WASHINGTON STATE PTA PT AVENUE GUIDE...In September of 2015 Washington State PTA began using a cloud...

WSPTA PT Avenue Guide (June 2016) – Page 1

WASHINGTON STATE PTA PT AVENUE GUIDE

OVERVIEW

In September of 2015 Washington State PTA began using a cloud based membership database system

designed for PTAs called PT Avenue. Through this platform, in combination with our accounting database,

we are able to provide most of the features PTA leadership have been requesting, along with direct email

technical assistance from PT Avenue.

As a replacement for the previous database the membership only version of PT Avenue is provided by

WSPTA at no charge to our local PTAs. Upgraded versions are available to PTAs who wish to subscribe to

them at their own cost. Every PTA in Washington is required to use some version of PT Avenue.

PT Avenue is a web-based system utilized by PTAs in other states and by other parent organizations. While

we feel comfortable about how it meets our needs, and we do have input on updates and upgrades, it is not

custom software designed specifically for WSPTA. As such there are a few elements not used by PTAs in

Washington, or used in a particular way. This document was written by WSPTA for covering the features of

the basic membership only version of PT Avenue as used in Washington State.

Once in PT Avenue you will notice a “HELP” button in the upper right corner of all screens – this will take

you to case sensitive help –on some screens you will see blue buttons that take you to videos or guides (pdf

files) that give more in depth information related to using that screen. For example the “Member Area Setup

& Data Entry Video” and “Membership Setup Guide” on the Add New Member screen. The videos, help,

and guides are broad, as they are written for all state PTAs that might use PT Avenue, as well as other parent

organizations. They also cover all three versions of the system: Membership Only, Financial, and Full; so

pay careful attention to the applicable version as you watch and read about features.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

LOGGING INTO PT AVENUE

Where to Login

Forgot Username or Password

Home Page - First Login

DATA AND PREFERENCES

Review your Data - Profile

School grade range, local dues, custom

fields, welcome email text

Review your Data - Corporate/Legal

User Preferences

Email address for admin user,

password, security question

PTA BOARD MEMBERS

Individual Board Member Profile

Adding a Board Member

Email an Individual Board Member

Email the Board

HELPERS - GIVING OTHERS PT AVENUE

ACCESS

Helper Forgot Their Password

BANK ACCOUNT ACH INFORMATION

Should we Enter ACH info - Online Join

Decision

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

Ways to Enter Members

Entering Members One at a Time

Importing Members

Deleting Duplicate Member Records

MEMBER EMAIL ADDRESS

Resend Membership Card

ONLINE SELF-REGISTRATION

Benefits of Registering Online

Online Join Process

Adding Additional Household Members

Online Transaction Processing Fee

Steps to Participate in Online Join

MEMBERSHIP LISTS and REPORTS


Roster - Members Entered or Invoiced by

Date

Paid Report - All Paid Members

Reprint Invoice

EMAILING PTA MEMBERS

SUPPORT


LOGGING INTO PT AVENUE

Login to PT Avenue

To login to your PT Avenue account go to: https://www.pt-avenue.com/login.asp

Key in your username and password in the Administrators/Board Members section on the right side of the

screen, then click login.

If you mistype your user name or password you will see the below screen. To try again click “LOG IN” in

the upper right of the screen.

https://www.pt-avenue.com/login.asp


Forgot Username or Password

If you forgot your username or password enter anything on the login screen, then click “LOG IN”.

Click “Send Me My Username and Password”; you will see this screen:

Key the email address used in your PT Avenue account, select the security question you chose for your

account, and enter your security question answer, then click “Send Login Information”. Your username and

password will be sent to the email address on your account.

If you can’t recall the information needed on this screen there are still simple ways to get help. If you are the

head admin contact your council representative or region director and ask them to have your username and

password emailed to you. If you use a helper login, not the head admin login, contact the head admin user for

your PTA and ask them to have your username and password emailed to you. Once you login be sure to

select and answer your security question on the Preferences page – see User Preferences below.


