The FreemasonsWeb Secretary Module is designed for Lodge secretaries to enable them to:
Access to the Secretary Module is via the Tools->Secretary menu within the FreemasonsWeb CMS.
The secretary module is based on the following concepts & components:
Documents you create within the secretary module become textual PDF documents that can be printed. Typically these will be letters to your members, other Lodges or Provincial and Grand Lodge.
There are also "uploaded" documents, which can be any external document you wish to store within the Secretary Module.
Examples of uploaded documents are scanned in correspondence, or official documents from Grand Lodge.
Folders are the place where you store your documents. Folders are hierarchical in structure and are similar in nature to the folders on your computer's disk drives.
Templates are "pre-canned" content you define for use in your documents. These can be anything from a simple signature to a full letter.
The idea is that you can build up your documents using these templates to save you from re-typing the same thing every time.
Templates make use of tokens to dynamically change content when you use them in your documents.
Tokens are replacable elements within your documents and templates, such as "secretary_name", "address" or "date". They are things that are likely to change over time, but rather than having to change all your templates every time they do, only the token value needs changing.
Tokens are always surrounded by curly brackets, with a dollar sign at the beginning to identify them as a token, e.g.: {$secretary_name}.
Whenever a token is found within a document, the token is either replaced by its default value (which you can define), or you are prompted for the value when creating your document.
Tokens can also be linked to a member data field, so for example a summons letter could begin, "Dear {$member_name},", and the member name token would be replaced with the name of each member the letter is sent to.
Member List Filters are pre-defined queries that are used to define a list of members.
You can use these filters to specify which members you want documents generated for, or which members you want to send emails to.
Member Export Templates are member reports that can be exported as a PDF document.
Typical usages of Member Export Templates are:
You also have the option of providing a PDF template as a basis for your document (e.g. an official form from Grand Lodge, or a gift-aid slip), where the Member Export Template can be used to fill in the parts of the form.
Member Export Templates can be used in conjunction with Member List Filters to define what members you want to apply the export template to.
Bulk emails provide a way of sending emails to one or more of your Lodge or Website members.
In addition to the textual content of your email, you can also add file attachments, Member Export Templates and Documents which can be personalised for the members you are sending the email to.
The email text can also make use of tokens to personalise the email content for each member.
The Documents tab is where you create, upload and manage your documents.
There are three types of documents:
Single: This is a standard document that can be sent to anyone you choose, and can be "published" to your website.
A rich-text editor is provided to edit the content of your document with support for the standard PDF fonts, pre-defined templates, and named tokens whos values are substituted when the document is generated.
Member: Similar to a standard document but contains personalised tokens that will be replaced for each member, such as their name, address etc. These type of documents can only be sent to Lodge Members and cannot be "published" to your website.
Uploaded: These documents are external documents which are uploaded to your document folders.
All document types can be used as attachments in emails.
The following actions can be performed on documents:
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Edit: Allows you to edit your document. |
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Delete: Permanently removes this document. Note: This operation CANNOT be undone. |
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Publish: Makes this document available for downloading on your website. When a document is published, it will appear within Site Designer->Files, and will be available within the files dropdown when creating links within the Page Editor. |
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Print: Allows you to download your document as a printable PDF file. For documents of type "Member", the dropdown is used to select which members the document will be printed for:
A personalised copy of the document will be generated for each member, and collated in a single PDF file. NOTE: Only documents of type "Single" and "Member" can be printed. You cannot print "Uploaded" documents (see below). |
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Download: For documents of type "Uploaded", you can download the file to print it using the program that created it (e.g. MS Word for Word documents, MS Excel for Excel documents etc) |
If you have a large number of document folders, you can use the switch folder selector to only show documents underneath a particular folder:
Use the button to create a "Single" or "Member" document.
Use the section to upload an external document.
Use the folder dropdown to select which folder you want your new document to reside in.
Adding/editing a Single or Member document gives you the following page:
Folder | Here you can change the folder your document resides in. |
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Document Type | Choose between "Member" or "Single". |
Title | The title of your document. This will be used as part of the filename when printing, downloading or using as an attachment. |
The text editor is a slightly cut-down version of the page editor used for your website pages.
Normal text editing is the same as with your website pages. Full help on the editor is available by clicking the help button on the editor:
Note that the editor itself is an HTML editor, but renders the HTML as PDF when printing. Due to the different way browsers present this HTML, there may be slight differences in word or paragraph alignment when printing.
To save your document click the button, or click
to cancel your changes.
