> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.crowdwork.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.crowdwork.com/for-theatres/setting-up-memberships.md).

# Setting Up Memberships

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Are you a student or ticketholder? Check out our** [**Member's Guide to Memberships**](/for-ticket-holders/members-guide-to-memberships.md)**.**

**The following guide is for venue administrators and managers** who need to create and configure memberships for their events.
{% endhint %}

## What Are Memberships?

Think of memberships as your theatre's version of Netflix or Spotify - subscription plans that give your patrons awesome benefits, mainly free or discounted access to tagged shows and classes. This feature doesn't just help your bottom line - it transforms your whole business model:

* Create predictable, recurring revenue (goodbye, feast-or-famine ticket sales!)
* Build serious patron loyalty and community connection
* Boost attendance at your events (even those typically harder-to-fill slots)
* Make life easier for your regular attendees (no more "Do I want to pay for this show?" decisions)
* Offer season passes, festival badges, or VIP access programs

{% hint style="success" %}
**✨ Special Feature**

**Memberships** is one of our **Special Features** — powerful tools to grow your revenue and deepen patron loyalty. These features are completely optional. When enabled, each one adds a 1% fee to all transactions. If your theatre passes fees on to customers (the default setting), they cost you nothing to use.

[Read more about Special Feature pricing >](https://docs.crowdwork.com/for-theatres/setup-your-theatre-account/understanding-crowdwork-fees#special-features)
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
**First time running a membership or subscription program?** Check out our [Quick Start Guide](/the-academy/crowdwork-academy/memberships-quick-start-guide.md) for simple setup steps, common questions and popular membership models to get you started quickly.
{% endhint %}

## Memberships Feature Details

When you activate the Memberships feature:

* A 1% fee is added to all transactions (not just membership-related ones). If your theatre passes fees on to customers (the default setting), this costs you nothing.
* You can turn it off anytime, but deactivation will terminate all active membership plans
* Members would need to sign up again if you later reactivate the feature

## Activating Memberships

To start offering memberships:

1. Navigate to the **Memberships** section in your Dashboard menu
2. Click the teal **Activate Memberships** button
3. Review the information in the popup
4. Confirm by clicking **Activate Memberships**

<div data-full-width="true"><figure><img src="/files/PwmRfNEtLuSZkdoTPzSO" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

## Creating Membership Tiers

After activating memberships, you'll need to create at least one membership tier:

1. Go to **Memberships** → [**Manage Tiers**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/memberships/tiers) in your Dashboard
2. Click the [**+ Create New Membership Tier**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/memberships/tiers/new) button
3. Complete the membership tier form:

### Membership Tier Form Fields

* **Name**: What you want to call this membership level (e.g., "Monthly Access Pass," "Comedy Club Membership," "Season Pass")
* **Description**: Details about what's included in the membership (supports rich text formatting)

{% hint style="info" %}
**Need help with the description field?** See [Using the Rich Text Editor](https://docs.crowdwork.com/for-theatres/using-the-rich-text-editor) for formatting tips. Note that images and file attachments are not available in the Membership Tier Description field.
{% endhint %}

* **Cadence**: The billing frequency. Choose from:
  * **Daily**: Renews every day (great for festivals or short-term events)
  * **Weekly**: Renews every week
  * **Monthly**: Renews every month (most common)
  * **Yearly**: Renews every year (ideal for season passes)
  * **Once**: One-time charge with no recurring billing (perfect for season tickets, festival badges, or single-purchase access passes)
* **Price**: The amount charged per billing period (can be set to $0.00 for free memberships)

{% hint style="warning" %}
***Factor any fee costs into your membership pricing when setting your price.***

**Fees are always absorbed on membership purchases.** Regardless of your theatre's fee settings, transaction fees on all membership transactions are never passed on to the patron. This ensures members are always charged a predictable, consistent amount each billing cycle.
{% endhint %}

