This is the public record of what's coming next. It's organized by theme rather than by date because delivery estimates for a solo project are notoriously unreliable. Each item describes the motivation (the problem), scope (what the deliverable is), and blockers (what has to happen first, if anything).
Items are listed in rough priority order within each section. Things near the top will likely ship sooner; things near the bottom may move up, move down, or be dropped entirely as the project evolves.
For what's already shipped, see CHANGELOG.md.
Recently shipped
Items that have landed recently. Kept here for a release cycle or two so visitors can see momentum before being pruned into the changelog.
End-user docs hub — five new cross-cutting guides
Shipped 2026-05-03. The Harold-friendly module-guide library at getsocietypress.org/docs/modules/ adds five new cross-cutting guides covering the questions every webmaster asks early: Insights, Backup & Restore, User Access & Roles, Email Setup, and Privacy & GDPR. That brings the total to 28 guides spanning every toggleable module plus the recurring cross-cutting concerns. FAQ links into each where relevant.
ENS migration handbook — Decisions section
Shipped 2026-05-03. The full ENS migration walkthrough now includes an explicit "Decisions you'll make during the import" section covering joint members (combine vs split), lapsed members, member numbers, legacy fields, privacy defaults, and cutover timing (parallel run vs hard switch). Closes the bulk-decision-points expansion ask from the Documentation section.
Insights — engagement & use metrics for boards
Shipped 2026-05-03. A single admin/board-only page (SocietyPress → Insights) that pulls one headline number per enabled module across a chosen time window — active members, events held, donations raised, volunteer hours, records added, blasts sent, and so on — with a sparkline trend on every card. Time-window dropdown supports rolling 30 / 90 / 365 days plus this and last fiscal year (the fiscal-year boundary reuses the existing membership-start-month setting, so societies don't configure it twice). Disabled modules are hidden; permission gate uses the existing sp_view_reports capability so a treasurer or membership chair can be granted access without giving them broader admin rights.
Theme Exchange — Tier 1
Shipped 2026-04-26. Societies can export their site's design tokens (palette, fonts, spacing, layout) as a portable JSON preset and import presets from other societies. Admin page at SocietyPress → Theme Presets handles both directions; tokens are sanitized through the existing design-page validators on import. Public Theme Gallery at /themes/ lists curated presets (Heritage, Coastline, Prairie, Parlor, Ledger to start).
Lineage Programs (First Families, Pioneer Settlers, etc.)
Shipped 2026-04-26. Multi-program lineage / heritage recognition module. Members apply through a public form, staff review in an admin queue with status workflow, approved members appear on a public roster with auto-generated certificate numbers and printable certificates at /?sp_certificate=NNN. Optional application-fee Stripe redirect. GDPR exporters/erasers wired.
Public Donation form + Stripe recurring + PayPal one-time
Shipped 2026-04-26. New [sp_donate] shortcode delivers preset amounts, custom amount, one-time / monthly / annual frequency, cover- the-fee toggle, anonymous donations, in-honor-of dedications. Stripe Checkout end-to-end for all three frequencies with a signature- verified webhook handling renewals. PayPal Smart Buttons handle one-time donations.
Help Requests upgrade — public submission + comradery model
Shipped 2026-04-26. The Help Requests module pivots to "free by default" comradery. Public submission with math captcha + email verification + per-email rate limiting. Time-entry on every response auto-writes to a unified volunteer-hours ledger keyed by source. Mark- resolved + endorse-helpful + accept-as-answer. Public archive with tag-filter pills. Admin bulk actions (approve / mark-resolved / hide / delete). Member volunteer-hours summary widget.
Paid Research Services (opt-in escalation)
Shipped 2026-04-26. The companion module for the rare case that genuinely needs many hours of focused work. Public intake + Stripe up-front payment, admin queue + single-case review, researcher dashboard with one-click claim and inline log-hours, additional-hours billing flow (researcher requests → Stripe-billed → case bumps authorized hours), in-system case messaging with attachments and email notifications, status-change emails on every transition, convert-from-Help-Request escalation path.
Comparison page — SocietyPress vs. ENS / Wild Apricot / custom WP
Shipped 2026-04-26 at /comparison/. Quick at-a-glance matrix, honest "where we're weaker" section, full feature matrix, 5-year cost-of- ownership comparison, ENS migration callout.
Downloadable PDF info sheets (one-pagers)
Shipped 2026-04-26. Four print-optimized audience pages — /for-administrators/, /for-board-members/, /for-librarians/, /for-treasurers/ — with a floating "Print as PDF" button on each that triggers window.print(). Print CSS hides nav/footer/button so the saved PDF is clean.
