Member profiles
Every member of a community has a profile. It's a small, shared page that holds the details your community cares about — the fields the community's admins have set up — alongside the member's name and role.
Where to find a profile
Profiles live in the community's Members list. Open a community, go to Members, and select a member to open their profile. Selecting your own name opens your profile, with an Edit action.
Viewing and editing your profile
- View: open Members and select your name (or another member's) to see the profile and the details that have been filled in.
- Edit your own: select your name, choose Edit, fill in the fields, and save. Fields marked as required must be filled in before you can save.
- Admins can edit any profile. A community admin can open any member's profile and edit it on their behalf — useful for keeping member details current.
Org-defined profile fields
Communities choose what goes on a member's profile. Your community's admins configure a set of profile fields — for example a phone number, an address, a committee or role, or a checkbox like "newsletter opt-in." Those fields show up on every member's profile in the community, and each member fills in their own values.
Because different communities need different information, profiles look different from one community to the next. If a field isn't relevant to you, you can usually leave it blank unless it's marked required.
For admins: configuring profile fields
Admins set up the profile schema for the community:
- Open the community → Members.
- Enter the members edit mode, then choose Configure Profile Fields.
- Add, remove, and reorder (move up/down) fields.
Each field has a name (an internal identifier, no spaces), a label (the text members see), an optional placeholder hint, and a type. For dropdown fields you also add at least two options; a field can be marked required.
Field types
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Text (single line) | Short answers — a name, a street address. |
| Text (multi-line) | Longer free text — a bio or notes. |
| An email address. | |
| Phone | A phone number. |
| URL | A link — a personal site or social profile. |
| Number | A numeric value — a number of years, a household size. |
| Dropdown | A fixed set of choices (add at least two options). |
| Checkbox | A yes/no toggle — an opt-in or acknowledgement. |
What changes look like for members
Editing the schema changes what members see the next time they open a profile:
- Adding a field makes it appear on every member's profile in the community. Existing members simply haven't filled it in yet — it starts blank and they can add their own value.
- Reordering changes the order fields appear in.
- Removing a field takes it off the profile form and the profile view.
Who can see your profile
A profile is part of the community's shared space, so it's visible to the members of that community — the same as the rest of the community's content. Profile details are end-to-end encrypted with the community's key, so only members of that community (and never Townwell itself) can read them. For the full picture, see Privacy & encryption.