Home Page – First Login

The homepage/dashboard for your account:

The first time you log in as a helper you will be prompted to reset your password and select and answer your

security question.

Keep this information in a in a secure place. The email address on the account and the security question and

answer are used to retrieve your username and password if you forget one or both.


DATA AND PREFERENCES

Review Your Data - Profile

The first time you login as head administrator, you should review the data, correct any incorrect information,

and report to WSPTA state office if you’re unable to make a correction.

Note: The head admin is the only person who can save changes on the organization profile page.

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “Profile” icon:

The profile page looks like this:


Review, correct, and/or complete the information on this screen as follows:

Verify the Name and Organization Type.

Confirm the Grade Range for the school.

Verify the address (this is typically the school address), Local Unit ID and other information.

Enter the Local Share of dues, and verify the Council Share (if applicable) is correct.

If your PTA doesn’t charge local dues, indicate if you want to allow members to join online with zero

local dues (see more on this below)

Enter a “Membership Coordinator Email” address (see below)

Set up to three “Custom Member Fields” if you wish (see below).

Entries in the Website, Facebook Page, and Twitter Feed fields will be included in the welcome email.

They are not required.

In the “PTA Member Card Email Message” field you can enter a brief message you would like added to

the welcome email. The welcome email is sent to each paid member with their membership card

attached. See an example of what you might include below.

Click “UPDATE PROFILE” to save changes.

“Grade Range” note: PT Avenue tracks student grades in a household, and at year end gives you the option

to automatically remove the household if the student is the only one associated with the family and graduates

out of your top-level grade - which helps keep your member area clean. For this reason (plus Directory

features in the FULL version), you may want to enter the grade range and enter students under a Primary

parent listing.

“Allow Online Join With $0.00 Local Dues?” Yes/No is used only if your PTA doesn’t charge local dues. If

your PTA local dues is actually zero and you want to allow members to register using the pt-avenue.com/join

online registration site you’ll need to select Yes. Otherwise (if your local dues amount is not zero, or if your

local share is zero but you don’t want members joining on this site) leave it set to No.

“Member Coordinator Email” address is the address where the member welcome email and attached

membership card will be sent if the member doesn’t provide an email address. This should be an email

account which someone at your PTA agrees to monitor and to distribute the welcome email and attached

card to members either by forwarding the email (if, for example, the member provides you with an email

address and asked you not to enter it in the database) or printing the email and card and delivering them to

the members. If you leave this blank these emails will be sent to the email on the head admin account (see

preferences).

“Custom Member Fields” allow you to track three pieces of additional information of your choosing about

your members. It might be “Has a Truck”, “Past Officer”, or “Volunteer” (but note that if you have the full

version there is a whole section for volunteer information). If you set one custom field as “Past Officer” you

might enter “Pres 11-12” in that field on the member who was president for the 2011-2012 year, and

similarly for other past officers. You will then be able to get a list of past officers or past presidents etc. using

the report design feature. Some PTAs use one of these fields to track volunteers who are team leaders rather

than adding them to the board roster.

Once you set the custom member field names and then start entering member information remember that

you’ll make the member data entered into these fields invalid if you change the field titles.


You don’t have to set up “Custom Member Fields” titles now – you may want to give this some thought and

talk about it with your board. You can always set these up later. Once you decide how to use one or more of

these fields, you’ll need a way to collect this information from your members.

The School Email Domain is optional.

PTA Member Card Email Message:

We suggest you include at least one contact name with email address and/or phone number in this field.

Note: There is a 350 character limit.

Welcome Email:

The entire content of the welcome email, including the text entered in the PTA Member Card Email Message

field (circled in red) is as follows:


Review Your Data – Corporate/Legal

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “Corporate” icon:

The Corporate Information page looks something like this:

Review and report any incorrect data to the WSPTA state office at [email protected].