* **Select Show or Class**: What the membership covers. Pick whole events, tags, individual ticket tiers, *All Shows*/*All Classes*, or an **"Any tier named…"** rule that keeps covering events you create later. [See Choosing What a Membership Covers >](#choosing-what-a-membership-covers)
* **Exclude Specific Events or Tiers** *(optional)*: Carve something back out of what you just included — a show, a class, a tag, one ticket tier, or a tier name. [See Choosing What a Membership Covers >](#choosing-what-a-membership-covers)
* **Member Benefit**: What members receive on the admissions your tier covers. Choose from:
  * **Free Admission**: members claim covered admissions at $0 — the classic membership behavior, and the default
  * **Percent Off**: members pay a reduced price — a set percentage off each covered admission
  * **Dollars Off**: members pay a reduced price — a set dollar amount off each covered admission
* **Benefit Amount**: Appears once you choose Percent Off or Dollars Off. Enter the percent (like 20%) or the dollar amount (like $5) that comes off each covered admission.
* **Max Uses per Renewal** *(optional)*: How many *different showtimes* a member can claim per billing period. Leave blank for unlimited. [See how the two limits differ >](#how-often-a-member-can-claim-the-benefit)
* **Password** *(optional)*: Set a password requirement to enroll in this membership tier (useful for VIP or exclusive memberships)
* **Admissions per Use** *(optional)*: How many admissions receive the member benefit *at a single showtime*. Defaults to 1 — raise it when a membership should cover a member plus a guest, or a whole household. [See how the two limits differ >](#how-often-a-member-can-claim-the-benefit)

4. Click **Save Group** to create the membership tier

***

## Choosing What a Membership Covers

Coverage is the part of a membership tier worth slowing down for. It is built in two steps, and the second step is what makes precise offers possible:

1. **Include** — in the **Select Show or Class** field, add everything the membership should cover.
2. **Exclude** *(optional)* — in the **Exclude Specific Events or Tiers** field, carve pieces back out.

CrowdWork assembles everything in the first field, then removes everything in the second. You can leave the second field empty; most simple memberships do.

### The five ways to include coverage

Click the **Select Show or Class** field and type to search. Options are grouped, and you can mix as many as you like:

* **By Type** — *All Shows* or *All Classes*. Covers everything of that type, including events you create later.
* **A whole event** — shown as *Event Name - All Tiers*. Covers every ticket tier on that one event.
* **One ticket tier of one event** — shown as *Event Name - Tier Name ($Price)*. Covers only that price point on that one event.
* **A** [**tag**](/for-theatres/tags.md) — covers every event carrying that tag, including events you tag later.
* **Dynamic Tier Names** — shown as *Any tier named "General Admission" (12 tiers)*. Covers every ticket tier with that name across your whole account, on events that exist now *and* events you create later. This is the one that does the most work for the least maintenance.

An event with a single ticket tier appears as one plain entry rather than an *All Tiers* row plus a tier row — there is nothing to choose between.

### "Any tier named…" — the rule that covers events you haven't created yet

Most theatres reuse the same tier names on every event: every show sells a *General Admission*, a *Student*, a *VIP*. Picking those tiers one event at a time means hundreds of clicks, and the list goes stale the moment you add next month's shows.

An **Any tier named "…"** option saves the *name* instead of the list. Every time a member checks out, CrowdWork looks at that event's ticket tiers and applies the membership to any tier carrying that name. Add a show six months from now with a *General Admission* tier and it is covered the day you create it — no edit to the membership.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**It matches the whole name, not a keyword inside it.**

*Any tier named "General Admission"* matches a tier called *General Admission*, *general admission*, or *General Admission* with stray spaces around it — capitalization and surrounding whitespace are ignored. It does **not** match *General Admission + Featured Cocktail*, *General Admission (Late Show)*, or any other longer name. Those are separate names, and each has its own *Any tier named…* option in the list.

