the membership directory?
- Click Save Changes.
Result
The member’s Membership Info panel now shows Hide from Directory?: Yes. After the directory results refresh, directory searches no longer include the member.
Tip
A membership application has its own Do Not Show in Directory checkbox on the application edit screen. Use that checkbox while the application is still open, and use the steps in this article for an existing membership record.
Tip
If you need to hide many members at once, you do not have to open each record individually. Run a membership query for the members you want to hide, then use Mass Update to set the same directory field for all of them.
Limitations
Warning
Hiding a member this way only keeps them out of directory searches. It does not stop:
- Their entry from being opened directly, if someone already has a link or identifier for it.
- Messages from being sent to them. If the entry is for an organization, a message sent through the directory reaches only one of its primary contacts, not every primary contact on the record.
Directory search results can be cached. If a member still appears in a directory search right after you hide them, the directory is likely showing cached results. They should disappear after those results refresh. Each directory refreshes on its own schedule, set in that directory’s configuration. For example, an account might refresh a directory every 30 minutes, so results can lag behind a change by up to that long. If you need a directory to pick up a change sooner, open it in edit mode and save it again without making changes. This forces an immediate rebuild instead of waiting for the next scheduled refresh.
A record that was first marked inactive and then deleted can also take some time to disappear from a directory. Give the directory’s normal refresh cycle time to run before assuming a deleted record is stuck.
Expected Result
The member no longer appears in your association’s directory searches. Their record, and any direct link to it, still works as before.