If you need a hard copy for your PTA binder, you can print it from here – click the blue “Print Version”

button in the upper right.

mailto:[email protected]


User Preferences

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “My Preferences” icon:

The User Preferences page looks something like this:

If you are the Head Admin for the database for your PTA, enter your name;

Enter your contact phone number;

Enter your email address (this is the one you’ll use if you forget your username or password);

Set a new personal password;

Select a security question and enter the answer – remember both in case you need to retrieve your

password.

Click the “Update Preferences” button to save your changes.


BOARD MEMBERS

The first time you login you should review the information for all board members entered, correct any errors,

and enter at least the treasurer’s mailing address.

EVERY BOARD MEMBER MUST BE A PAID MEMBER OF YOUR PTA, AND

MUST BE ENTERED AS A PAID MEMBER IN THE MEMBERSHIP AREA.

Names must match exactly.

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “Board” icon:

Work with Board Members

The Work with Board Members page looks something like this:


Individual Board Member Profile

To see the data for any board member click on their picture or name - you’ll see a screen like this:

First and Last names, Email, and Cell Phone are required fields. Address is optional, except WSPTA will

need the treasurer’s address if there is a need to mail a check to your PTA. It is highly recommended that

you enter the president’s and treasurer’s mailing address and best phone number; you may find it

useful to enter addresses for all officers. The “show email?” and “show address?” and “show… phone?”

yes/no buttons are regarding whether this contact information will show on the printable public directory.

The public directory is a printable directory of board members you can share with members, and possibly

school staff and others. The private directory is one you would share with the board members only.

Be sure to click the “Modify Board Member” button after making any changes to a board member record.

Adding a Board Member

The board member profile in PT Avenue allows both a current and future position, so you don’t have to

wait for the new year to enter or update next year’s officers. You can do this as soon as they are elected,

and they will be added to the email list for Leadership News. The specifics of how you enter the 2016-

2017 officer depends on whether or not they are a current officer.

An Officer This Year and Next Year:

If someone is a current officer and has been elected to serve as an officer next year as well, click on

either their picture or their name to see their board member profile.


The steps to enter next year’s position are as follows:

Their current position is listed on the first line of the board member profile, with a term of

Office reflecting the current school/membership year. Don’t change that.

On the “Future Position” line select their position from the first drop down box.

If they are a Vice President, Secretary, or Committee Chair you will then see a box where you

can select their duty, if applicable. This field is used to group officers for email, so it is

important to identify your officers responsible for membership, legislative/advocacy,

Reflections, family engagement, and to use the list of duties provided so they are included in the

right group.

In the Term of Office box select the next school year term.

Confirm the email address is their current email.

Enter their Cell Phone number if it is not included (or 000-111-1111 if you don’t need their cell

phone number)

If they are president or treasurer enter their address, city, state, and zip. (You may choose to

enter the address for all officers for your use.)

Click Modify Board Member.

Note: As part of the year-end process the list of your current year officers will be downloaded for

you to save, the future positions will be promoted to current positions, and those no longer officers

will be removed from the board roster.


A New Officer:

If this is a new officer, not on the current board roster, click the “Add” button in the upper right of the

screen and you’ll see the “Add Board Members” page, like this:

The steps are the same as for a returning officer except:

There will be only one line for Position.

Make sure to select the next school year term in the Term of Office field.

Enter their first and last name.

o IMPORTANT: The name should match exactly as entered on their membership entry in

the members section.

o Remember: After you run the year-end to roll forward to the new year (more on that

coming soon) all board members must be in the members section as a paid member of

your PTA for the year of their term of office.

Other steps (email address, cell phone number, and address) are the same as above.

(Optional) Set a “Sequence Number” to position officers on the Board List screen.

In a “Basic” membership-data-only version, if you want to add a Helper login for this person

click to toggle the “Create Helper Login?” From No to Yes, and enter a unique user name for

this helper. Other versions of PT Avenue require you to go to PROFILE>HELPERS to create or

modify logins and access areas.