First tagged GitHub release — v1.0.19
Shipped 2026-04-19. The repository now carries a semver tag, unblocking the in-plugin update checker, the Softaculous submission flow, and the planned homepage activity feed.
Native store checkout
Shipped 2026-04-19 (plugin 1.0.20). The cart now mounts the Stripe Payment Element (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link) and PayPal Smart Buttons (PayPal, Venmo) inline, with real refund buttons on the order detail page and a persistent admin notice when neither processor is configured.
security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt
Shipped 2026-04-15. RFC 9116 disclosure file live at https://getsocietypress.org/.well-known/security.txt, pointing at the Security Policy page.
Distribution & Releases
Getting SocietyPress into the hands of actual societies with as little friction as possible.
Softaculous one-click install
Motivation: Most of the target audience hosts on cPanel providers where Softaculous is the default installer. A one-click install cuts the path from "heard about SocietyPress" to "running on my site" from an afternoon to three minutes. Scope: Build the Softaculous package per their submission spec (info.xml, screenshots, bundle ZIP layout), validate it with scripts/build-softaculous.sh end-to-end, and submit through the partner program. Blockers: None.
In-app update checker surfacing
Motivation: Once releases exist, WordPress administrators should see an "Update available" notice inside their dashboard without having to check GitHub manually. Scope: The plugin already has SOCIETYPRESS_GITHUB_REPO wired to the release-checking endpoint — verify that the notice appears, the update ZIP downloads, and the extraction is zip-slip-safe. Blockers: None.
Marketing Site (getsocietypress.org)
The front door. The templates exist for most of these; many need content or final polish.
Theme Exchange — Tier 2 (themed bundles) and Tier 3 (full child themes)
Motivation: Tier 1 (design-token JSON presets) shipped. Tier 2 adds custom CSS + asset files inside a sandboxed .spchildtheme archive — fancier customization without crossing the PHP-execution boundary. Tier 3 adds full WordPress child themes via curated review with a "Reviewed by SocietyPress" badge for trust. Scope: Tier 2 — bundle parser, CSS sanitizer, image-only asset allowlist, admin import flow extension. Tier 3 — submission queue, manual review process, badge system on the gallery. Blockers: None for Tier 2. Tier 3 wants a documented review checklist before launch.
Donations / tip jar page on getsocietypress.org
Motivation: SocietyPress is free forever, but voluntary donations keep the lights on. The .github/FUNDING.yml points at this page. Scope: page-donate.php with a clear "no pressure" tone, payment options (Stripe, PayPal, check), and recognition language for contributors who want it. Blockers: Payment-processing decision (Stripe account, etc.).
5-minute Getting Started screencast
Motivation: Most society administrators learn faster from watching than from reading. A short video covering install → setup wizard → first member import → first event closes the "can I actually do this?" gap. Scope: A 5-minute screencast with voiceover, published to YouTube and embedded on the homepage and docs landing. Blockers: A clean demo environment and time to record.
Mailing list signup + release announcements
Motivation: Release notifications, security advisories, and occasional tips are more reliably delivered by email than by hoping people check the site. Scope: A simple opt-in form on the marketing site plus a newsletter that uses SocietyPress's own blast-email feature (eating our own dogfood on a site that also functions as the marketing home). Blockers: Blast-email integration with a non-society context (may need a lightweight "subscribers" model separate from members).
Site-wide search
Motivation: As docs and showcase pages grow, finding the right page becomes harder. Scope: A WordPress-native search page that searches docs, FAQ, showcase, and blog posts with per-source filtering. Blockers: None.
XML sitemap
Motivation: Search engines find the site faster with an explicit sitemap. Scope: Dynamically generated XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml covering pages, blog posts, docs, and the showcase. Blockers: None.
Inline GitHub Releases feed on homepage
Motivation: Showing activity on the homepage — "v1.0.72 released three days ago" — signals the project is alive. Scope: Cached fetch of the GitHub Releases API, rendered as a compact feed in the homepage footer or sidebar. Blockers: None.
Demo Site (demo.getsocietypress.org)
Making the live demo show off everything the software can do.
Import the Kindred Genealogical Society dataset
Motivation: The demo currently shows an empty society. With a realistic dataset — members, records, newsletters — it becomes a working reference for what a real deployment looks like. Scope: Import the Sample Data/Kindred Genealogical Society/ bundle (members CSV, 12 record collections, 12 newsletter PDFs) into demo.getsocietypress.org. The sample data is already assembled and gitignored. Blockers: None.
