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User Manual – Participation (Types and Signups)

In December 2025, BowlsLink released an update (v1.37) which introduced a new and innovative module, Participation. This new module is aimed at giving clubs a digital tool which allows them to more easily capture data of Non-traditional bowls participants with the prospect of converting them to full members.

Additionally, this module is intended to increasing non-member participation data to be recorded in BowlsLink which is facilitated by the new Signup function.

BowlsLink Manager Aaron Delaporte demonstrates the Participation Module and Signups

Why introduce ‘Participation’ and what are the benefits? #

The benefits to introducing Signups to your Club, District, Region or Association are:

  • Provides clubs with a tool to capture non-traditional participants in our sport
  • Greater ease and accessibility to registering for social bowls
  • Creates a clear difference between long-term, traditional bowlers (Members) and short-term, visiting bowlers (Participants)
  • Improves Data Reporting and segmentation of Members and Participants
  • Removes issues with Associations Law around bringing participants into a database listed as Membership
  • Less confusion and greater transparency around affiliation fees

The Participation module will be located on the lefthand navigation menu of an administrator account, with Signups as a sub-header in the Participation and Membership modules.  

Changes in BowlsLink #

In the new Participation module, three sub menus are available, having been created and separated from the Membership module.

Firstly, the Participants area includes a list of Current and All participants who have been linked with the Club. Any Club with existing Experience or Program type members will automatically be filtered into the Participants area and listed as Current or All, depending on their expiry.

There is no ability to Archive these members – this is because if a participant is Archived, this would have also Archived them from the primary membership list.

Also, there us no ability to individual members to be added – this should be done via Signups.

Participation Types are similar to the Membership types. They can be created to include any Fees, Name, Member selectable, Description, Expiry Type and Auto renew settings. For information on How to Create Types, please see our Support article – Fees and Membership Types

Finally, Signups are the third sub-menu and important in how members can sign up themselves to any Program or Experience based activities. Utilising simple QR code sign-up and validated by first-party data (mobile phone number), with the option to also register to a Competition and apply a Participation type to the member, e.g. Program or Experience.

For information on Signups, please see our Support article – How to Create a Signup

Separation of Participant types in BowlsLink #

Prior to the release, all five (5) types of accounts in BowlsLink were categorised under membership, however, following the release, this has now segmented these into two further groupings of Membership and Participation.

Member/Membership module #

In the Member/Membership module remain the traditional members and accounts within BowlsLink. These include:

Participation/Signup module #

In the new Participation module, non-traditional members and accounts within BowlsLink can be found.

These include:

  • Program, i.e. Jack Attack, Night Bowls, Business Bowls – These are often four (4) or more session. (Light blue dot icon).
  • Experience, i.e. Barefoot Bowls and Social Events – these are often one-off sessions. (Yellow dot icon).

Note, Members can be Participants and Participants can transition to be Members.

Impact on Member #

When a member views their profile, they will now have an additional header item in the Member Overview section. This new header is Participation and includes any relevant participation types they have as part of a Signup and a historical record.

IMPORTANT NOTE #

If a Member has BOTH Membership and Participation types, the Membership type will take precedent as the active type in the Club’s Membership list, including the type and Financial To date relevant to the member – This precedent is indicated by a member’s membership being highlighted Green when viewing their profile and Membership/Participation headers.

Membership area of Member account
Participation area of Member account

Also, there will be a Financial To date, associated to the member’s Participation type. This ‘Financial To’ date will display as the date of the member’s Primary Club membership.

This date shown on the Participation list may not be the expiry of the participation type.

If a member only has a Participation type, the end date of this will show as their Financial To date.

Reporting #

To report on a Club’s Participants, the Member Key Details Report and Club Member Reports.

In the Club Member Report, there is now a Participation filter.

Clicking, Participation – Mixed, will report and download both ‘Memberships’ and ‘Participants’.

Clicking, Participation – Only, will report and download only Participants and their associated types.

Clicking Participation – None, will report and download only Memberships and their associated types.

For further help with Signups contact bowlslink@bowls.com.au