That is usually exactly what you want — it is how a membership covers the plain seat and leaves the upgrade to be paid for. But if you expected a partial match, this is where the surprise lives.
{% endhint %}

The number in each option — *(12 tiers)* — is how many ticket tiers carry that name in your account **today**. An option reading *(no tiers currently)* is a rule you saved earlier whose name no longer matches anything; it stays in the list so a saved selection never silently disappears, and it will start matching again if you create a tier with that name.

### Select all by keyword — a shortcut, not a rule

Under both pickers is a **Select all by keyword** box with a **Select All Matches** button. It is easy to mistake for the tier-name rule above; it is a different tool.

Type a word and it filters the list you are looking at, matching that text *anywhere* in an option's label. Click **Select All Matches** and every currently matching option is added to your selection at once. The line underneath reports how many options match and how many aren't selected yet.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The keyword box matches loosely — check what it grabbed.**

Because it matches any part of an option's label, typing `General Admission` selects the *Any tier named "General Admission"* rule **and** the *Any tier named "General Admission + Featured Cocktail"* rule, plus every individual *Event Name - General Admission* tier, plus any event whose own name happens to contain those words.

That is the fast way to build broad coverage, and the easy way to cover something you meant to leave out. After clicking **Select All Matches**, read back the chips in the field and remove anything you didn't intend.
{% endhint %}

### The coverage line — check this before you save

As you build a selection, a line under the field reports what it actually resolves to: *"Currently covers 34 ticket tiers across 12 events."* When a tier-name rule is part of the selection it adds *"Tier-name rules keep applying to events you add later."* If nothing matches, it says so plainly: *"This selection doesn't match any ticket tiers right now."*

The count updates as you add and remove items in both fields, so it reflects your exclusions too. It counts your **current** events — a tier-name rule will go on covering events beyond that count as you create them, which is what the extra sentence is telling you.

{% hint style="success" %}
**✨ A rule that quietly matches nothing is the failure worth catching.** If you name a tier slightly differently from how it is spelled on your events, the membership will simply never apply and nothing will look broken. A glance at this line before saving catches it.
{% endhint %}

### Excluding events and tiers — two different effects

The **Exclude Specific Events or Tiers** field takes shows, classes, tags, individual ticket tiers, and *Any tier named…* rules. What an exclusion *does* depends on which kind you pick:

* **Exclude an event or a tag** → the membership stops applying to those events entirely. Use this for "all our shows except this one benefit night."
* **Exclude a ticket tier or a tier name** → the membership still applies to the event; it just won't cover that tier. Members claim their benefit on the other tiers and pay full price for the excluded one.

{% hint style="info" %}
**To exclude a tier everywhere, exclude the tier \_name**\_\*\* — not the individual tier.\*\*

Excluding *Event Name - VIP ($40)* excludes the VIP tier **on that one event only**. Excluding *Any tier named "VIP"* excludes it across every event that has one, including events you create later. When you want a standing rule, pick the **Any tier named…** option in the exclude field.
{% endhint %}

### Common coverage setups

**Members get into everything.** Include *All Shows* (and *All Classes* if you want both). Leave the exclude field empty.

**Members get the standard seat, but pay for the upgrade.** Say every show sells a *General Admission* tier and a *General Admission + Featured Cocktail* tier, and the cocktail should never be free. Two ways to set it up, both durable:

* **Include only what you want covered** — put *Any tier named "General Admission"* in the include field and nothing in the exclude field. The membership covers general admission on every event that sells it, now and in future, and touches nothing else.
* **Include broadly, then carve out** — put *All Shows* in the include field and *Any tier named "General Admission + Featured Cocktail"* in the exclude field. Members get every other tier and pay for the cocktail. Better when new tier names appear often and you'd rather cover them by default.

**A membership for one series or festival.** [Tag](/for-theatres/tags.md) the events, then include the tag. Anything you tag later joins automatically.

**A members-only night at a member price.** Include the single event, set **Member Benefit** to *Percent Off* or *Dollars Off*, and members see the reduced price at checkout instead of $0.

