Bevy is the platform for a branded community: a public site, chapters, events, and discussions, with dashboards and roles for members, chapter teams, and HQ admins, plus tools to recognize members and answer their questions.

Bevy is a comprehensive community engagement platform designed to help organizations build, manage, and grow vibrant communities at scale. Whether you're running a professional network, user group, or special interest community, Bevy provides the tools to connect members, organize events, facilitate discussions, and drive meaningful engagement, all in one centralized platform.

At its core, Bevy combines event management, chapter organization, and discussion forums into a cohesive ecosystem that supports both virtual and in-person community interactions. The platform is built to accommodate communities of any size, from small local groups to global networks with thousands of members across multiple chapters.

How the products fit together

A Bevy community is made of the parts below. The description under each name says what that part is for.

• Introduction to chapters — what a chapter is, and how a chapter team differs from HQ. Creating one is covered in Create a chapter.
• Introduction to events — the event page, registration, and the choice of in-person, virtual, hybrid, or webinar. Field-by-field setup is in Create and configure events.
• Introduction to Bevy Virtual Meetup — a single virtual room for a chapter event, including interactive sessions.
• Introduction to Bevy webinar — a listen-only room for a few presenters and a large audience. Setup detail is in About Bevy webinar mode.
• Introduction to Bevy Virtual Conference — a multi-session virtual event with stages, sessions, booths, and networking. Component detail is in About Bevy Virtual Conference.
• Introduction to discussions — conversations on chapter and event pages. Joining those conversations is covered in Participate in chapter and event discussions.
• Introduction to Enterprise Discussions — the optional forum add-on, with its own directory and categories. Start with Getting Started with Enterprise Forums, then Create and manage forums.
• Introduction to Bevy gamification — points, badges, profile titles, and leaderboards for member activity.
• Introduction to Community Knowledge AI — an on-site assistant that answers from community content. Start with What is Community Knowledge AI and How to Use CKAI.
• Introduction to the Community Assistant (MCP) — connect an AI assistant your team already uses, such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, and let it act with that person's Bevy permissions.

How Bevy works

Community structure

Bevy organizes communities into a hierarchical structure:

• Global community: The community site is the front-end, public site that members use to engage in the community, find resources, and sign up for specific events. It represents the overarching organization or brand that houses all members and activities.
• Regions: A grouping of chapters, most often by geography or time zone. Regions can appear on the community home page and in analytics. See Additional terminology for the full definition.
• Chapters: Local or interest-based subgroups within the larger community.
• Events: Activities organized by chapters or at the global level.
• Discussions: Conversations that happen within events, chapters, or across the entire community.

User journey

Bevy supports users throughout their entire community journey:

• A potential member starts as a Prospective user when identified by the community.
• Upon first sign-in, they become a registered User with basic platform access.
• By joining specific chapters, they become a Chapter member with enhanced local connections.
• Active members may be invited to become Chapter team members with administrative responsibilities.
• Organization leaders serve as HQ admins with platform-wide control.

Dashboard experience

The dashboard is the back-end, private interface for managing the community site and chapter settings. The dashboard includes different levels of access:

Admin dashboard	Chapter dashboard
The interface for managing global settings for the community, including home page design, chapters, emails, analytics, members, and more.	The interface for managing individual settings for a chapter within the community, including page design, team members, chapter members, events, blogs, and newsletters.

Admin dashboard access is granted by the Bevy Support team. Chapter dashboard access is granted to team members within the Chapter dashboard settings.

Personas

This section outlines the different types of users within the Bevy platform and their associated roles and permissions. Understanding these personas is crucial for comprehending how various users interact with the community site and dashboard experiences.

The rest of this section is the full description of each role.

Entire site

Prospective user

A prospective user is someone who has been identified as a potential community member but has not yet signed in to the platform.

Benefits and capabilities

• Can receive invitations to join the community
• May be pre-registered for events or webinars
• Can be included in initial welcome communications
• Has a profile ready for activation upon first sign-in

User

A user is anyone who has created an account and signed in to the Bevy platform at least once.

Benefits and capabilities

• Can browse and attend any public events across the entire community
• Access to the community directory and resource library
• Ability to create a personal profile visible to other community members
• View public discussions
• Post only in discussions for events they are attending
• Receive general community announcements and updates
• Can join chapters to become a chapter member

HQ admin

The HQ admin is the highest-level administrative role within the Bevy community platform, with comprehensive access and control over the entire community ecosystem. This role is designed for organization leaders who need to manage the global aspects of their community, set platform-wide policies, and oversee all community operations. HQ admins manage all aspects of the Bevy platform including system-wide settings, community structure, user permissions, content, communications, analytics, and technical integrations. They configure the platform's appearance and functionality, oversee chapters and events globally, and handle all administrative aspects from security to localization and payment processing.

Benefits and capabilities

• Complete system access to all platform functions and settings
• Manages global community structure, appearance, and functionality
• Controls user permissions and roles across the entire platform
• Automatic admin access to all chapters without needing separate permissions
• Host permissions for all events community-wide
• Configures global email templates and automated notifications
• Manages platform-wide branding, design, and content
• Oversees security settings and technical integrations
• Accesses comprehensive analytics and reporting across all chapters
• Creates and manages global discussion categories and permissions
• Can override any settings implemented by chapter team members
• Manages payment processing and financial settings

Chapter member

A chapter member is a user who has taken the additional step of joining a specific chapter within the community.

