Skip to main content

Analytics Retention tab — post-enable runbook

Retention analytics — at-risk chapter health, snapshots, and alerts — lives on the Retention tab of the Analytics page (org, chapter, and region tiers each have their own Analytics page). It is not a separate license toggle: the Retention tab lights up automatically when the Operations module is enabled, the same way it always has — only the surface it renders on has changed. Surveys are a separate, standalone Surveys nav item (also gated by Operations) rather than a tab inside Retention. This runbook covers the first 30 minutes for both.

For the Operations module overview, see the Operations module reference. There is no dedicated Analytics module page yet — Analytics is a built-in, always-present nav item, not a licensable module in its own right, so it has no runbook of its own outside this retention-specific one.

Prerequisites​

Before the Retention tab produces useful output, confirm:

  • The Operations module is enabled for the org. If it is not, the Retention tab is hidden from Analytics and the Surveys nav item disappears.
  • 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​

The Retention tab and Surveys nav item are enabled by enabling their parent module, Operations. Only a platform admin can toggle Operations. There is no separate toggle for retention or surveys in the platform admin UI today.

What gets auto-created​

Enabling Operations (and therefore the Retention tab and Surveys) 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​

Analytics is a top-level sidebar item at every tier (org, chapter, region) — it is not nested inside Operations. At the org tier it's visible to national admins only; at chapter and region tiers it's visible to whoever can reach that tier. When Operations is enabled, an Analytics page's Retention tab appears alongside Overview, Cohorts, and Comparisons (chapter tier surfaces the same tab inside its Analytics view). Separately, a standalone Surveys entry appears inside the Operations group in the org and chapter sidebars (there's no Surveys entry at the region tier — surveys are org- and chapter-scoped only).

First 30 minutes — required steps​

  1. Open Analytics in your sidebar, then click the Retention tab. Confirm the dashboard loads. Empty dashboards on a brand new org are expected — the scoring task has not run yet.
  2. Open the standalone Surveys item under Operations in your sidebar. 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. Back on Analytics → Retention, review the chapter health table the scoring task populates. Even an empty table 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. Retention scoring 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 the Retention tab (Analytics itself stays, minus that tab) and the Surveys nav item, and returns 403 on retention and survey 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 the surveys feature.
  • 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.
  • Chapter health signals are heuristic, not predictive. They highlight chapters 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 by default (surveys can also be created as fully anonymous — see Survey authoring). 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 v0.65.23 (2026-07-05). Retain merged into Analytics (Retention tab), Surveys split into a standalone nav item, v0.65.0.