### Editing coverage later

Coverage is re-evaluated at checkout, not frozen at signup. Editing a tier's included or excluded selections changes what **current** members can claim from that moment on. Price changes behave differently — they only apply to members who enroll after the edit.

***

## How Often a Member Can Claim the Benefit

Two fields sound similar and do different jobs. Setting the wrong one is one of the easier mistakes to make here.

* **Admissions per Use** — how many admissions get the benefit **at a single showtime**. Defaults to 1. Set it to 2 for a member-plus-guest membership, or 4 for a household pass.
* **Max Uses per Renewal** — how many **different showtimes** a member can claim in a billing period. Blank means unlimited. A flex pass good for five shows a month is `5`.

They stack: *Admissions per Use* = 2 with *Max Uses per Renewal* = 5 gives a member five outings a month with a guest on each — up to ten admissions, but never more than two at any one showtime.

{% hint style="info" %}
**"Showtime" means one specific date \_and**\_\*\* time.\*\*

If a show runs at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM on the same day, those are two separate showtimes. A member with the default settings can claim one admission at the 7:00 PM and one at the 9:00 PM — and each one counts separately against **Max Uses per Renewal**. If you want a run capped by day rather than by performance, program it as a single showtime.
{% endhint %}

Two more behaviors worth knowing, both automatic:

* **The benefit goes to the most expensive eligible seats first.** If a member's cart holds more covered admissions than their allotment, CrowdWork applies the benefit to the highest-priced ones and charges normally for the rest — the member always gets the best outcome available to them.
* **Only one membership applies per checkout.** A patron can hold as many memberships at your theatre as they like. At checkout CrowdWork uses the single one that saves them the most on that order rather than combining them.

{% hint style="info" %}
**A use is only spent when the benefit is actually worth something.** If a covered admission is already free, or a *Dollars Off* benefit has nothing to come off, no use is consumed. Members don't burn a flex-pass slot on a $0 seat. Membership benefits do not apply to [bundle](/for-theatres/setting-up-bundles.md) purchases.
{% endhint %}

***

## Membership Types & Use Cases

### Recurring Memberships

Perfect for ongoing access to your regular programming:

* **Monthly Comedy Pass**: $25/month for unlimited access to all comedy shows
* **Class Membership**: $50/month for unlimited access to all classes
* **VIP Membership**: $75/month for priority seating and member-only events

### One-Time Memberships

Great for special situations where recurring billing doesn't make sense:

* **Season Pass**: One-time $150 payment for access to entire 6-month season
* **Festival Badge**: One-time $40 payment for weekend festival access
* **Workshop Series**: One-time $200 payment for 8-week intensive course

### Free Memberships

Useful for building community or offering special access:

* **Student Membership**: Free tier for students (password protected)
* **Volunteer Access**: Free membership for your volunteers
* **Patreon Supporter Access**: Free tier for existing Patreon supporters
* **Performer & Cast Comp Access**: Free membership for cast, crew, and performers to reserve their own complimentary seats each run

{% hint style="info" %}
**Using memberships to manage comps?** Free memberships are one of the most efficient ways to handle recurring complimentary tickets — patrons self-serve without any admin effort on your end. [See the full guide to issuing complimentary tickets.](/for-theatres/issuing-comps.md)
{% endhint %}

### Limited-Use Memberships

When creating your Membership Tier, use the **Max Uses per Renewal** setting to control access frequency while maintaining value. Common campaigns include:

* **Flex Pass**: $30/month for up to 5 shows
* **Date Night Pass**: $40/month for up to 2 shows
* **Premium Access**: $60/month for up to 10 events plus merch or concessions

***

## Understanding Membership Fees & Pricing

### How Membership Fees Work

Unlike regular ticket sales, membership transactions do not follow your theatre's fee settings. Even if your fee settings are configured to pass fees on to customers, membership fees are always absorbed by the theatre rather than passed to the member.

