View and manage member consent history

This guide shows you how to see a member’s current email preferences and their full consent history, update their preferences on their behalf, and configure your org’s double opt-in policy.

Who can do this: Admins who can view member consent history (for viewing) and admins who can update consent on a member’s behalf (for updating). Configuring the opt-in policy requires an additional email policy permission.

Before you start

• Consent history is append-only — records are never deleted, even for archived members.
• When you update a member’s preferences on their behalf, MapleGather records the change in the consent history with your name attached.
• If you add a member manually, no consent row is written by default. You can record consent on their behalf using the Record consent on behalf button, which asks you to confirm the member gave consent.
• For archived members, the history is view- and export-only. The preference toggles, Save, Record consent on behalf, and Correct an entry controls are hidden, and the page shows an “archived” notice.

Steps

View a member’s consent history

1. Go to Members.
2. Open the member’s record.
3. Select the Email preferences tab.
4. The top panel shows the member’s current opt-in state for each email category.
5. The Consent history table below shows every consent event, most recent first — including what changed, the source (self-service, one-click unsubscribe, admin update), and, for admin-initiated changes, which admin made the change.
6. To narrow the history, use the event-type dropdown (All events, Opted in, Opted out, Accepted policy, Correction) or the source dropdown (All sources and the sources in this member’s history) above the table. There’s no category filter.

Waiver and membership-terms acceptances appear in this table too. When a member accepts a waiver as they join or renew, you’ll see an “Accepted policy” row that names the policy version they accepted — for a level-scoped waiver, the row points to that level’s version. Because policy versions are never deleted, the reference always resolves to the exact document, even after it’s been superseded.

Update a member’s preferences on their behalf

1. On the member’s Email preferences tab, toggle the categories you want to change.
2. Select Save.
3. A Record this change dialog says “Saving updates [member name]’s preferences and records who made the change.” There’s no source or note to fill in: the history records the change as an admin update, with your name.
4. Select Confirm.

Record consent for a manually-added contact

1. Open the Email preferences tab for a member who has no consent history.
2. Select Record consent on behalf.
3. The dialog says “Confirm [member name] gave consent to receive these emails.” Confirming opts the member in to every email category.
4. Select Confirm.

Configure double opt-in (org-wide setting)

1. Go to the Email opt-in section of the Settings page (at /admin/settings#email-optin) (or search “opt-in” in the settings search).
2. In the Default opt-in policy by signup source table, toggle Double opt-in on or off for each source — for example, Newsletter signup or Member application.
3. In the Confirmation email settings section, set how many days the confirmation link stays active (the default is 7 days).
4. Select Save changes for each section you change.

Export the consent history to CSV

1. On the member’s Email preferences tab, go to the Consent history section.
2. Select Export CSV.
3. Your browser saves a spreadsheet-friendly file with the member’s full consent history, including the IP address and device recorded with each change. These details are part of the admin audit export — members don’t see them on their own view. (Export stays available even for archived members.)

For a waiver or membership-terms acceptance, the exported row records which version the member accepted — its version number and identifier — rather than the full text of the document. Since the version is kept forever, that reference always resolves to the exact policy the member agreed to.

Correct a mistaken entry

The consent history is append-only — you can’t edit or delete an entry. Instead, you add a correction that references the original.

1. Find the entry you need to correct and open its row menu.
2. Select Correct an entry.
3. Review the entry summary in the dialog.
4. Enter a Reason for correction. This is required and is kept for the audit trail.
5. Select Confirm correction.

A new “Correction” entry appears at the top of the history, linked to the entry it corrects. The original entry stays in the log, unchanged.

Verify

After updating a member’s preferences, a “Preferences updated for [member name]” message appears and the consent history table immediately shows a new row with your name in the Actor column.

After saving the opt-in policy, a “Opt-in policy updated” message confirms the change.

After recording consent for a manually-added contact, a “Consent recorded for [member name]” message appears and a new row shows in the history.

If something goes wrong

• “Couldn’t save consent” or “Couldn’t record consent” — the save didn’t go through, so the member’s preferences didn’t change, and the dialog stays open. The message under the heading says why. If it says “You don’t have permission to update this member’s consent.”, your role can view consent but not change it — ask your organization’s primary admin. Otherwise select Confirm again.
• The Email preferences tab is missing — your role may not include permission to view member consent history. Ask your organization’s primary admin.
• “That entry can’t be corrected — refresh and try again” — the history changed since you loaded it. Refresh and correct the entry again.

Related

• How double opt-in works
• Manage policy versions and re-consent
• How email consent and opt-out enforcement work
• Email consent categories reference