MSL System Terminology and Key Concepts

If you're new to an organisation using the MSL System, there are some terms you'll encounter that are specific to how MSL works and may not appear elsewhere. The table below provides a quick overview, and the sections that follow explain each concept in more detail.

Quick Glossary

The glossary below gives you a summary of the main concepts in the MSL System. It’s a quick way to familiarise yourself with the terms before diving into the full explanations.

Explanations of Key Concepts

Global Expiry Dates

A Global Expiry Date is the default end date for new memberships each year. It helps ensure all new memberships follow the same timeline and makes membership management easier.

• The system keeps a list of global expiry dates, one per year.
• By default, new memberships will use the current global expiry date.
• The global expiry date is usually set to when new students start registering for the new academic year.
• Before students begin purchasing memberships for the coming year, you should delete the current global expiry date. Once deleted, the system automatically rolls forward to the next date.
• Any new memberships will then use this updated expiry date.
• Existing memberships are not affected by changes to the global expiry date.

Grouping Types

Grouping Types tell the system what a group is for and how it behaves. They control things like:

• Whether a group can have a webpage
• Whether admins can manage their members
• Whether the group can be automatically populated

Your system comes with default Grouping Types. You can create your own if you need something different. See examples of different Grouping Types and how they work within an organisation here: Grouping Types.

Grouping Tree

The Grouping Tree shows how all groups in your MSL System fit together. It starts at the system root and branches out to:

• Your organisation
• Your parent institution
• Template groups
• Website (Staff admin roles)

The tree helps you see relationships and hierarchy between groups. For information about how to view your grouping tree, see How to View the Grouping Tree.

Groups

Groups form the foundation of your MSL System. A group is a collection of elements that work together as one. Elements can include:

• Other groups, like societies or clubs, which may contain sub-groups such as committees, membership groups or mailing lists
• Individual users, such as members of a specific membership group

This structure gives you flexibility in organising and managing your system. For more information about groups, their benefits, and how to use them effectively, see Groups Overview.

Memberships

A Membership links a person to a membership-type group. Each membership has:

• Effective date: when it starts
• Expiry date: when it ends
• Status: Pending, Active, Suspended or Expired

People can join a group in several ways:

• Automatically via data feeds
• Manual addition by an admin
• Purchasing a membership
• Election to a role
• Opting into a group themselves
• Automatic population based on meeting certain requirements

Membership groups can also have requirements and permissions that determine who can join and what they can do. For further information, see Group Memberships.

Organisations

Organisations are groups that hold other groups rather than individual users. Examples include:

• Sports Clubs
• Societies
• Campaign Groups

Organisations allow you to:

• Control which membership groups belong to them
• Apply permissions across all related groups
• Automatically generate default webpages for new Organisations using templates

Requirements

Requirements determine who can:

• Join a group
• Nominate and/or vote in elections
• Buy products
• Access specific features

They are based on data already in your MSL System, such as course, year, or other memberships.

Requirements help ensure that only eligible members can access certain groups, roles, products, or activities. They also make reporting and communications easier by keeping your system organised and secure.

For example, you could use requirements to:

• Allow only first-year students to join a particular group
• Restrict voting in an election to members of certain societies
• Automatically populate a membership group when someone meets specific criteria

For more information on setting requirements, see Group Requirements.