Use the template as a working copy.
The CSV is a planning worksheet for organizing current member information. It is not a Clubward import specification, an accounting ledger or a backup of your source system. Agree on the receiving system’s supported fields and import format before using a file for migration.
Download the template using the link beside this guide. Keep an untouched export from your current system in its approved storage location, then prepare a separate working copy. Open the CSV with identifiers and phone numbers treated as text so spreadsheet formatting does not remove leading zeros or alter values.
The sample names, identifiers and example.com email addresses are fictional. Dates and membership labels are examples too. Replace them with your club’s reviewed definitions rather than treating the sample values as the rules for your organization.
Keep one person per row and one stable household key.
Give each person a unique member_id. People in the same household share a household_id; their member_id values remain different. A household contact is a person your club has identified for account communication. Marking that role in this worksheet does not grant portal access, authority over another person or a communication preference.
A family membership may cover several people. The template repeats its membership_reference on those rows so reviewers can see the shared relationship. A repeated reference represents the same membership, not an additional membership sale or a second charge. Keep separate memberships separate even when people share an address.
Names, email addresses and street addresses can change or be shared. Use stable source identifiers where available, then keep a mapping when the new system assigns different identifiers. If you create temporary worksheet IDs, document that choice and keep them distinct from the receiving system’s IDs.
| Example person | Household ID | Member ID | Membership reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Rivera, fictional adult | EXAMPLE-HH-001 | EXAMPLE-M-001 | EXAMPLE-MSHIP-001 |
| Jordan Rivera, fictional adult | EXAMPLE-HH-001 | EXAMPLE-M-002 | EXAMPLE-MSHIP-001 |
| Casey Chen, fictional adult | EXAMPLE-HH-002 | EXAMPLE-M-003 | EXAMPLE-MSHIP-002 |
Count people by unique member IDs, households by unique household IDs and memberships by unique membership references. Those totals answer different questions.
Agree on what each column means.
Start with the fields you can explain and maintain. Add a column only when your team knows its purpose, source and reviewer. The template leaves out dates of birth, health information, identification documents and detailed financial data; any additional information needs its own appropriate collection and access process.
| CSV field | Purpose | Review rule |
|---|---|---|
| household_id | Connect people who belong to the same household record. | Use the same stable value for that household; do not group by surname alone. |
| member_id | Identify one individual person. | Each person has one unique value in this file. |
| first_name / last_name | Record the person’s name in separate fields. | Preserve the source spelling and check similar names before merging records. |
| email / phone | Hold current contact details where your club has them. | Keep phone numbers as text. Leave an unknown value blank; do not invent contact details. |
| is_household_contact | Identify the reviewed account communication contact. | Use yes or no consistently; confirm who may be contacted under club policy. |
| household_relationship | Explain the person’s relationship within the household. | Use a small agreed vocabulary. This label does not establish permissions or legal authority. |
| membership_reference | Connect the people covered by the same membership. | Repeat the reference for shared coverage; do not treat each row as a separate sale. |
| membership_type | Name the applicable package or category. | Map source labels to the receiving system’s agreed membership types. |
| membership_status | Record the reviewed membership status. | Define each allowed value. Keep membership status separate from payment and waiver status. |
| membership_start_date / membership_end_date | Describe the membership period in the source record. | Use YYYY-MM-DD. Confirm whether end dates are inclusive and how seasonal memberships are mapped. |
| record_review_date | Show when this worksheet row was last checked. | Use YYYY-MM-DD and retain the source snapshot date separately in your migration notes. |
Resolve duplicates before changing relationships.
A repeated email address may belong to two adults sharing a contact address. Two similar names may belong to different people. Put possible duplicates in a review list and ask the record owner to decide before combining or deleting them. Record what changed and retain a way to trace the result back to the original export.
Prepare a field map alongside the working list: source column, worksheet field, receiving field, allowed values and reviewer. Confirm required fields and how blanks are handled. A blank may mean unknown, not applicable or not supplied; it should not silently become an instruction to erase a value in the receiving system.
Keep balances and documents with their own reconciliation plan.
A member list does not establish an account balance. Keep outstanding invoices, credits, refunds and transaction history in the agreed finance export or account reconciliation process. Have the treasurer name the balance cutoff date and approve the figures separately. Do not add a repeated household balance to every person’s row and then total those rows.
Waiver signatures, document files, guest-pass balances, historical attendance and stored payment credentials need their own scope review. A reference to a member does not prove that these records will transfer. Agree which records are imported, retained in an archive or collected again before announcing the move.
Keep payment card details, account passwords and unrelated personal notes out of this worksheet. Share real member files through your approved transfer process with the people authorized to review them. Use prepared sample records for a public walkthrough rather than sharing the club’s live list.
Reconcile people, households and memberships as record relationships. Reconcile money and signed documents through their own approved source records and cutoff checks.
Verify a representative sample before the full import.
Once the import format and scope are agreed, test a small set that includes the situations your staff regularly handle. Compare the result with the reviewed source, then ask a membership coordinator and a front desk colleague to follow the same household. Keep the full import pending until the people responsible resolve the sample’s open questions.