To insert user-defined template content into your document, click the insert template button:
A pop-up dialog will appear, allowing you to select the template you wish to insert:
On selecting a template, a preview will be presented to you.
Click the Insert button to insert the content into your document.
If your template contains tokens, any token with a default value will be replaced.
If these tokens are linked to a member data field, the token will remain unchanged until you "print" the document.
You will be prompted for the value of any token that is not linked to a member data field, and doesn't have a default value.
The Document Folders sub-tab is where you manage the structure of your folders:
Folders are the place where you store your documents. Folders are hierarchical in structure and are similar in nature to the folders on your computer's disk drives.
The following actions can be performed on folders:
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Add: Adds a new folder at the same level as this one. |
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Add Subfolder: Adds a new folder as a subfolder to this one. |
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Delete: Permanently removes this folder. Note: This operation CANNOT be undone. |
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Move Left: Move this folder to the same level as it's parent folder. |
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Move Right: Make this folder a sub folder of its current sibling. |
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Move Down: Make this folder a sub folder of it's parent's sibling. |
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Update Name: Update the name of this folder. |
Templates are "pre-canned" content you define for use in your documents. These can be anything from a simple signature to a full letter.
The idea is that you can build up your documents using these templates to save you from re-typing the same thing every time.
Templates make use of tokens to dynamically change content when you use them in your documents.
The following actions can be performed on documents:
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Edit: Edit this template. |
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Delete: Permanently deletes this template. Deleting a template has no effect on previous documents that used that template. Note: This operation CANNOT be undone. |
To add a new template, click the button:
The text editor is a slightly cut-down version of the page editor used for your website pages.
Normal text editing is the same as with your website pages. Full help on the editor is available by clicking the help button on the editor:
To use tokens within your document, use the following convention:
{$token name}
If the token you define doesn't already exist, it will be automatically created on saving your template.
Once you have saved your template, it will then become available for use within your documents.
To save your template click the button, or click
to cancel your changes.
Tokens are replacable elements within your documents and templates, such as "secretary_name", "address" or "date". They are things that are likely to change over time, but rather than having to change all your templates every time they do, only the token value needs changing.
Whenever a token is found within a document, the token is either replaced by its default value (which you can define), or you are prompted for the value when creating your document.
Tokens can also be linked to a member data field, so for example a summons letter could begin, "Dear {$member_name},", and the member name token would be replaced with the name of each member the letter is sent to.
The Tokens sub-tab is where you manage your document and template tokens.
The following actions can be performed on tokens:
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Save: Save changes to this token. |
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Delete: Deletes this token. |
Clicking the button at the bottom of the page will save changes to all tokens on this page.
Tokens are automatically added for you when you define them within your templates, but you can add them manually for use in documents and emails using the add token button, specifying your token name:
When editing or adding a token, the following fields should be provided:
Description | This defaults to the title, but you can specify a more detailed description here if required. |
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Default Value | For tokens that are set to "** NOT A MEMBER FIELD**", the token is always replaced with this value. Not specifying a default value for tokens set to "** NOT A MEMBER FIELD **" will cause you to be prompted for the value when inserting your template into your documents. For tokens that are linked to a Lodge Member Field, the default value is used when the corresponding field for that member is blank. |
Lodge Member Field | The token will be replaced by the value within the member record when generating documents of type "member". |
Members within the Secretary Module are different from the members of your website (Website Members), in that they refer to only members of your Lodge or Chapter. To distinguish them within this guide, they are referred to as "Lodge Members".
They are distinct from your website members, in that a website member does not necessarily become a member as far as the Secretary Module is concerned (e.g. the website member may be a visitor); and you may have members listed in the Secretary Module that do not have website user accounts.
Secretary Module members can however, be linked to their corresponding website member's user accounts, and you can import your Secretary Module members from your list of website members to make things more convenient.
NOTE: Lodge Members are shared between the Secretary Module and the Accounting Module.
Changes in either module will affect changes in the other.
To view your list of members, click on the Members tab:
To add a new members, click on the Add Member
button:
To add the member, fill in as many details as possible if the "Member Information" tab, and click the Save button.
Most of the member information should be self explanatory, but the following may require clarification:
The available fields are as follows:
Link to Website Member |
If this member is also a member of your website, select their corresponding website username from this drop-down. |
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Member Type |
Select the type for this member, i.e.:
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Subscription Date |
Provide the date that their next Lodge subscription or Test fees are due. |
Resigned/Demit | If this member has resigned or submitted a demit, then check this box. |
Extra information can be held on each member if required by defining custom Member Data Forms in the Member Data Forms tab.
