Roles and permissions let you control what each person on your team can see and do by assigning a role that carries a bundle of permissions. The platform uses three separate roles systems:admin, chapter team, and forum.
We’re actively building out this feature, so some functionality may not be available yet. We’re adding capabilities regularly—check back for the latest. Notice something missing or not working as expected? Contact your Bevy Customer Success Manager—your input helps us prioritize what to build next.
Roles and permissions control what each person on your team can see and do across the platform. Instead of granting access one setting at a time, you assign a role to a user, and that role carries a bundle of permissions. This keeps access consistent, easy to audit, and quick to update.
The platform uses three separate role systems, each scoped to a different part of the product:
| Role system | Where it applies | Managed in the dashboard? | Dashboard location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin roles | Platform-wide (HQ-level control) | Yes — fully configurable | Members → Roles |
| Chapter team roles | A single chapter | Yes — fully configurable | Members → Chapter Roles |
| Forum roles | Defined once, instance-wide; takes effect within whichever forum a person is assigned to | Yes — configurable (Admin-Dashboard admins) | Members → Forum Roles |
All of these pages live under the Members section of the HQ admin dashboard (/accounts/dashboard/#/admin/members/).
These three systems are intentionally independent. Being an Admin does not make you a Forum Moderator, and a Chapter Director's power stops at the edge of their chapter. Assign roles in the system that matches the access you want to grant.
What's new in role management
The redesigned Members → Roles experience brings self-service control that previously required a Bevy admin:
- Create custom roles — start from any existing admin or chapter role, click Duplicate, then rename it and adjust its permissions. No need to build from scratch.
- Grouped, searchable permissions — permissions are organized by category (Events, Chapter members, Sponsors, and so on) with a search box, so you can find and toggle exactly what a role should do.
- See who holds a role — each role's edit screen lists the users currently assigned to it, with links to their profiles.
- A Forum Roles management tab — create, edit, duplicate, and delete forum roles from the dashboard.
- A Permissions Reference (Help tab) — browse and search every permission in one place, with a scope badge showing whether it applies to Admin roles, Chapter roles, or Forums.
Admin roles
Admin roles grant platform-wide capabilities that affect your entire community, not just one chapter. They are the most powerful roles and should be assigned sparingly.
Admin roles include everything a chapter role can do plus HQ-only powers such as creating chapters, editing site-wide settings, managing other users' roles, and controlling global content (blog posts, sponsors, newsletters, API keys).
Built-in admin roles
| Role | What it's for | Editable / deletable? |
|---|---|---|
| Administrator | Full platform control — effectively every permission. | Protected (cannot be deleted) |
| User | Standard member with no elevated admin access. | Protected (cannot be deleted) |
| Prospective User | A person who has signed up but does not yet have an active account. | Protected (cannot be deleted) |
To assign an admin role, you will need to duplicate an existing role and selecting any subset of the available admin permissions.
Admin permission categories
| Category | Example capabilities |
|---|---|
| Chapters | Create chapters, delete chapters |
| User & role management | Add / edit / delete user profiles and roles |
| Chapter roles | Add / edit / delete chapter team roles |
| Site settings | View and change platform-wide configuration settings |
| Content | Create, review, publish, and delete blog posts and content-builder content |
| Global newsletters | Create, edit, and delete newsletters that go out platform-wide |
| Sponsors | Manage global (cross-chapter) sponsors |
| Payments | Manage vendors and payment configuration |
| Events | Manage event types across the platform |
| Page builder | Manage embed widgets and variables |
| API access | Create and manage external API keys |
| Featured content | Feature content across the community |
| …plus all chapter permissions | Everything listed in the Chapter team roles section below, on any chapter |
Two different kinds of "admin": Having the Administrator role controls what you can do. Access to the HQ admin dashboard UI itself is controlled by a separate "Admin Dashboard" group. That permission has to be granted by Bevy Support or your Customer Success Manager. A user typically needs both to manage roles from the dashboard.
Chapter team roles
Chapter team roles define what a team member can do within a single chapter. The same person can hold different roles in different chapters. Unlike admin roles, chapter permissions are fully configurable per instance, so the exact powers of a role like “Team Member” can be tailored to your organization.
