Federations
What is a federation?
A federation is an association that brings together other associations. It works like any other association — it has its public page, its administrators, its members and its contests — with one difference: in its social contests, the following take part as members:
- the federation's own members, and
- the members of any of its federated associations.
An association can belong to several federations at once, for example a regional one and a national one. A federation, on the other hand, cannot be part of another federation.
Creating a federation
When you create the association, turn on This is a federation. The Associations in the federation search box appears: type the name or city of each association and pick it from the list. You can pick several, or none and add them later.
Each association you pick receives an invitation when the federation is created, and joins it once one of its administrators accepts.
An existing association can also become a federation: in Settings, turn on This is a federation. This is only possible if the association does not belong to any federation and has no pending invitations.
Inviting associations
In the federation's panel, the Federation section of the menu has three pages: List, Invitations and Club members.
To invite, press Invite in List or in Invitations. Search for associations by name or city, tick them —you can choose several— and press Invite. The administrators of each one receive an email with the invitation.
Invitations shows the invitations you have sent. It shows the pending ones by default; with the status filter you can also see the rest:
- Pending — nobody has answered it yet. You can Cancel invitation.
- Federated — the association has accepted and now appears in List.
- Declined — you can Invite again or Remove from list.
When an association accepts, the federation's administrators receive an email.
Federated associations
List shows the associations that make up the federation, with their city, their number of members and their contact details. It has a search box, and with Columns you choose which details to see.
To remove an association, press the bin icon on its row. Its administrators receive an email. Removing it does not affect the entries its members already have: they simply stop counting for the next ones.
Club members
Club members brings together the people who are members of any of the federated associations, who are the ones who can take part as members in the federation's social contests. You can search for them by name and filter by club. If someone is a member of several clubs, they appear only once, with all of them.
For privacy, only each person's name and club are shown: their email and phone are managed by their club.
Answering an invitation
If you manage an association that has received an invitation, you will see it in the panel menu: in the Federation section, Invitations shows a counter with the ones awaiting a reply. Administrators also receive an email.
In Invitations, each pending invitation has two buttons: Accept and Decline. With the status filter you can also see the ones you have already answered.
List shows the federations you already belong to. To leave one, press Leave federation; its administrators receive an email. To come back, the federation will have to invite you again.
A federation's contests
- Social contests — members of the federation and those of its federated associations can register. Anyone who is not a member of any of them cannot register.
- Contests only visible to the association — members of the federated associations see them too.
- Announcement email — when a social contest is published, the email reaches everyone who can take part.
- Results — the Members filter and the member badge include the members of the federated associations.
Public page
A federation's page shows the Federated associations section, with a link to each one. The page of an association that belongs to a federation shows Member of, with its federations.
On the Picstar home page, federations are listed under the Federations tab, not under Associations.
Stopping being a federation
In Settings, turn off This is a federation. You can only do this when the federation has no federated associations or pending invitations: remove them first from List and Invitations.