2.1.1 Importing MembersMembers can be imported from your list of existing website members.
To import your existing website members, click the button:
Select the members you wish to import and click the button:
You can download your list of all your Lodge Members, with all their information as a CSV file by clicking the download button at the bottom of the list:
See the Member List Filters Section for more advanced download options.
2.1.2 Editing Members InformationMembers information can be altered and updated by clicking on the Edit
button next to each member
on the Members tab:
By default you will be shown the "Member Information" page.
If you have defined additional information tabs for members, they will be shown as sub-tabs at the top: See the Member Data Formss section for more information on storing additional member information.
Clicking each sub-tab will give you access to the respective information areas.
2.1.3 Deleting MembersTo delete an account category, click the Delete button next to the respective member within the Member's
Tab.
Note: You cannot delete a member who has transactional information held against them within the Accounts Detail.
Member List Filters allow you to define search terms and choose which Lodge Member fields to return from those searches.
The results of those searches can then be downloaded as a CSV file.
Member List Filters can be found on the Members Tab->Member List Filters page:
To add a new Member List Filter, click the button.
The following information should be provided:
Description | Provide a description for your filter. |
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Filter Query |
This section allows you to define your query:![]() First choose the field you wish to query on: ![]() The list of fields you can choose is:
![]() Now choose the value: ![]() Note: For date comparisons, ensure you use the format YYYY-MM-DD, so for 1st March 1975, use 1975-03-01 . Finally, click the![]() You can add as many clauses as you wish. Note that the clauses form an "AND" query, so members will only be returned in your list if ALL of the clauses you've entered match. |
Show Fields |
Select the fields you wish to be exported as part of this list filter:![]() Double clicking on a field moves it to and from the "Included" and "Remaining Fields" field lists. Only fields in the "Included" list will be exported. |
Sort Fields |
Select the fields you wish to sort your list by:![]() Double clicking on a field moves it to and from the "Sort By" and "Remaining Fields" field lists. Your list will be sorted in order by the fields within your "Sort By" list. |
"Always Include" Members / "Always Exclude" Members |
These sections allow you to add members you always want to add or exclude from your list, regardless of whether a match is found in your query:
Select the fields you wish to sort your list by:![]() Double clicking on a field moves it to and your "Included" / "Excluded" members and "Remaining Members" lists. |
To save your filter, click the button.
The following actions are available on this form:
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Edit Filter : Allows you to edit the details of this Member List Filter. |
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Delete Filter : Allows you to delete this Member List Filter. |
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Download CSV : This button will use your filter to query your Lodge Members and download the results as a CSV file. |
Member Export Templates are a type of report that can be run against a list of members. This report results in a printable PDF document.
Typical usages are:
Member Export Templates are managed within the Members->Export Templates sub-tab:
The following actions are available on this form:
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Edit Template : Allows you to edit this Export Template. |
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Delete Template : Allows you to delete this Export Template. |
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Lock Template : Allows you to lock this template to yourself so that other members cannot alter it or delete it. |
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Print Template : Generates a printable PDF document running the template against the specified Member Filter List:![]() |
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Save Template : Generates a printable PDF document running the template against the specified Member Filter List...![]() ... and stores it in the specified folder:
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To create a new Export Template, click the button.
Alternatively, you can use the section to
create a template based on an existing one.
The template editor is split into three sections:
General Setup
The following information should be provided here:
Description | Provide a description for your export template. |
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Template Document | Here you can provide a "backdrop" PDF document to print your export template data on, for example a scanned-in official form. If you do not specify a template document, then the export template will be printed on top of a blank sheet. |
Pdf Document Orientation | Choose whether your document should be printed Portrait or Landscape |
Fields |
Select the fields you wish to be included on your template:![]() Double clicking on a field moves it to and from the "Included" and "Remaining Fields" field lists. Only fields in the "Included" list will be displayed on your export template. |
Record Layout |
This section allows you to specify how the fields should be shown for multiple members:
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Field Positions
This is the section where you format and position your member fields on the page.