You may choose to upload a photo, if desired – set this to YES.

Click Add Board Member. If you are uploading a photo, you are taken to that screen, to complete the

process. If you are not, the entry process is now complete.


Some positions have a second field where you can indicate specific duties. If you select the position of vice

president, or secretary, or committee chair (think of this as a chairperson, team leader, or director) a second

field appears to the right with a list of duties from which to select. For accuracy of data inquiries and email

lists, please try to use existing duties whenever possible. For example, select Membership for your member

database administrator so they are included in email about the membership database. Think of this not as a

title, but as a way to group together across PTAs within Washington volunteers who have similar

responsibilities so they can receive emails to those with matching position and duty. If you use unique duties

these leaders will not receive important information relevant to their work for the PTA.

Remember to click the “Add Board Member” button to add the new board member record.

Click the “List” button in the upper right of the screen to go back to the list of board members.

NOTE: EVERY BOARD MEMBER MUST ALSO BE ENTERED AS A PAID

MEMBER IN THE MEMBERSHIP AREA – the names must match. A board member

can have an email address on their board record that is different than the one on their member record. This

eliminates the need to change the member record email when the board term ends.

Email an Individual Board Member

On the main board members screen, click on a board member’s email address to send an email to an

individual board member.

Note: there are also buttons for printing public or private board rosters, and to export the board roster to

Excel. The private list (board roster) includes all board contact information, while the public list includes

only contact information marked Show… Yes.


Emailing the Entire Board

To email all board members click on the flying envelope.

You can send to specific office holders by selecting positions to include. You can create a group by clicking

“Create New Group”, enter a group name, and select the positions for that group. Be sure to enter the subject

line and text, and if you wish enter carbon copies and file attachments, then click “Send E-mail”.

Note: The subject should make clear who sent the email and the topic.


HELPERS

You can set up a user name for, and have a password sent to, any other board member you want to give

access to the database. Example: you will want to give a user name and password to the membership chair.

Every year these should be updated as part of the transition.

Note: In the Full version of PT Avenue you’ll find expanded flexibility in designating/limiting helper access

to areas.

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “Helpers” icon:

To add a user click the “Add” button in the upper right of the screen.


Enter their First name, Last name, Phone, Email, and a unique but easy to remember username for the new

user. Hit the “Add Helper” button.

Once you finish entering the data and click “Add Helper” PT Avenue will send an email with the helper’s

username and password to the email address entered. The helper will be prompted to reset their password and

select and answer a security question the first time they login.

Helper Forgot Their Password

If a “helper” forgets their username or password the administrator can send them this information: simply

click on the Send Password icon (it looks like a little person with a big padlock) found to the right of their

name on the “Work With Helpers” screen.


BANK ACCOUNT ACH INFORMATION

Bank Account ACH Information

Select the “PROFILE” tab, then the “ACH Info” icon:

PT Avenue has set up for WSPTA a website where members can join any PTA online. WSPTA will use your

local PTA’s bank account ACH Information to transfer the local share of the dues for your members

registered online directly to your bank account twice a month. (See more information on this below under

online self-registration.) You should enter the ACH information only if you want to allow members to join

online through the WSPTA PT Avenue join website. If you don’t want members to join online on that site,

leave the ACH fields blank.

The bank routing number and account number can be found on the bottom of a check or provided by your

bank.

You can see the local dues as entered on the profile page, and the Yes/No radio buttons used to signify

whether your PTA will allow members to join using the online join page if your local dues are zero.


MEMBERSHIP

General Information

PT Avenue allows you to enter more than just paying members. You may enter family/household members

of paid members (students, grandparents, etc., although they are not paying members), teachers, and other

school staff (in the Staff List area), community members who help support your activities, and government

representatives – just to name a few. PT Avenue allows you to group a household under a “Primary”

member, with all other people in the household linked to them and listed under their name on the Primary’s

information screen. Teachers who are paid members must be entered in the membership area just like other

members, except with a member type “Teacher”. In addition, teachers may be entered in the Staff List area if

you want to track classrooms.

