The Add Member form is where a person becomes a record in DojoMesh. Only four fields are required — name, email, password and status — and everything else can be filled in later from their profile. This guide explains what each section is for, and the one decision on the form that matters more than it looks: which status to give them.
When to use this form
You will find it at Members Add Member. It is the right tool when you are entering someone by hand — a walk-in who signed up at the desk, a family you are adding all at once, or a roster you are moving over from another system.
You often will not need it. People who sign up through the form on your website, book a trial class from your landing page, or arrive through the API all get a record created for them automatically. Those come in as leads, and you promote them from the Leads page rather than re-entering them here. See Working your leads.
Choosing a status
Member Status is the one field on the form that changes what happens next. Five options:
| Status | Meaning | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|
| Active Member | A paying, training member. Counted in your active numbers, billed, and expected in class. | They have signed up and are starting. This is the default. |
| New Lead | A prospect. Shows on the Leads page, not the members list, and is not billed. | They have shown interest but have not joined — an enquiry at the desk, a parent who took a flyer. You will follow up. |
| Paused | A member on a break. Kept on the books, not billed. | Rarely at creation. Usually set later from their profile. |
| Stopped | A former member who has left. | Almost never at creation. Used when someone cancels. |
| Archived | Out of sight entirely. Kept for records only. | Almost never at creation. For old records you want kept but not seen. |
The Add Lead button on the Leads page opens this same form with New Lead already chosen. Opened from the menu, it defaults to Active Member. Either way, glance at the status before you save — and if you get it wrong, open their profile and change it there; nothing else needs redoing.
Basic Information
The required fields live here: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Password and Member Status.
Email is the member's login to the member portal and where their invoices and receipts go. It should be theirs, and for a child it should be the parent's — see Families and parent accounts for how to link them afterwards.
Password is set by you, here, and is not emailed to the member automatically. Tell them what it is, or have them use the forgot-password link on the portal login page to set their own.
The optional fields — Profile Photo, Gender, Birth Date, Parent/Guardian Name — are all editable later. Birth Date is worth filling in — the dashboard uses it to show upcoming birthdays, which is an easy win with the kids' classes.
Starting Belt Level only appears once you have set up a belt ladder under Training Belt System Config. If you have not, the field is hidden rather than shown empty; the member starts unranked and you can grade them later.
Contact Information
Primary Phone is the number DojoMesh sends SMS to — reminders, follow-ups, and anything you send from a member's profile. Secondary Phone is stored for your reference and not messaged.
The address fields (Mailing Address, City, Province, Postal Code) are for your records and for invoices. None are required.
Emergency Contact Information
Emergency Contact Name, Relationship, and day and evening phone numbers. Not required by the form, but you will want them before someone's first class rather than after — this is the section to insist on if the member is filling in a paper form at the desk.
Medical Information & Privacy
Free-text fields for anything an instructor should know: Current Medications, Known Allergies, Current Injuries, Past Injuries, Other Medical Conditions and a general Other Medical Information box. Medicare Number and Can Carry/Administer Medication sit alongside them.
All of this is visible on the member's profile to your admin users. Keep it to what you genuinely need to run a safe class.
Photo Permission is a yes/no record of whether the member — or their parent — has agreed to appear in photos and video. It does not stop anyone taking a photo; it records the answer so you can check before you post.
After you save
- Active members appear under Members Manage Members. Next steps are usually assigning a membership plan from their profile and, if they pay by card, storing one.
- New leads appear under Members Leads, where you follow up and convert them. See Working your leads.
- Nothing is emailed to the member on creation. If you want them to have their login details, send them yourself or point them at the portal's forgot-password link.
Common questions
Someone signed up on my website — do I add them here too?
No. They already exist as a lead. Adding them again creates a second record with the same email, and only one of the two will be able to log in. Find them on the Leads page and convert them instead.
Can two members share an email address?
DojoMesh will let you save it, but only one of them will ever be able to sign in to the member portal — when two records share an email, the login picks the active one, and if both are active, the older record. So share an email only for someone who will never log in themselves. For a child who will use the portal, give them their own address — a parent's email with a suffix the provider ignores (parent+kid1@…) works well — and then link the accounts as a family so the parent still sees everything.
I set the wrong status. Do I have to delete and recreate them?
No. Open their profile from Manage Members (or Leads) and change the status. Everything else on the record is unaffected.
What is the difference between Stopped and Archived?
Stopped is a former member — they left, and you might win them back. Archived is a record you are keeping only because you must, and do not want to see in day-to-day lists. Both are excluded from your active numbers.
Is there a bulk import?
Not from this page, which is one member at a time. If you are moving a roster from another system, email us@dojomesh.com with a spreadsheet and we will help.