> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pcflyers.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Roles and access

> Why you see the menu items you see, how each role is granted, and what to do when something you expect is missing.

<Info>
  **Who this is for:** Everyone. The last section is for club administrators specifically.
</Info>

## The website shows you only what your roles unlock

Two members can sign in to the same website and see different menus. That is not a fault — the
site hides what you cannot use rather than showing you links that would turn you away.

Your roles are worked out fresh **every time you sign in**. Most come from Schedulemaster
automatically; a few are granted by a club administrator.

## The roles that come from Schedulemaster

You do not apply for these and nobody assigns them by hand. The website reads your Schedulemaster
record at sign-in and works them out.

| Role               | You get it when…                                             | It unlocks                                                                                          |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Active member**  | Your Schedulemaster membership is active                     | Your profile, document uploads, gift certificate redemption, the photo contest, retirement requests |
| **Instructor**     | You are assigned to an instructor resource in Schedulemaster | **My CFI Profile**, and your entry in the public instructor listing                                 |
| **Aircraft owner** | You hold a share in an aircraft on the line                  | **My Aircraft** — photos and downloadable files for the aircraft you own                            |
| **Retired member** | Your Schedulemaster membership is no longer active           | Public pages only, plus a path to re-apply                                                          |

Two things follow from "worked out at sign-in", and they account for most of the surprises:

* **A new role does not appear until your next sign-in.** Become an instructor on Monday and
  **My CFI Profile** appears the first time you sign in after that — not the moment the club
  updates Schedulemaster.
* **The same is true in reverse.** A role you have lost stays visible until your session ends.

An instructor who is also an owner gets both sets of tools. The roles stack.

## Board of Directors

Directors get one extra area: the club's photo contest administration, where they review entries
and cast their ballot for the judged placements.

This role follows your seat on the board. It is granted from the club's board roster rather than
handed out individually, and it goes away when you leave the board or your membership is retired.

Directors are **read-only** across that area with a single exception — casting their own ballot.
Running a contest, opening and closing a ballot, and applying the result stay with site
administrators. Directors also cannot enter the photo contest themselves, for the obvious reason.

## Administrator roles

Club administration is split into separate roles so that helping with one job does not hand you
the keys to every other one. A member who manages gift certificates does not thereby get the
member roster, and vice versa.

These are granted by a site administrator in the club's access management tool, and they take
effect **immediately** — no sign-out needed.

| Area            | Roles                                                                                                     |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Site**        | Site Admins (everything) · User Access Admins (granting roles only)                                       |
| **Membership**  | Membership Admins (all of it) · Application Admins · Badging Admins · Document Admins · Retirement Admins |
| **Fleet**       | Fleet Admins (all of it) · Cover Sheet Admins · Fleet File Admins                                         |
| **Instructors** | Instructor Admins (all of it) · Instructor File Admins                                                    |
| **Finance**     | Finance Admins (all of it) · Gift Certificate Admins · MISC CC Payment Operators                          |

Each area has a broad role and one or more narrow ones. Giving somebody **Gift Certificate
Admins** lets them work on gift certificates and nothing else; **Finance Admins** covers the whole
finance area.

<Note>
  **Administrator roles do not inherit downward.** Holding **Membership Admins** does not
  automatically include every narrow membership role, and holding a narrow role does not grant the
  broad one. Each role is granted on its own. If somebody needs two jobs, they are given two roles.
</Note>

**Every administrator role requires an active membership.** If a member's membership is retired,
their administrator access stops working — the roles are still recorded, but nothing unlocks until
the membership is active again.

## Why a menu item is missing

Work down this list. The first two account for most of it.

1. **You have not signed in since the role was granted.** Sign out, sign back in. This is the
   answer for every Schedulemaster-derived role: active member, instructor, aircraft owner.
2. **Your membership is not active.** Retired members keep their sign-in but lose every member and
   administrator tool. If you land on a "Welcome back… your membership is retired" page, that is
   what has happened.
3. **You were never given that role.** Administrator roles are granted one at a time. Holding one
   does not imply another.
4. **You are looking in the wrong branch of the menu.** The menu groups admin tools by who uses
   them, which is not always where you would expect a tool to sit. The photo contest tools, for
   example, live under **Board of Directors** rather than with the other membership tools.

If none of those explain it, ask — see [Getting help](/start/getting-help). Say which item you
expect and when you last signed in; that is usually enough to settle it in one reply.

## For administrators granting roles

A few rules that are easy to trip over:

* **Grant the narrowest role that does the job.** The split exists so that a volunteer helping
  with one task is not handed the member roster as well.
* **Changes take effect immediately.** The member does not need to sign out and back in — unlike
  the Schedulemaster-derived roles, which do.
* **Grant roles only in the club's access management tool.** It is the one place a grant sticks.
  Membership, instructor, and owner roles are rebuilt from Schedulemaster every time a member
  signs in, so a role recorded anywhere else is overwritten at their next sign-in.
* **Board of Directors is not granted in the access tool.** It follows the board roster and is
  managed there instead.

## Related

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="How it works" icon="diagram-project" href="/start/how-it-works">
    Why roles are read at sign-in, and what else that affects.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Logging in" icon="right-to-bracket" href="/start/logging-in">
    Signing in, signing out, and resetting a password.
  </Card>
</Columns>