For every field you chose above, an entry will be made available in the Field Positions section:
Left Margin | When a field value goes on to multiple lines (e.g. an address), this will be the left margin (in mm) where printing will start again. For fractions of a mm, you can specify up to 2 decimal places for this value. |
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Font | The font style this field should be printed in. The font name is shown in the drop down followed by a style indicator, e.g:
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Font Size | The size in points of the Font. Typical values range from 6 to 16, though normally values of 8, 10 and 12 would be used. Decimals of one place (e.g. 11.5 ) are allowed in this field. |
Line Spacing | The vertical spacing in mm between separate lines when dealing with fields that go on to multiple lines (e.g. an address) For fractions of a mm, you can specify up to 2 decimal places for this value. |
Char Spacing | If you are filling in a form with boxes for each individual character, you can specify the spacing in mm between each individual character so you can fit each character in each box. For fractions of a mm, you can specify up to 2 decimal places for this value. Note: This field should be left blank if individual character spacing is not required. |
X (mm) | The X co-ordinate of the field position on the page in mm. For fractions of a mm, you can specify up to 2 decimal places for this value. |
Y (mm) | The Y co-ordinate of the field position on the page in mm. For fractions of a mm, you can specify up to 2 decimal places for this value. |
Copy X/Y | Clicking the button on this column will copy the current X/Y values from the preview into the X, Y and Left Margin fields. |
The preview pane shows a preview of what the export template will look like when printed:
Clicking on the preview pane updates the preview's X/Y co-ordinates, to give you an idea of what the co-ordinates of a particular part of the page are. If you then click the "Copy X/Y" button on a field, these values will be copied to the field's X, Y and Left Margin fields.
Clicking the "Refresh" button on the preview pane will re-generate the preview based on the member selected in the dropdown.
It is recommended you choose a member who:
As the preview pane is small, you can get a more detailed preview by clicking:
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Gives you a larger view of the preview image |
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Generates a preview PDF document. This is slower, but gives the most accurate preview. |
Other values that should be specified in this section are:
No. Records Across | When using Fixed Multiple Records: Grid, the number of records (columns) to be printed per page. This field is ignored for all other record layouts. |
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No. Records Down | When using Fixed Multiple Records: Grid and Fixed Multiple Records: Tabular, the number of records (rows) to be printed per page. This field is ignored for all other record layouts. |
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Horizonal Spacing between records (mm) |
When using Fixed Multiple Records: Grid, the spacing in mm between each column. This field is ignored for all other record layouts. |
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Vertical Spacing between records (mm) |
The spacing in mm between each new record row. This field is ignored for record layouts of Single Page Per Record |
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Date Field Format / DateTime Field Format |
Specifies the format in which to print Date and DateTime fields respectively. The following codes can be used to build up your date / datetime format strings:
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NOTE: If the values above cause fields to over-run off the page, or onto a new page, then a warning is shown on the preview.
Document Fields
This section allows you to specify values for up to ten "document" fields (as opposed to member fields).
These fields can be used for dates, or Lodge based fields such as Lodge name or address.
The values of these fields will be as follows:
Any normal text | Text will be exactly as entered, and will be the same for each member. |
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{{field_name}} | Text will be replaced by the Lodge Member field for that member. Valid Lodge Member fields are as follows: {{TITLE}} |
{$token} | Text will replaced with the corresponding document token value. |
NOTE: This is the only section that may be edited by another user when an Export Template is locked.
To save your Export Template, click the button, or click
to discard your changes.
Basic member information is stored for each member on the Member tab.
This can be edited by clicking on the button next to each member:
Should you wish to store additional information for each member, this can be done by defining new Member Data Forms.
Member Data Forms are managed within the Members -> Member Data Forms sub-tab:
To create a Member Data Form, click on the button.
You will be presented with the Member Data Form editor screen, allowing you to enter in a title and description for your Custom Form.
Enter the title of your member form.
Here you can also enter General Data Protection (GDPR) information about the purpose of this form, and why you need the information on it. This information is displayed on pages of type GDPR Custom Form Privacy Statement Page.
GDPR information can also be entered at a field level. Unchecking Show GDPR Information for each field will mean only the information entered here will be displayed on GDPR Custom Form Privacy Statement Pages.
Underneath the Title and Description fields, you will see the Form Fields section.
It is in this section that your form fields will be created.
To add each form field, click the "Add Form Field" button:
This will add a field to your form:
The meaning of the options on each form field is as follows:
This field defines the type of input field you wish to add.
The types available are as follows:
Single lines of text are displayed on your member data form as follows:
This type of input field can be used for any type of singe line input; for example: Names, Single Sentences, Email Addresses.
Multiple lines of text are shown as a "memo" type input on your member data form as follows:
This type of input field can be used for any input requiring multiple lines, such as an address, a comment or additional textual information.