On each person’s record there is a “Count As Paid Member?” Yes/No button which you use to identify when

a paying member has paid their dues. Note: Once a member is invoiced by WSPTA “Count as Paid Member”

is replaced by the invoiced date, and you can’t change an invoiced member to not paid, and you can’t delete

a paid member. It is important to review your member list before invoicing (which happens on the second

Friday each month.)

Note on non-paying Students -- PT Avenue allows you to track student grades, and as part of the year end

gives you the options to move all students up one grade, graduate students, and to remove the household

when the last student in the family graduates out of your top-level grade - which helps keep your member list

clean. For this reason (plus Directory features in the FULL version), you may want to enter students as

related to a Primary parent listing. Your board will need to discuss and make a strategic decision about this.

In PT Avenue you can find a Membership Guide which goes into more detail about the membership area.

Select the “MEMBERS” tab, then the “Membership Guide” icon:

This Membership Guide (pdf) is generic in that it is written for PTAs in any state that might use PT Avenue

as well as other parent organizations, and it covers all three versions of the system: Membership Only,

Financial, and Full; pay careful attention to the version references as you read about features.


Ways to Enter Members

With the Membership Only version of PT Avenue for Washington State PTAs there are three ways to enter

new members into the database:

Enter each member one at a time.

Import members using the template provided by PT Avenue for that purpose.

The member registers using an online join site provided by PT Avenue for WSPTA for member self-

registration (if you elect to allow this option)

Those using the full version will have the option of an online store feature through which members can join.

Those using Our School Pages will find an option in OSP to upload members to PT Avenue. Note that all

members are uploaded by OSP as Primary Paid members without household relationship information.

All new members (and any member not previously entered into your PTA in PT Avenue) will be entered as a

new member using one of these three methods. In subsequent years you will be able to simply change the

“count as paid member?” button from no to yes when a returning member renews by paying their dues or

they may do this through the PT Avenue join site.

Note: Every board member must be entered as a paid member in the membership

area as well as an officer in the board area. The names must match.

ONLINE SELF-REGISTRATION

PT Avenue has made available to all PTAs in Washington State the ability to allow members to join and pay

for their membership online through a PT Avenue join web site.

Benefits of Registering Online:

Opens membership to those PTAs might not have reached in the past, including those who don’t have a

checking account and for whom bringing cash to school wasn’t convenient.

Saves a great deal of volunteer time - reduced data entry and banking.

Eliminates lost memberships from lost forms, checks, etc.

Increases accuracy of data – think of a person entering their own name and contact information vs. a

volunteer reading someone’s handwriting entering 50 members at night after the kids have gone to bed.

Members are in the database as soon as they finish the online checkout. No waiting for someone to enter

their data.


Online Join Feature

The first page of the PT Avenue join site looks like this:

When the State selection is made the school district field will appear. When the school district selection is

made the PTA/PTSA field will appear. After selecting the PTA/PTSA the member hits the “Submit” button.

If your School District isn’t in the drop down list that means no PTAs in your school district signed up for

online join. If your PTA/PTSA isn’t in the drop down list that means your PTA hasn’t completed the steps to

be included in the online join feature.

The member enters their personal information on this screen:


After the member enters their information and hits the “Continue” button, if the system finds what appears to

be a match or matches in the PT Avenue account for that PTA it will show a list of these possible matches

and ask them to identify if they are one of the listed members or a new member. If they are a renewing

member they simple select themselves from the list and continue.

The next screen allows them to enter another family member or checkout.

Adding Additional Members

To add other family members joining at the same time click the “Add Additional Members” button.

The “Enter Member Information…” screen will display. After completing entry of the new member

information this “Members Ready to Join” screen will display showing both members. This continues until

all family members registering as Paid PTA members are entered and they hit the “Checkout” button. Note:

You can only enter paying members on this site.


