Group, Junior and Linked Memberships in Gladstone Go

Problem

You need to let one membership cover several people, let a parent or guardian buy and pay for a junior's membership, or link members so one can book for the others in Gladstone Go.

Resolution

1. Choose the model

   • The terms are easily confused, even by experienced staff. The model you pick changes both the configuration and who is billed.

   Model	Use it when	Billing and behaviour
   Linked members	Each person has their own membership and entitlement, but one person (the primary) should book for the others	Each pays for their own. Linking alone does not share a membership or create a discount. The primary books for linked members (one way only)
   Group (shared) membership	One membership covers several people, for example a couple or family	Built on linking. One person buys a higher-priced shared subscription and adds the others. The saving is in the price of the shared subscription
   Primary payee / junior	One person pays for another person's separate membership, for example a parent for a child	The payer is billed; each person keeps their own subscription and booking rights. The payer cannot book the other person's activities through that subscription. The guardian does not need their own membership

   • A junior membership is a good fit for primary payee (the child has their own membership and record; the parent or guardian pays) rather than linking or sharing.

2. Configure the Operator settings

   • Go to Operator > Configuration > Modules > Configure, search for each setting, select Manage, and set the value in All Sites:

   Setting	Value	What it does
   Enable Linked Memberships	1	Adds a Linked tab to My Account and lets group memberships be bought in Go Join
   Enable Book for Others	1	Lets the primary member or guardian book for, and see the bookings of, the people linked to them (one way only). See Enabling 'Book for Others' Feature
   Maximum linked members	Default 4	The size of your group membership

Setting up a group membership

1. Set up the subscription in Plus2

   • Go to Configuration > Financial > Subscriptions > Subscription Types. Set up the membership as usual, then tick Apply To Links (Creation/Renewal tab) and Purchase via Web (Web tab). Linking alone does not share the membership.
   • Configure a true joint membership as one higher-priced subscription (for example, roughly twice the individual price for a couple) bought by one person, who then invites the others to share it.
   • Click Save.

2. Turn on linked memberships in Operator

   • Set Enable Linked Memberships to 1.

3. Set up the invite email

   • Review the Linked Member Invitation email template and create the business rule that sends it. See How to Configure Linked Member Invitation Emails in Go Operator.

4. Tag the membership

   • Go to Configuration > Member Management > Memberships > Membership Types and open the membership.
   • Set the Membership Types tag to Group Memberships (required). Tags are needed for the membership to appear in Go Join; see Setting Up Go Join Tag Groups and Mapping Memberships.
   • We recommend adding a Member Types tag such as Group, Family, Joint or Couple so people find it easily.

5. Set the group size and booking for others (if applicable)

   • Change Maximum linked members to the group size you want to offer, for example 2 for a couple or 4–5 for a family. A family larger than the limit breaks the rule, so set the limit from the product definition.
   • Turn on Enable Book for Others.

6. Check the result

   • Buy the shared product on Go Join as the lead customer, then send a link request for each additional person from their Go account.
   • Check the shared entitlement appears for each linked person, and that no more people can be added than the maximum.

Junior memberships and primary payee

1. Set the junior age settings

   • Set the minimum age for a customer to have their own account (for example, 14) and the age from which no guardian is needed. If the own-account age is 0, primary payee will not trigger. See Go Account Age, Guardian and Shared-Email Settings.

2. Understand the junior journey

   • When a junior below the own-account age joins (for example, on a Junior DD membership), Go says they can have the membership but a parent or guardian must join with them.
   • The junior chooses the location, then the tags and membership, enters the junior's details, then the guardian's details, and pays. Both accounts are created. The guardian decides whether the junior gets their own login.
   • The parent or guardian is created as the primary payee (a non-member, pay-as-you-go account that pays the Direct Debit), and the membership sits on the child's record, not the parent's.
   • Sites that currently put junior sales on the child's own account, with the parent logging in as the child, should move to primary payee; the own-account age can then be raised.

3. Use primary payee for families (if applicable)

   • One adult pays for other members' subscriptions, which works well for families with different membership types (junior, student, adult).
   • One Direct Debit per family reduces transaction charges, but if that Direct Debit fails, every member on it is affected. Test failed-payment handling carefully for this reason.

Linking members

1. Let customers add linked members online

   • Recommended flow: the lead member joins alone, then sends link requests from their Go account (My Account > Linked > Add Member > Send Link Request). Adding everyone during joining is possible but confuses customers, who think they are buying several memberships. Do not force everyone through a full purchase when only one product is being bought.
   • How customers do this is covered in How to Use Linked Membership Features in Gladstone Go.

2. Link two existing members (staff)

   • 360: Contacts > find the first member > Links tab > Add > search > Select.
   • Plus2: Members (or Prospects) > find the member > Modify > Edit > Link/Unlink > find the second member > Save Member.
   • The first person to have someone linked to them becomes the primary.
   • In 360, a linked member's membership can be sold with Paid by set to the primary, which is the desk equivalent of primary payee.

3. Set what the primary can do

   • Go to GMC > Configuration Manager > Member Facing Global > Linked Member Bookings and set Make bookings for linked members, Make payment for linked members, Manage bookings for linked members and Maximum age for having restricted access to linked members account settings.
   • Parental-consent ages for online services are in Online Services Consent Settings in the same element.

Notes

• You need access to Go Operator and Plus2 with appropriate permissions, and Go Join must be in use (not Gladstone Connect).
• You can offer one group size across your whole account (for example, a 4-person family or a 2-person couple, not both). Within that size, any mix of price levels is fine (for example, 2 adults and 2 juniors). Other guidance suggests creating a separate subscription per group size (for example, couple and family); check with Gladstone which applies to your version before offering more than one size.
• Older guidance describes a junior as a member under your age of consent (typically 16); the configuration guidance says the guardian step is triggered by the own-account age. Check both settings in Go Account Age, Guardian and Shared-Email Settings.
• A guardian can buy one junior membership online; further memberships are arranged in-centre. Junior memberships must be bought on their own, not in a multi-membership purchase.
• To share a membership, members must be linked and the subscription must have Apply To Links ticked. "Joint" memberships that are really two independent memberships discounted because the members live at the same address are not shared memberships; each still pays separately.
• Some guidance describes shared memberships as Direct Debit-only. Treat that as a site policy choice unless Gladstone confirms otherwise.
• A primary payee cannot book adult activities through the child's subscription, and vice versa.
• Links made on Go show on the contact's Links tab in 360. Linked members stay linked if a membership expires, so they can rejoin later.
• The primary or guardian pays online through GladstonePay; with Book for Others, each person appears as a separate booking in the one basket.
• Changes made in Plus2 can take up to about 20 minutes to show in Go.
• Primary can't book for linked members: check Enable Book for Others, whether the adult has opted out, and the GMC Linked Member Bookings settings.
• Membership not shared with linked people: check Enable Linked Memberships, the Group Memberships tag, and Apply To Links on the Plus2 subscription.
• Related: How to Use Linked Membership Features in Gladstone Go; Linking Members and Setting a Primary Payee in Gladstone 360; How to Manage Junior Memberships and Guardian Bookings; Gladstone Go – Joining Online, Pay-as-You-Go and Eligibility Checks; Member Facing Global and Shared Global Settings in the GMC.

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