Let different volunteers do different jobs without giving everyone the keys to everything. The treasurer manages donations without seeing ballots; the librarian runs the catalog without touching the donor list; the membership chair handles the roster without owning the website.
If more than one volunteer works in your site's admin, set this up.
How it works
SocietyPress has 11 access areas. Each volunteer gets some combination of them, and sees only the screens those areas cover. A volunteer with just Events sees the Events screens and nothing else.
To save ticking boxes one at a time, there are 8 role templates — Webmaster, Membership Manager, Treasurer, Event Coordinator, Librarian, Communications Director, Records Manager and Content Editor. Pick one and its areas are ticked for you; adjust from there.
WordPress administrators always have full access, and only administrators can give access to others.
How to give a volunteer access
Settings → Who Can Do What.
- Under Grant Access to a User, search for the person by name or email and pick them. Members already have an account; for someone who isn't a member, create one first under Users → Add New with the Subscriber role.
- Choose a Role Template, or leave it on Custom.
- Tick or untick Access Areas until it fits.
- For Content & Pages, Which pages? can narrow them to only the pages you tick — useful for a committee chair who looks after their committee's pages.
- Click Save Access.
Next time they sign in, the sidebar shows only what they can use.
The 11 access areas
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Members | View and manage members, import and export, groups and membership plans. |
| Events | Events, categories, speakers, registrations and the calendar. |
| Library | The library catalog, imports and enrichment. |
| Finances | Donations, campaigns, store orders and financial reports. |
| Communications | Email to members, newsletters, the sent-email log and email templates. |
| Genealogical Records | Record collections, record imports and search. |
| Leadership & Volunteers | Officers, committees, meetings, ballots, volunteer opportunities and hours. |
| Content & Pages | Pages, the media library, resource links, documents, photos and the page builder. |
| Settings & Design | SocietyPress settings, colors and fonts, and features. |
| Reports | Membership reports, event statistics, financial summaries and Insights. |
| Paid Research | Picking up and working paid research cases on the My Research Assignments page. This one doesn't open the admin side — a researcher signs in like any member. |
The 8 role templates
- Webmaster — every area. Still not an administrator: they can't give others access.
- Membership Manager — Members and Reports.
- Treasurer — Finances and Reports. Doesn't see the member roster.
- Event Coordinator — Events.
- Librarian — Library.
- Communications Director — Communications.
- Records Manager — Genealogical Records.
- Content Editor — Content & Pages.
How to change or remove access
On Settings → Who Can Do What, find them under Users with SocietyPress Access. Edit to change their areas; Revoke removes all their SocietyPress access. Their account stays, with whatever WordPress role it had.
Deleting the account itself (Users → All Users) removes their access too, but also asks what to do with anything they wrote. Revoking is usually what you want.
Common patterns
Solo webmaster. One person does everything as a WordPress administrator. Nothing to set up.
Webmaster and treasurer. The webmaster is an administrator; the treasurer gets the Treasurer template.
A full board. The webmaster is an administrator. The membership chair gets Membership Manager, the treasurer Treasurer, the program chair Event Coordinator, the newsletter editor Communications Director. Each sees only their own screens.
Committee chairs. Chairs get their My Committee screen automatically — see Governance. Give them Content & Pages limited to their committee's pages if they should edit those too.
If something looks wrong
A volunteer signs in but sees no SocietyPress menus. They have no access areas yet. Grant them access as above.
Insights doesn't show for the treasurer. Insights needs the Reports area. Open their access and check Reports is ticked.
A volunteer can see member phone numbers. The Members area shows member records in full; there's no way yet to give someone member access without the private fields.
An administrator can't be restricted. That's by design. To restrict someone, change their WordPress role from Administrator to Subscriber under Users → All Users, then give them access areas here.
Related guides
- Members — what the Members area covers
- Insights — needs the Reports area
- Governance — committee chairs' access