ENS Migration demo walkthrough
Motivation: The single most effective sales tool for an ENS society is a "watch us migrate one" demonstration. Having a live example with realistic ENS-format data proves the migration works. Scope: Use the ENS-format CSVs in Sample Data/ENS Migration Demo/ to perform and document a fresh migration on demo.getsocietypress.org. Publish the walkthrough as a docs page. Blockers: Kindred dataset loaded (so we start from a realistic pre-migration state).
Hart Island / NYC Marriage GENRECORD showcase
Motivation: GENRECORD is the open exchange format being developed alongside SocietyPress. Showcasing real public-domain data published through GENRECORD demonstrates interoperability beyond CSV. Scope: Load the Sample Data/Real Public Domain Sources/ .gedrec files (Hart Island burials, NYC marriage certificates) into a Records module collection on demo.getsocietypress.org, with a docs page explaining the format and how to export to it. Blockers: None (data is staged, format is implemented).
Documentation
Getting the user-facing docs up to the same quality bar as the code.
End-user documentation hub
Motivation: The repo has technical docs (docs/ARCHITECTURE.md, FEATURES.md); what's missing is the walkthrough-style documentation for society volunteers. Harold (the canonical non-technical end-user persona) needs step-by-step guides, not architecture references. Scope: A full docs hub at getsocietypress.org/docs covering: installation, setup wizard, every module from a user's point of view, the ENS migration, and troubleshooting. Structured so a senior volunteer can find the answer without scrolling. Blockers: None (pure content work).
FAQ page content
Motivation: The FAQ page template is built but needs real answers to real questions. Scope: 20-30 anticipated questions with clear answers, organized by category (installing, configuring, members, events, etc.). Blockers: Observation of what actual questions come in (GitHub issues, support forums, feedback form).
ENS migration handbook (expanded)
Motivation: The current docs/ENS-MIGRATION-GUIDE.md is a concise walkthrough. Societies moving thousands of records and hundreds of members need a more detailed guide with edge cases. Scope: Expanded handbook covering field-by-field ENS → SocietyPress mapping, bulk decision points (what to do with "legacy" fields, how to handle overlapping memberships), and a rollback plan. Blockers: None.
Platform Features
New capabilities for the software itself.
Events recurring-series improvements
Motivation: The monthly-nth-day recurring logic is correct but hard to configure. Administrators want to say "third Thursday of every month through June" without thinking about nth_day_of_month. Scope: Rewritten UI with calendar-picker preview and plain-language summaries ("This event will occur on: June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19…"). Blockers: None.
Dashboard widgets for chairs
Motivation: Committee chairs currently see the same dashboard as full admins. A chair-scoped dashboard showing their committee's upcoming events, open volunteer slots, and pending sign-ups would reduce the reliance on the society administrator. Scope: Role-aware dashboard with per-role widget sets. Reuses the existing stat-card framework. Blockers: None.
Operations
Making the project itself easier to run long-term.
Incorporate the SocietyPress Foundation as a 501(c)(3)
Motivation: SocietyPress as "a project Charles runs" is vulnerable in ways a 501(c)(3) isn't. A foundation creates a legal home for the project independent of any one person, enables donations to be tax-deductible, qualifies for GitHub's nonprofit program, and gives societies confidence in long-term sustainability. Scope: Incorporation as a Texas nonprofit, IRS Form 1023 or 1023-EZ filing, bylaws, board composition, fiscal sponsor arrangement if appropriate. Blockers: Legal and tax advice; time.
GitHub Sponsors / Open Collective
Motivation: Recurring sponsorship smooths income volatility and gives sponsors a visible recognition channel. Scope: Enable GitHub Sponsors on the SocietyPressFoundation org (probably requires 501(c)(3) verification first). Alternative: Open Collective. Blockers: 501(c)(3) status for tax-deductibility claims.
Automated release pipeline
Motivation: Cutting a release currently means tagging, building the bundle, uploading to GitHub Releases and the downloads server, and updating the marketing changelog. Automation reduces the chance of missing a step. Scope: GitHub Action that on tag push builds the bundle, creates a Release, uploads the ZIP asset, and posts to the marketing site's changelog endpoint. Blockers: First manual release to establish the pattern.
Rejected / Deferred
Things that got considered seriously and deliberately left out. Listed here so they don't get rediscovered and re-proposed.
- Accepting external PRs. Explicitly not a project goal — see
- Gutenberg / block editor support. SocietyPress is an intentional
- Tailwind or any CSS framework on the marketing theme. The theme
- React-based admin. Vanilla JS only, for the same reason.
classic-editor + page-builder product. The block editor adds complexity senior volunteers don't benefit from.
is deliberately hand-written with CSS custom properties so it can be customized without a toolchain.
Changing this document
This roadmap is a living document. Items move up, down, or off the list as the project's priorities evolve. Material changes are noted in CHANGELOG.md under the Unreleased section.