# Ground, archive or remove a member

> Three different things that all look like taking somebody off the roster. Grounding stops them flying and emails them, archiving just tidies the list, and removing is permanent.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/ground-archive-or-remove-a-member
Section: Getting started. For: Owners, Admins.

All three live on `People → the row's ⋯ menu` (web console). **Ground** stops
somebody flying and emails them the reason. **Archive** takes them off the roster silently.
**Remove** ends their access to your school. Only removing is permanent, and none of the
three deletes any history.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, Dispatchers (ground and unground only)

## Which one do I want?

|                        | Ground                                                 | Archive                      | Remove                              |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Is the member told?    | Yes, emailed and pushed the reason                     | No                           | They lose access                    |
| What it blocks         | Aircraft bookings only                                 | Every booking type           | All access                          |
| Still on the roster?   | Yes, with a red Grounded badge                         | No, filed under Archived     | No                                  |
| Still gets your email? | Yes                                                    | No, nothing at all           | No                                  |
| Undo                   | Unground                                               | Return to roster             | No                                  |
| Use it for             | An expired medical, an unpaid balance, a safety review | A student who stopped coming | Somebody who should not have access |

> **Tip:** If you are tidying up dormant students, **archive** them. Grounding was the only tool for
> that job before archiving existed, and it emails everybody you touch.

## Ground a member

1. **People, find the person, ⋯ menu, Ground**

   Grounding is not offered for somebody who is already archived.

2. **Pick a reason**

   Missing or expired documents, Missing TSA documentation, Rental agreement not on file,
   Medical certificate expired, Outstanding balance, Currency lapsed, Pending safety
   review, or **Something else...** for free text.

3. **Press Ground member**

   Their row and their record show a red Grounded badge and a banner.

> **Important:** The reason is not a private note. It is emailed and pushed to the member word for word, as
> the entire body of the notice, and free text is capped at 60 characters. Write it for them:
> "Medical expired 1 Aug, send us the new one" rather than "chase re medical, again".

> **Careful:** Grounding blocks **aircraft** bookings. A grounded member can still be put on a simulator
> session, a classroom ground lesson, or any booking with no resource at all. If you need to
> stop somebody completely, archive them.

Ungrounding asks for confirmation and clears the old reason.

### Grounding from the front desk

A dispatcher can ground and unground too, from the same ⋯ menu in the console, from the
member's record page, or from the app. Archiving and removing stay owner and admin, so a
dispatcher's menu offers Ground and Reinstate and nothing else.

### Automatic grounding for unpaid invoices

`Settings → Billing → Billing` (web console) has **Ground members with unpaid
invoices**, which grounds somebody once they reach a number of unpaid invoices you set. It
starts off. The refusal a member then sees says they are grounded for unpaid invoices and
that paying them lifts it.

## Archive a member

1. **People, find the person, ⋯ menu, Archive**

   You cannot archive your own membership.

2. **Read the confirmation and press Archive member**

   They come off the roster, cannot be booked at all, and stop receiving any email or
   notification from you. Their flights, invoices and history are kept.

3. **To find them later, set the Roster filter to Archived**

   **Return to roster** on their ⋯ menu brings them back.

They are **not** told, and that silence is the point. It is the difference between
archiving and grounding.

> **Careful:** The Roster filter's neutral position is **Current**, not "Any". Leaving it alone never
> shows archived people, so an archived member will look as though they have vanished from
> your roster entirely.

A member who is both grounded and archived shows as **Archived**. Archiving wins in the
interface, and it is the stronger stop of the two.

## Remove a member

1. **People, ⋯ menu, Remove**

   Then confirm.

2. **They lose access to your school**

   Their flight and billing history is preserved, so your reports and invoices do not
   change.

Three things to know:

- An owner cannot be removed at all. Demote them first from **Edit roles**.
- You cannot remove the last admin.
- If you do it from the person's own record page, you are sent back to People, because the
  page you were on no longer exists.

A member can also leave voluntarily, from
`Profile & account` (web console), or `Settings → Leave organization` (mobile app) in the iOS app, under the same
last-admin and last-owner rules.

## Related

- [Roles and permissions](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/roles-and-permissions): Sometimes the right answer is fewer roles, not a ground.
- [Documents and expiries](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/member-documents): Most groundings start with a document nobody chased.