Date and Time fields are shown on your member data form as follows:
Use this input type when you require both a date and a time.
Date fields are shown on your member data form as follows:
Use this input type when you require a date input.
Dropdown lists are shown on your member data form as follows:
This type of input should be used when you wish to select one of a specific list of choices.
"Select from Lists" are shown on your member data form as follows:
This type of input should be used when you wish to select one or more from a specific list of choices.
This is what the label of your field will be:
This defines what the default value of your field should be.
This is available for all field types except for "Select from List".
For "Date and Time" and "Time" fields, a wide range of date and time syntax entries can be entered. For example, the following are valid values.:
In addition, you can also specify dates relative to the current date and time, for example:
Not all dates and times may be recognised, so be sure to test your form first. In particular, some default values may default to midnight as they are more concerned with dates rather than date/time.
Used only for Single Line and Multiple Line fields, this defines the maximum number of characters allowed in this field.
This is only enabled for "Dropdown List" and "Select from List" field types.
Type in the list of possible values, each one on a separate line:
The above example would be shown on your member data form as follows:
Check this box if you require this field to be completed before the form is allowed to be saved.
In the case of "Select from List" field types, setting a field to mandatory will require your visitor to select at least one option from this form field.
Here you can provide information as to why you collect this field for General Data Protection purposes.
This information will shown on pages of type "GDPR Custom Form Privacy Statement", if Show GDPR Information for each field is checked on the form.
Here you can provide information as to how this field is used for General Data Protection purposes.
This information will shown on pages of type "GDPR Custom Form Privacy Statement", if Show GDPR Information for each field is checked on the form.
Fields can be managed by using the action buttons to the side of the form field:
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Moves this field up in the field order. |
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Removes this field from your Custom Form. |
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Moves this field down in the field order. |
When you have finished creating your form, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the screen:
Once you've created your form, it will be displayed as a separate sub-tab menu when editing your member information:
Bulk emails provide a way of sending emails to one or more of your Lodge or Website members.
In addition to the textual content of your email, you can also add file attachments, Member Export Templates and Documents which can be personalised for the members you are sending the email to.
The email text can also make use of tokens to personalise the email content for each member.
The history of your emails can be found on the Bulk Emails->History page:
The following actions are available on your email history:
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Edit the email details. |
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Permanently removes this email. |
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Download emails for all members as a printable PDF document. |
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Download emails for all members who could not be emailed as a printable PDF document. |
Emails can be sent by clicking the relevant sub-tab:
To send a bulk email to your website members use the Bulk Emails->Send Emails To Website Members sub-tab:
The following information should be provided:
Website Member List | Choose which website members you wish to email. |
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Subject | The subject of your email. |
Body Text | The content of your email message. |
You can also specify attachments to add to your email:
File Attachment List | Choose which uploaded files you wish to attach to your email. |
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Secretary Documents | Choose which Secretary documents you want generated for each member as an attachment. Note: For documents of type "member", only the Website Members' name, email address and custom fields will be available for token replacement. |
To send your email as plain text, click the button.
To send your email as HTML, click the button.
To save your email without sending, click the button, or click
to discard your changes.
To send a bulk email to your specific lodge members use the Bulk Emails->Send Emails To Specific Members sub-tab:
The following information should be provided:
Member List | Choose which members you wish to email. |
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Subject | The subject of your email. |
Body Text | The content of your email message. |
You can also specify attachments to add to your email:
File Attachment List | Choose which uploaded files you wish to attach to your email. |
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Custom Export Templates | Choose which Member Export Templates you want generated for each member as an attachment. |
Secretary Documents | Choose which Secretary documents you want generated for each member as an attachment. |
To send your email as plain text, click the button.
To send your email as HTML, click the button.
To save your email without sending, click the button, or click
to discard your changes.
To send a bulk email to lodge members by Member List Filter, use the Bulk Emails->Send Emails To Members By List Filter sub-tab:
The following information should be provided:
Member List Filter | Choose member list filter containing the members your wish to email. |
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Subject | The subject of your email. |
Body Text | The content of your email message. |
You can also specify attachments to add to your email:
File Attachment List | Choose which uploaded files you wish to attach to your email. |
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Custom Export Templates | Choose which Member Export Templates you want generated for each member as an attachment. |
Secretary Documents | Choose which Secretary documents you want generated for each member as an attachment. |
To send your email as plain text, click the button.
To send your email as HTML, click the button.
To save your email without sending, click the button, or click
to discard your changes.