This design choice exists for several important reasons:

* **Subscription model psychology**: Hidden fees on memberships feel deceptive to customers who expect one clear price
* **Competitive positioning**: Most subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships) show one all-inclusive price
* **Processing complexity**: Recurring billing with variable fees creates reconciliation and accounting complications
* **Customer experience**: It's much cleaner to say "membership is $30/month" rather than "$30/month + processing fees"

### Pricing Strategy

When setting your membership prices, we recommend building processing fees into your tier pricing. For example, if you want to net $30 after fees, price your membership at $35 to account for the absorbed processing costs.

## How Memberships Work

### Key Features

* **One Admission Per Showtime**: By default, a member's benefit applies to one admission at each covered showtime. A show playing at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM on the same day is two showtimes, and a member can claim at each. Raise **Admissions per Use** to cover more than one seat at a showtime
* **Free or Discounted**: A tier can give free admission, a percentage off, or a dollar amount off — set with **Member Benefit**
* **Tier-Level Coverage**: Include or exclude individual ticket tiers — or every tier sharing a name, across events you haven't created yet — so a membership can cover a standard seat while leaving a premium or add-on tier for members to pay for. [See Choosing What a Membership Covers >](#choosing-what-a-membership-covers)
* **Usage Limits**: Cap how many different showtimes a member can claim per renewal period with **Max Uses per Renewal**
* **Password Protection**: Restrict membership enrollment with passwords
* **Public Events**: Memberships work with public events through tagging
* **Unlisted Events Option**: For "members-only" events, create unlisted events and share links only with members

### Member Login Requirement

Members must be logged in to their CrowdWork account when purchasing tickets for their membership benefits to apply automatically. When logged in, covered events show their member price during checkout — $0 on a Free Admission tier, or the reduced price on a Percent Off or Dollars Off tier.

### Billing & Renewal

* Initial charge occurs immediately when a patron signs up
* **Recurring memberships**: Renewals happen on the same calendar date each period (e.g., signup on the 5th = bill on the 5th of each month)
* **One-time memberships**: No renewal charges - access continues based on event eligibility
* Renewals are processed around 11am Central Time daily
* Payment failures for recurring memberships trigger an automatic retry sequence:
  * First retry after 24 hours
  * Second retry after another 24 hours
  * Final retry after an additional 24 hours
  * If those attempts don't succeed and the member has another card on file, we'll try that card too
  * The membership may be deactivated if all cards fail

{% hint style="warning" %}
***Factor any fee costs into your membership pricing when setting your price.***

**Fees are always absorbed on membership purchases.** Regardless of your theatre's fee settings, transaction fees on all membership transactions are never passed on to the patron. This ensures members are always charged a predictable, consistent amount each billing cycle.
{% endhint %}

### Password-Protected Memberships

When you set a password for a membership tier:

* A password field automatically appears on your public membership page
* Only people with the password can enroll in that tier
* Useful for exclusive access programs, student discounts, or VIP memberships
* The password field only shows if you have at least one active password-protected tier

### Discount Codes for Memberships

You can offer discount codes for membership tiers:

1. Create discount codes in your **Discount Codes** section
2. When selecting events to apply the discount to, your membership tiers will appear as options
3. Discount code fields automatically appear on your membership page when active codes exist
4. Great for promotional campaigns, existing supporters, or special offers

{% hint style="info" %}
**Important:** Discount codes applied to a membership tier discount the **membership purchase itself** (the signup or renewal price) — they do not give members an ongoing discount on individual ticket purchases. Members receive their benefit on the events the tier covers simply by logging in and checking out — $0 on a Free Admission tier, or the reduced price on a Percent Off or Dollars Off tier. To give members a break on events the tier *doesn't* cover, create a separate discount code and share it with your members directly.
{% endhint %}

### Season Ticket Considerations

For traditional season ticket programs where patrons expect one ticket per production (not per occurrence), the current system works best when combined with the Max Uses feature. For example, if you have a 5-show season, set Max Uses to 5. While this doesn't prevent a member from using all 5 tickets on one show that runs multiple weeks, it approximates traditional season ticket behavior for most use cases.

