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Retain — post-enable runbook

Retain is the retention-analytics and surveys surface — at-risk lists, snapshots, member-health scoring, and survey templates. It is not a separate license toggle: Retain ships under the Operations module and lights up automatically when Operations is enabled. This runbook covers the first 30 minutes specifically focused on Retain.

For the Retain surface overview, see the Operations module reference.

Prerequisites​

Before Retain produces useful output, confirm:

  • The Operations module is enabled for the org. If it is not, Retain is hidden.
  • The org has at least one chapter with active members. Retention scoring against zero members is meaningless.
  • Compliance and / or Engage activity is being recorded. The retention signals lean heavily on missed compliance items and forum participation.
  • Email delivery is configured at the platform level. Surveys are emailed out from here.

Who can enable it​

Retain is enabled by enabling its parent module, Operations. Only a platform admin can toggle Operations. There is no separate Retain toggle in the platform admin UI today.

What gets auto-created​

Enabling Operations (and therefore Retain) does not auto-create snapshots, alerts, or surveys. Retention snapshots and alerts are produced by the retention scoring task, which runs on schedule against orgs with Operations enabled. Surveys are authored manually.

What appears in the sidebar​

A Retain entry appears inside the Operations group for org admins and chapter officers. Regional admins see Retain inside their Operations group as well.

First 30 minutes — required steps​

  1. Open Org → Chapters → Retain (or Operations → Retain under your sidebar). Confirm the dashboard loads. Empty dashboards on a brand new org are expected — the scoring task has not run yet.
  2. Open Retain → Surveys. Create a baseline pulse survey (3–5 questions). Common starter questions: "How connected do you feel to your chapter?", "How likely are you to remain active next semester?", "What is one thing we could change?".
  3. Publish the survey to a single test chapter so you can verify the email delivery and response capture before going org-wide.
  4. Once responses start coming in, open the survey detail page to confirm answers appear and aggregate views render.
  5. Open Retain → At-Risk (or the chapter retain view) and review the criteria the scoring task uses. Even an empty list tells you the page is wired up correctly.

First 30 minutes — recommended next steps​

  • Build a survey template you can reuse semester over semester. A consistent baseline makes year-over-year retention comparisons meaningful.
  • Run the survey at predictable cadence (e.g., week 3 of each semester) so members anticipate it instead of perceiving it as a one-off.
  • Coordinate with chapter officers. Retain only earns its keep when at-risk members are reached out to — the platform identifies risk, humans intervene.
  • Decide who sees what. By default, retention analytics are visible to org admins and chapter officers. If you want regional admins involved, confirm they have the right role.

What happens if you disable​

Disabling Operations hides Retain along with the rest of the Operations surface and returns 403 on retention endpoints. Data is preserved — every snapshot, alert, survey, and survey response remains in the database. Re-enabling Operations restores access.

The retention scoring task stops running while Operations is disabled. If you re-enable after a gap, the next scheduled run produces a fresh snapshot based on current state — it does not backfill the missed window.

Common gotchas​

  • Survey deliverability depends on the platform email config. If members report they never received an invitation, check that platform email is verified before suspecting Retain.
  • Risk scoring lags real life. Snapshots are point-in-time and update on a schedule. A member who left the chapter yesterday may still appear as "active but at risk" today.
  • At-risk lists are heuristic, not predictive. They highlight members worth a conversation; they do not predict the future. Treat them as a prompt, not a verdict.
  • Survey responses are anonymized in the aggregate view but stored per-respondent. Members should understand this before they answer honesty-checked questions.
  • There is no per-survey retention policy. Responses stay until manually deleted or until the org is deleted.

Where to go deeper​

Last verified against v0.62.1 (2026-05-10).