Online Registration Completion

To complete the transaction enter their payment information here:

This screen will include a $1.00 processing fee so that all dues money goes toward the mission of PTA. The

processing fee will be included in the transaction total charged to the member’s credit card. Since it is a

transaction processing fee, not dues, it is not tax deductible. Fields to enter credit card information will be on

the right side of this screen.

When the checkout is complete, your PTA will receive an email telling you who just joined your PTA; the

member will receive the welcome email, with their membership card attached. Twice monthly WSPTA will

electronically transfer into your PTA’s bank account the local share of dues for members who joined online

during that time period.

PTAs Participating in the Online Join Feature

To participate in online join, your PTA has to do three simple things:

Enter the local share of dues on your PT Avenue Profile page (if zero select Yes to allow online join)

Enter your PTA’s bank account ACH Information (confirm local dues and allow online join if zero)

Make sure your School District is correctly entered in PT Avenue (you’ll find this to the right of the zip

code on your Profile page – notify the state office if incorrect).

If your PTA doesn’t want to allow members to sign up using this PT Avenue Join feature, simply leave the

ACH information blank – your PTA’s name will not be available on the list of PTAs to join.

Note: If you have the Full version of PT Avenue and are setting up an online store (including

membership registration) or you have another online registration system you want to continue using, it


is strongly recommended that you not use PT Avenue join. In this case, you should not enter ACH

information into PT Avenue so that potential members won’t see your PTA listed on the PT Avenue join site.

Entering Members One at a Time

Select the “MEMBERS” tab, then the “Add New” icon:

Required fields are outlined in red on the screen: member type, first and last name, and one valid email

address. You can enter any of the other data helpful to you – this is your data.

Remember: you must click the “Count as Paid Member?” button to change it from the grey NO to a

blue YES to indicate this is a paid member – you will see it fill in the “Membership Date” with today’s

date to show when the entry was done.

If you are entering a paid member and their paid spouse click the “Are there other family members to add?”

yes/no button (to change to YES) before you click the “Add New Primary Member” button so that it relates

the two. Click the “Add New Primary Member” button when you are finished entering a member.


Note: the blue “Membership Area Setup & Data Entry Video” and “Membership Setup Guide” buttons in the

upper right; it is advised that you watch and read those before continuing.

Importance of Email Addresses

WSPTA requires one working email address for each member so we can get their welcome email and

membership card to them. If the member doesn’t have an email address simply click the blue “No Email”

button and the system will enter in the “Email Address” field the “Membership Coordinator Email” from the

profile page, or if that is blank [email protected]. The welcome email with attached member card will be sent

to this email address, or if [email protected] to the email address of the head admin user found on the

preferences page. A board member from your PTA should assume the responsibility to get the welcome

email and attached membership card to the member.

Concerns about Email Addresses

If you or your members are concerned about providing an email address to WSPTA please be assured by the

following:

WSPTA gives each member the opportunity to subscribe/unsubscribe and will work hard to avoid

sending unwanted email. In fact we are switching to a new bulk email provider this year which will

improve and simplify the unsubscribe process.

WSPTA will not share member lists with anyone.

Entering Email Addresses

Please take great care when entering the email address to minimize errors and rejected email by doing the

following:

Enter only one email address in an email address field.

Look at the domain – does it look OK and in good form? (no comma? .com?)

Only one @ and no spaces in the email address

No spaces before or after the email address

If you are uncertain about the handwritten email address on the membership form, please take a moment

to confirm.

Encourage members to use a personal email account, not work email (which can change on occasion).

One way to increase renewal rates is to send a renewal reminder toward the end of the membership year.

Member satisfaction can relate somewhat to how well we communicate. It takes a valid working email

address to do these things, so your care, time, and effort assuring a valid email is worthwhile.

Please encourage your members to add to their email account safe senders list the following:

pt-avenue.com

mmsend60.com

wastatepta.org

wapta.org




Importing Members

Before you download the import template, your board should finalize who you will be tracking; example:

paid members, volunteers, family of paid members, teachers, community supporters, etc.