Benefits and capabilities

• Receives chapter-specific newsletters and announcements
• Gets personalized event recommendations relevant to their chapter
• Post in discussions for any events hosted by their chapter(s), regardless of attendance
• Post in chapter discussions for chapters they've joined
• Receive notifications about chapter discussion updates
• Ability to build stronger connections through regular chapter events
• May have access to chapter-exclusive content and resources

Chapter team member

A chapter team member is granted unique access to a chapter's online dashboard, with permissions tailored to their specific role. Chapter team members primarily use the dashboard to manage various chapter operations, including member information, event coordination, communications, and generating reports. Their individual access levels and permissions within the dashboard are defined by their designated chapter team role. For questions about specific permissions, please contact the HQ team.

Benefits and capabilities

• Manages the chapter dashboard with role-specific permissions
• Creates and manages chapter events, including scheduling and logistics
• Handles chapter member communications and newsletters
• Accesses chapter analytics and generates reports
• Moderates chapter and event discussions with ability to pin and edit content
• Creates discussion categories for their chapter and its events
• Manages registrations and attendee check-ins for events
• Customizes chapter branding within platform guidelines
• Coordinates chapter resources and content
• May have specialized roles (Lead Organizer, Check-in Staff, and others) with varying permission levels

Default roles and customization

Bevy provides the following default chapter team roles, which can be modified or expanded upon during or after the instance's onboarding process:

• Lead Organizer: This role carries the highest level of responsibility and dashboard access, often encompassing full control over chapter strategy, event planning, chapter settings, payments, team management, sponsorships, invoicing, and newsletters.
• Check-in Staff: This role is granted permissions solely for check-in functionalities. It typically does not require dashboard access.

Bevy Virtual

Host

A host is a user with the highest level of control in Bevy Virtual events. They can promote attendees to speakers, start and stop recordings, manage breakout rooms, and control the overall event flow. Hosts always have microphone, camera, and screen share access. Chapter team members are automatically added as hosts for events within their chapter(s). HQ admins have host permissions for all events in their community.

Moderator

A moderator focuses specifically on maintaining productive discussions during Bevy Virtual events. They can monitor and manage chat conversations, oversee Q&A sessions, and help enforce community guidelines. Moderators have access to audio, video, and screen sharing capabilities, but with a more focused set of controls than hosts. This role ensures quality engagement while the host manages the broader event logistics.

Presenter

A presenter is an attendee who has been granted special permissions to share their audio, video, and screen with all event participants. Presenters can actively contribute to the event by showing presentations, demonstrations, or speaking to the audience. This role is controlled by hosts, who can grant or revoke presenter access at any point during the event. Presenters have more participation capabilities than regular attendees but fewer administrative controls than hosts or moderators.

Attendee

An attendee is a participant who joins Bevy Virtual events with basic viewing and interaction capabilities. Attendees can watch presentations, participate in chat discussions, ask questions, and engage in polls or other interactive elements provided by the host. By default, attendees do not have microphone, camera, or screen share access unless promoted to a presenter role by a host. Attendees can customize their profile, adjust notification settings, and network with other participants through the platform's community features.

Room controls for a single virtual room are in Introduction to Bevy Virtual Meetup. A listen-only room is Introduction to Bevy webinar, with setup in About Bevy webinar mode. A multi-session event is Introduction to Bevy Virtual Conference, with component detail in About Bevy Virtual Conference.

Enterprise Discussions

Administrators

Administrators have the highest level of access and control within Enterprise Discussions. They are manually added to this role and have complete oversight of all discussion activities.

Capabilities and benefits

• Complete control over all discussion settings and configurations
• Can create, edit, and delete any discussion category or thread
• Ability to manage all user roles (add or remove moderators and volunteers)
• Can pin important announcements across all categories
• Full moderation capabilities including content removal and user management

Moderators

Moderators help maintain discussion quality and enforce community guidelines. They can be manually added or are automatically granted this role if they're chapter team members.

Capabilities and benefits

• Can edit and delete posts across their assigned categories
• Ability to pin important announcements and information
• Can close or lock threads that have served their purpose
• Ability to flag inappropriate content for review
• Can manage user access to specific discussions
• Monitoring tools to track discussion activity and engagement
• Ability to move misplaced discussions to appropriate categories
• Receive notifications about flagged content or potential issues

Volunteers

Volunteers provide basic assistance in discussion management. They're either manually added or automatically included if they're chapter team members with check-in status.

Capabilities and benefits

• Limited moderation capabilities to assist with basic discussion management
• Can flag inappropriate content for moderator or admin review
• Limited pinning capabilities in specific assigned areas
• Receive notifications about new discussions in their assigned categories
• Can help keep discussions on topic and productive

Regular users

Regular users are any logged-in members who can actively participate in discussions according to their permissions.

Capabilities and benefits

• Create new discussion threads in appropriate categories
• Reply to existing discussions
• Upload attachments and media (subject to size limits)
• Subscribe to discussions to receive notifications
• Edit their own posts within the allowed timeframe
• Create a personal profile visible to other discussion participants
• Search through discussion history to find relevant information
• Ability to flag inappropriate content for moderator review

Guests

Guests are anonymous users who have not logged in but may have limited access to view certain discussions.

Capabilities and benefits

• View public discussion categories and threads
• Read-only access to open discussions
• Limited search functionality within public discussions
• Can see basic community activity and engagement
• Access to public resources shared in discussions
• No login required to browse public content

Conversations on chapter and event pages are in Introduction to discussions, with steps in Participate in chapter and event discussions. The forum add-on is Introduction to Enterprise Discussions. The forum directory is covered in Getting Started with Enterprise Forums and Create and manage forums.

Additional terminology

These terms appear on chapter records, event records, and attendance reports.