Every registration waits for a human before it counts
Someone fills in your signup form claiming to be from the class of 1994. AlumDeck holds them in a queue, with everything they typed, until an admin says yes.
Verification is not a premium module. It is on in every install, because a directory nobody checked is a liability rather than an asset.
The failure mode of open alumni signups
Open registration produces three predictable problems, and every one of them lands on the alumni officer rather than on the person who caused it.
Impersonation is the expensive one
An unverified directory lets anyone claim a batch year and message your alumni with your institution's name behind them. It only has to happen once for the association to lose the room.
You already hold the answer
Verification works because you have a register, a yearbook or an old spreadsheet. The queue puts what the applicant claims in front of you so you can check it against what you know.
Share the queue
Unlimited admins at no extra cost, so a class rep who recognises the 1994 cohort can approve their own year.
One approval, everywhere
Approve once and the member appears in search, on their batch page and in the member count, with no second publish step.
Rejected means invisible
An application that is not approved is not in your directory, not in exports and not in your member statistics.
A Monday morning on the approval queue
This is the actual job, described honestly, because it is the part that decides whether your directory stays trustworthy.
You published a reunion post on Friday. On Monday there are 26 registrations waiting. You open the queue and work down it, and most take about fifteen seconds.
- Read the claim. Name, batch year, course and whatever else your form asks for.
- Check it against your own records: a spreadsheet, a scanned register, or a class rep who remembers everyone.
- Approve, and they are in the directory immediately with the privacy settings they chose.
- Or leave it and ask. Reply from your normal inbox for a detail an outsider would not know, such as a form tutor or a hall of residence.
The three cases you will actually meet
- Obvious yes. The name is on your register and the batch year matches. Around nine in ten.
- Obvious no. The same address registering four times, or a batch year your institution never ran.
- Genuinely unclear. Married name changes, transfers who left in year two, and people whose records predate your digital files. These need a human email, and no software removes that.
What the software decides for you
The default is closed. An account exists but is a member of nothing until approved, so a queue you have not worked through is a backlog rather than a breach. Approval is also the moment the record becomes editable by its owner, which is why alumni want it done quickly.
Budget an hour of somebody's week during a campaign and ten minutes a week afterwards. If that is not available, share the queue with class reps rather than switching approval off, and time it with news posts so registrations arrive in waves you can plan around.
From signup form to searchable member
Four states, no configuration required. It behaves the same on day one as it does on day four hundred.
They register
The applicant fills in the form on your site, including batch year, and creates their password. They can log in, but they are not yet a listed member.
You review
The application appears in the admin queue with everything they submitted. You compare it against your own register.
You approve, or you ask
Approved members become visible immediately. Unclear ones stay in the queue while you email them, and the site shows nothing in the meantime.
They maintain themselves
From then on the member edits their own profile, sets their own privacy and appears on their batch year page. Your data entry ends where their self-service begins.
Verification questions we are asked
Can I let registrations through automatically?
Approval is a human step, and we would rather build it that way than ship a setting that quietly fills your directory with strangers.
If volume is the worry, the fix is more approvers rather than fewer checks. Admin accounts are unlimited and cost nothing extra, so class reps and committee members can share the load.
How long does one application take to check?
Fifteen seconds when your records are searchable and the name matches. Several minutes when it is a married name from a paper register.
The variable is the quality of your own archive, not the software. Institutions that digitise their old registers first find verification almost disappears as a task.
Does verification cost extra, or count against a member limit?
Neither. It is in the single $49 licence with every other module, and there is no cap on members, admins or applications.
The pricing page lists exactly what the licence includes and where it stops.
A directory is only as good as the door in front of it
Verification, the directory, events, giving, mentoring and news arrive together in one self-hosted install, on your server, for one payment.
Questions about your specific records? Email hello@alumdeck.com.