Select the “MEMBERS” tab, then the “Add New” icon:

Then select the “Import Wizard” button in the upper right, here:

Note the blue “Membership Entry/Import Video” and “Membership Import Instructions” buttons in the upper

right – it is recommended that you watch and read these before continuing.


To get the import template click the blue “Download Membership Template” button in the middle of this

screen.

The “Household Group” number you enter in column A is used to group people together by family. Even if

you are only entering paid members you can indicate paid spouses by entering the same Household Group

number for the two of them. Every family, even a family of one, must have a unique Household Group

number. Any number sequence is fine - the important point is that each family has a number included for all

family members and the number is different for each family.

Tips for entering members in the import template:

Make sure to put a person into the import template only once – if you import the same person on

different days (or twice in the same day) you can create duplicate records in your database.

Be sure to include data for every member in the required columns: columns A through E – with the red

headers Group #, P/R/S, First Name, Last Name, and Email.

Put “Y” in the “Member? Y” column (column S) for paid members to indicate they have paid their

dues.

Check carefully that you enter a working email address (see more on this above under Entering Email Addresses).

Make sure you don’t change the name of the template when you save it as mentioned in the video.

After you have imported from the template you can rename that file – perhaps by adding the date of

import to the end of the file name.

Duplicate and Data Validity Check

A new feature in the import checks for duplicate names, and other possible data errors. PT Avenue will show

the excel data in a “check” page – highlighting the possible errors, and displaying the actual excel file line so

it’s easier to find items in the import file.


Names in the import file are checked against names in the database for the PTA. Those with a match

are highlighted in orange. You can continue the import with the matching names, because obviously

there can be more than one person with the same name in a PTA.

Any “R” or “S” (related or student) members who aren’t associated with a “P” (primary) member are

highlighted in tan. You can import these and PT Avenue will provide a note about how to associate

these with a primary.

Any household group with more than one “P” (primary) member will be highlighted in blue. You

must correct these before importing.

A check page with errors looks something like this:

MEMBERSHIP LISTS AND REPORTS

Select the “MEMBERS” tab, then the “Membership” icon:


Member Search

This screen provides several simple ways to find members:

If you click the “Search” button in the upper right (leaving the search box blank) you will see a list of all

members – paid and non-paid. You can enter name, or other information (phone or email), in the search box,

or you can select a letter to see everyone whose last name starts with that letter. The PT Avenue Help and

guides have more information on this.

Click on a name to open a member record.



To resend a membership card along with the member welcome email first select the member from the list.

Click the blue “Resend Member Card” button on the right side of the screen. The welcome email with

attached membership card will be sent to this member’s email address. WSPTA will receive a record of each

resent card.


Deleting Duplicate Member Records

You should review your membership list at least once a month before the second Friday of the month to

make sure you don’t have duplicates (the same person was entered twice), and that you haven’t accidentally

marked non-paying students as paid. You’ll need to find and remove duplicates and non-paid records so they

are not included on the bill from WSPTA which is generated on the second Friday of each month. Two

things to remember about deleting member records:

You cannot delete a Paid member (but marking them not paid keeps them off the bill).

You cannot delete the Primary household member if there are related family/household records.

If you find duplicate records like those on this membership list…

Click on the name of the person whose name you need to delete…


Since this is not a Paid member and there are no related family members showing on the left side under this

person’s name you can click the red “Completely Delete Family” button at the bottom of the screen.

If this is a duplicate Paid member record…

You will see that there is no red “Completely Delete Family” button at the bottom of the screen.


You must click the “Count as Paid Member” Yes/No button (change to No) then click the “Update Member

Information” button at the bottom of the screen. You will then see the red “Completely Delete Family”

button at the bottom of the screen, and can delete the record.