## Managing Individual Memberships

To view and manage individual member subscriptions:

1. Navigate to **Memberships** → [**Members**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/memberships) in your Dashboard
2. Search for specific members using the search field
3. Click on a member to view their details
4. From the member details page, you can:
   * **Pause Membership**: Temporarily suspends benefits and shifts renewal date forward (recurring memberships only)
   * **Cancel Membership**: Terminates membership at end of paid period
   * **View Membership History**: See past renewals and changes

### Tracking Member Activity

Since members "purchase" tickets even when using their membership benefits, their activity appears in your regular dashboard sections:

* [**Orders**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/orders): All membership-based ticket purchases show here as $0 transactions
* [**Tickets**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/tickets): Individual ticket records for shows
* [**Registrations**](https://crowdwork.com/dashboard/registrations): Individual registration records for classes

This allows you to track member attendance and engagement using the same tools you use for regular ticket holders.

## Pausing vs. Cancelling

### **Pause Functionality** *(Recurring memberships only)*:

* Temporarily suspends access to benefits
* Shifts renewal date forward by the same number of days paused
* Member can still reactivate their membership
* No immediate charges upon reactivation, follows normal billing cycle

### **Cancel Functionality**:

* Terminates membership at the end of the paid period
* Access remains until end of current paid period (for recurring) or based on event dates (for one-time)
* Cannot be reactivated (new signup required)
* When members cancel themselves, they see this message: "If you cancel, your membership will remain active until the end of your current billing period. After that, you'll lose access to all member features. *This action cannot be undone.*"

### **Refunds**

* By default, there are no prorated refunds when memberships are cancelled
* If you want to issue a refund as a theatre admin, find the transaction and click the refund button
* For detailed refund procedures, see the Issuing Refunds guide

## Tracking Membership Revenue

Membership revenue appears in your Square Dashboard alongside other sales. You can identify membership transactions by:

1. Logging into your Square Dashboard
2. Navigating to the Sales section
3. Looking for transactions labeled as "Membership"

## Best Practices for Memberships

### Pricing Strategy

* **Recurring Value Calculation**: Price recurring memberships so they feel like a steal! If tickets are $15 and members might attend 2 shows per month, price around $25-30. They save money, you get reliable income - win-win!
* **One-Time Value**: For season passes or festival badges, price below what individual tickets would cost for the full season — if you're not sure where to start, try 20–30% off the full-season total
* **Free Tier Benefits**: Use free memberships to build community and convert casual attendees into regular supporters
* **Psychological Pricing**: Set price points where members feel they "break even" after 2-3 events. Once they've hit that point, every additional show feels completely free, which encourages more attendance
* **Account for Fees**: Remember to build processing fees into your membership pricing since they're absorbed by the theatre

### Membership Program Design

* **Limited Use Strategy**: Offer tiers with usage limits (like "5 shows per month") to create urgency and encourage regular attendance
* **Password Protection**: Use passwords for exclusive tiers, student discounts, or special promotions
* **Mixed Offerings**: Consider offering both unlimited and limited memberships to appeal to different patron types

### Tag Management

* Create specific tags for membership-eligible events
* Consider creating different tags for different membership tiers
* Use descriptive tag names to help you identify membership content

### Communication

* Clearly explain membership benefits on your Public page
* Send welcome emails to new members explaining how to use their membership
* Remind members of upcoming events that are included in their membership
* For limited-use memberships, let members know how many uses they have remaining
* Remind members to log in when purchasing tickets to receive their benefits

## FAQs for Theatre Administrators

**Q: Can members book multiple tickets for the same show?**\
A: By default a member's benefit applies to one admission at each covered showtime. A showtime is a specific date *and* time, so a show playing twice in one evening gives a member a claim at each performance. Raise **Admissions per Use** on the tier when you want the benefit to cover more than one seat at a single showtime — that's how you build a member-plus-guest or household membership.

