Change a membership fee amount

Bammemba Kyakyusibwa

Summary

Change the amount of an existing membership fee — for example, lowering the registration fee during a recruitment drive. The amount field on an existing fee is locked once it's saved, so this is a delete-and-re-add, not a direct edit.

About 3 minutes · 6 steps. Also called: change the joining fee, amend the registration fee, update membership fees.

Prerequisites

  • A CAMS sign-in that can open Settings → Policies. If the menu item is missing, an administrator grants access under Settings → Roles.
  • The new fee amount and effective date agreed with your board or supervisory committee.
  • Know whether the new amount should apply to new members only, or also be applied to existing members — see the Applied To Existing Members note below before you save.

Step-by-step

  1. Sign in to CAMS Admin.
  2. In the left menu, expand Settings and click Policies, then open the Membership Policy tab.
  3. Open the policy that has the fee you want to change, and click Edit.
  4. Scroll down to Membership Policy Fees. Each existing fee is listed as its own card, with the Amount field greyed out — this field cannot be typed into directly.
  5. Click the trash icon on the fee card to remove it, then click + Add Fee and recreate it with the same Fee Type and Charges Type, entering the new Amount.
  6. Click Submit, then approve the policy. Until it's approved, the old amount is still the one in effect.

Common pitfalls & FAQ

  • The amount field won't let me type a new number. That's expected — an existing fee's amount is locked. Delete the fee and add it back with the new amount, rather than trying to edit the field in place.
  • Will this change the fee for members who already registered? Only if you tick Applied To Existing Members on the fee card before saving. Leave it unticked to apply the new amount to new registrations only, which is the usual choice for a recruitment-drive fee change.
  • What do Auto Debit and Apply To Migrated Members do? Auto Debit takes the fee automatically rather than requiring a manual posting. Apply To Migrated Members extends the fee to members brought in through a data migration, not just those who register going forward. Leave both as your existing policy already has them unless the change specifically calls for it.
  • When does the new amount take effect? As soon as the policy is approved — there's no separate "effective date" field, so approve it on the date you actually want the new fee to start.