If you encounter a Primary member who is not Paid with a related duplicate who is paid (like Rose on this

screen):

Click on the name of the member record that is the duplicate but Paid related “Family Member” (not the

unpaid primary)…


You’ll need to make this record (which is currently the Paid-Family Member record) into the Primary record

(so you can delete the unpaid duplicate which is currently the Primary). To do this click on the “Make

Primary Member” icon found just to the right of the last name, then click OK to confirm…

Now that the Paid record is the Primary you can select the name of the unpaid family member to bring up

that record…

You can delete this record by clicking the red “Delete Family Member” button.


REPORTS

You will find some predefined reports, as well as a feature that allows you to design your own reports when

you click “MEMBERS” and then the “Reports” button.

The PT Avenue Help in the upper right corner has information on how to use this custom report feature. You

can select what type or records to include, search criteria, sort order, and what data to show on the report.

You can display the report or export it directly to Excel.

The “Invoices” button, “Roster” button, and “Paid Report” button take you to a couple of predefined reports

you might use regularly.

Roster Report

The report lists the paid members who paid their dues directly to you and were either entered or imported by

you. You can display members based on Membership Date (a date on the member record populated when

you mark the member paid, and which you can edit if you choose to show the date you actually received

their membership form), or the Paid Date (the actual date the member record was marked paid), or the

Invoice Date. Select your choice of date from the first dropdown, then enter a date range.


With this report you can get a list of names included on a particular month’s dues invoice from WSPTA,

showing the state, national, and if applicable council dues.

This report does not include the names of those who self-registered online, although the number of members

who joined online is shown at the bottom of this report.

Enter the date range you want to see. You generally don’t need to attach the officer information, and lifetime

memberships is not applicable in Washington. Select the “Prepare PTA Membership Roster” button to see

the report on screen, or the “Export PTA Membership Roster” button to download the report to Excel.

Paid Report

The paid report is more like what you have probably called a roster in the past. It lists all paid members in

the current membership year (regardless of how they were entered into the database). If you click the “Report

Options” button in the upper left of the report, then check the box for “Export to Excel…” and click “Run

Report” you’ll get a list of current paid members, including the email address.

Reprint Invoice

You can reprint any of the current membership year monthly invoices from WSPTA. On the

Members/Reports page select the Invoices button in the upper right. You will see a screen like…


The “Select Invoice to Reprint” drop down will list the dates of the invoices on which WSPTA billed your

PTA for dues. Select the date you want. To print the invoice, right click on the invoice once it displays, and

click print.

COMMUNICATION

Communicate with Members – Email

To email a member, simply bring up the member’s record; then click the flying envelope to the right of the

email address.


Mass Email to Members

To email all members click “MEMBERS” and then the “Email Membership” button

Completing the Message

Choose whether you want the email sent to members marked as Paid, Not Paid, or both. Enter the subject and

text, include links and images if you wish (it will be sent as HTML), add CC(s) and attach a file if you wish,

then hit the green “Send E-mail” button.

The most important thing to keep in mind here is to include in the Subject the PTA name and identity of the sender so that members know what it is and who it is from. Perhaps something like “Mount Baker PTA Spring News from PTA President Emily Smith”, or “Mount Baker PTA – Upcoming Meeting Reminder”.


You can enter email to be received in HTML format from this screen. You can format various styles, include images and links, use the built in spell checker, and add an attachment. PT Avenue will send only one email to each email address (so family members with the same email address won’t get duplicate email). Each recipient will see only their email address, not the addresses of any other recipients. PT Avenue will also send the email to the sender’s email address (the one on the Reply To line, which comes from the preference or helper page for this person) so you have a record of emails sent.

The PT Avenue email feature is designed with basic email functionality, which may be useful for small

PTAs with basic email needs. It is not intended as a replacement for products like Mail Chimp, Vertical

Response, Constant Contact, etc. which your PTA might be using.

SUPPORT

If you have any questions about any version of PT Avenue, please don't hesitate to contact PT Avenue at

[email protected]

For questions specific to PTA in Washington please contact WSPTA staff at [email protected]



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