User Designations

Designations are special capabilities that can be assigned to any user, regardless of their role.

Why Use Designations?

Before designations, if you wanted someone to teach classes, you had to give them the “Instructor” role. But what if they were also an Admin? They couldn’t be both.

Designations solve this. Now “Instructor” is a designation that can be added to ANY user - whether they’re a Guest, Member, Staff, or Admin.

Default Designations

Instructor (System)

• Can view their assigned classes via “Instructor View”
• Can take attendance (when implemented)
• Appears in instructor dropdown on event forms
• System designation - cannot be deleted

Key Holder

• Has 24/7 physical access to the space
• Integrates with access control systems

Volunteer

• Can view volunteer schedule
• Can log volunteer hours

Board Member

• Can view board documents
• Can view financial reports

Shop Lead

• Can manage equipment in their shop area
• Can approve authorizations

Which Permissions Can Designations Have?

Designations can grant operational permissions — things like editing events, taking attendance, managing equipment, and viewing reports.

Some permissions are system-level and can only come from a user’s role. These include managing roles, managing designations, deleting users, managing billing, and changing makerspace settings. You won’t see these options when editing a designation’s permissions.

This keeps sensitive operations under the control of the role hierarchy while letting designations handle day-to-day capabilities.

Creating Custom Designations

If the defaults don’t fit your needs, create your own!

1. Go to People → Designations
2. Click Create Designation
3. Enter a name and description
4. Select which permissions this designation grants
5. Click Create

Example: Workshop Monitor

You might create a “Workshop Monitor” designation for volunteers who help supervise specific areas:

• Name: Workshop Monitor
• Description: Monitors safety in workshop areas
• Permissions: View equipment, Lock out equipment

Editing Designations

1. Go to People → Designations
2. Click on the designation row to open the edit modal
3. Modify the name, description, status, or permissions
4. Click Save

Note: System designations (marked with a lock icon) cannot have their name changed or be deleted.

Designation Status

Designations can be set to:

• Active - Can be assigned to users, permissions are granted
• Inactive - Cannot be assigned to new users, existing assignments still work

Use Inactive status when you want to phase out a designation without affecting current users.

Assigning Designations to Users

1. Go to People → Users
2. Click on a user
3. In the Designations section, click Add Designation
4. Select the designation to add
5. Click Save

A user can have multiple designations. They automatically receive permissions from all their active designations.

How Permissions Stack

When a user has multiple designations, permissions are combined (union):

User Role	Designations	Effective Permissions
Staff	Instructor	Staff permissions + Instructor permissions
Guest	Instructor, Key Holder	Guest permissions + Instructor + Key Holder
Admin	Instructor	Admin (already has all) + Instructor

Removing Designations

1. Go to the user’s profile
2. Click the X on the designation badge
3. Confirm removal

The user immediately loses the permissions granted by that designation.