**Q: How do members redeem their benefit?**\
A: Members must be logged in to their CrowdWork account and still "purchase" tickets through the normal checkout process. On covered events the price shows as $0 on a Free Admission tier, or already reduced on a Percent Off or Dollars Off tier.

**Q: Can we limit how many shows a member can attend per month?**\
A: Yes! Use the **Max Uses per Renewal** field when creating a membership tier. Leave it blank for unlimited access, or set a number like `5`. It counts *different showtimes* — a member who brings a guest to one performance has used one of their five, not two. [More on the two limits >](#how-often-a-member-can-claim-the-benefit)

**Q: Can a membership cover one ticket tier but not another?**\
A: Yes, and there are two ways to do it. Either include only the tier you want covered — pick *Any tier named "General Admission"* in **Select Show or Class** — or include the show broadly and put the tier you want left out in **Exclude Specific Events or Tiers**. Choosing the *Any tier named…* option in either field makes the rule stand for events you create later too; choosing one event's individual tier applies only to that event. [Full walkthrough >](#choosing-what-a-membership-covers)

**Q: Can members get a discount instead of free admission?**\
A: Yes. Set **Member Benefit** to *Percent Off* or *Dollars Off* and enter a **Benefit Amount**. Members then pay a reduced price on covered events rather than $0 — useful when free entry is more than you want to give on a premium tier but you still want members to feel the value.

**Q: Can a membership cover more than one seat at a showtime?**\
A: Yes — raise **Admissions per Use** above its default of 1. That is how you build a membership covering a member plus a guest, or a whole household.

**Q: Will a membership cover shows we haven't created yet?**\
A: Yes, if you set it up that way. *All Shows*, *All Classes*, a [tag](/for-theatres/tags.md), and any *Any tier named "…"* rule all keep applying to events you add later. Picking individual events or individual ticket tiers covers only what existed when you saved. [More on tier-name rules >](#choosing-what-a-membership-covers)

**Q: A member holds two of our memberships. Do they stack?**\
A: No — at checkout CrowdWork applies the single membership that saves them the most on that order. Patrons can hold as many of your memberships as they like; they just won't combine on one purchase.

**Q: Can we offer free memberships?**\
A: Absolutely! Set the price to $0.00 when creating a membership tier. This is great for student memberships, volunteer access, or building community engagement.

**Q: How do one-time memberships work?**\
A: Select "Once" as the cadence when creating the tier. Members pay once and get access based on your event selection until their access expires or you modify the tier.

**Q: Do we need to set up special shows for members?**\
A: No special setup is needed beyond tagging events correctly. For members-only events, you can use unlisted events and share links only with members.

**Q: What happens if we deactivate the Memberships feature?**\
A: All existing memberships will be immediately terminated (not paused), and members will need to sign up again if you reactivate the feature.

**Q: Can members switch between different membership tiers?**\
A: There's no switching needed! Your patrons can subscribe to as many different membership types as they want. If they want to move from one tier to another, they can simply cancel the current one and sign up for a different tier. Or they might want multiple memberships simultaneously - our system is designed for flexibility, allowing you to create exactly the program that works for your community.

**Q: How do password-protected memberships work?**\
A: Set a password when creating the tier. The password field automatically appears on your public membership page only when you have active password-protected tiers. Anyone with the password can enroll in that specific tier.

**Q: Can we offer discounts on memberships?**\
A: Yes! Create discount codes in your Discount Codes section and select your membership tiers when choosing what the discount applies to. The discount code field appears on your membership page when active codes exist.

**Q: Why don't membership fees follow our theatre's fee settings?**\
A: Membership transactions always absorb fees rather than passing them to customers. This creates a cleaner subscription experience and matches how most subscription services work. Build any necessary fee costs into your membership pricing.

**Need help setting up your membership program?** [Contact our support team](/contacting-support.md#for-theatre-owners-and-administrators) for assistance customizing your membership offerings.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Just getting started?** Our [Quick Start Guide](/the-academy/crowdwork-academy/memberships-quick-start-guide.md) walks you through simple setup steps and popular membership models.
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