Default chapter roles
| Role | Typical scope |
|---|---|
| Lead Organizer | Full chapter control — events, settings, payments, team management, sponsors, invoicing, and newsletters. |
| Check-in staff | Check-in permissions only |
Chapter permission categories
Chapter permissions are organized into groups in the dashboard. The main categories:
| Category | Example capabilities |
|---|---|
| Chapters | View, edit, add, and delete chapters; edit status, location, and language |
| Events | Add / edit / delete events, recurring events, cancellations, and publishing past events |
| Attendees & check-in | Add, edit, feature, and check in attendees; view attendee emails |
| Orders & refunds | Add, edit, and refund ticket orders; manage discounts and invoices |
| Chapter members | View, add, edit, delete, import, and export members; view member emails |
| Chapter team | View and manage team members and their roles |
| Sponsors | Add, edit, delete sponsors and sponsor invoices |
| Newsletters | Manage local (chapter) newsletters and automated emails |
| Surveys | Add, edit, and remove event surveys; view survey PII |
| Blog posts | Write, review, administer, and publish blog posts |
| Discussions / forums | Moderate posts, manage forums, run polls, and manage attachments (see forum bridge below) |
| Analytics | View chapter analytics |
| Virtual events | Host virtual events |
Special assignment rules
Two behaviors govern how sensitive chapter roles are surfaced and assigned:
- Admin-only roles: Some chapter roles are flagged so that only users with the “manage admin roles” permission can assign them. Roles flagged this way are also filtered out of the standard role list for everyone else.
- Hidden roles: Roles can be marked as hidden so they don't appear to users without the “view hidden roles” permission.
You can edit a role's name, description, and permissions in the dashboard, but the "hidden" and "admin-only" settings can only be turned on by your Bevy. Please contact your Customer Success Manager or Bevy Support.
The chapter → forum bridge
Chapter team roles can also carry forum moderation power on that chapter's forum. When a chapter role includes a forum-moderation permission, the team member automatically receives that forum role's abilities on their chapter's discussion forum — without a separate forum assignment.
Forum roles
Forum roles control what a person can do inside a discussion forum. Alongside the built-in role hierarchy, Admin-Dashboard admins can create, edit, duplicate, and delete forum roles from the Forum Roles tab in the dashboard. System roles are protected from deletion, and edits are limited to forum-scoped permissions — globally-scoped capabilities are rejected on save.
Forum roles work as a hierarchy: each higher role inherits every permission of the roles beneath it, then adds more.
Roles are granted in one of two ways:
- Implicit — automatically applied based on who you are (for example, a logged-in chapter member). Viewer and Participant are always implicit.
- Explicit — manually assigned in a forum's Team settings. Volunteer, Moderator, and Admin are assigned this way.
Forum role hierarchy
| Role | How it's granted | What they can do (in addition to lower roles) |
|---|---|---|
| Viewer | Implicit | Read and see the forum. Applies to anonymous visitors on public forums. |
| Participant | Implicit | Start topics, reply, tag topics, attach and download files, create and vote in polls, and flag posts or topics. Applies to chapter members, team members, and event attendees. |
| Volunteer | Explicit | Approve posts, archive posts, ban users, lock and move topics, pin topics to the homepage, post stickies, post without approval, reply to locked topics, and add/edit/remove Participants. |
| Moderator | Explicit | Delete and edit others' posts, post announcements, schedule posts, flag forums, and manage Volunteers and other Moderators. |
| Admin (forum-level) | Explicit | Create, edit, and delete forums; ban users globally; manage the external link allow list; and manage Forum Admins. The top of the forum hierarchy. |
A forum Admin is a forum-level role only-it is not the same as a platform Administrator. Superusers automatically receive the highest forum permissions across all forums. Superuser access is granted by Bevy Support.
Quick comparison: which role system do I use?
| I want someone to… | Use this role system |
|---|---|
| Manage settings, content, or users across the whole platform | Admin role |
| Run events, members, or sponsors for one chapter | Chapter team role |
| Moderate or manage a discussion forum | Forum role |
Where to manage roles
| Task | Dashboard path |
|---|---|
| Create or edit admin roles | Members → Roles |
| Create or edit chapter team roles | Members → Chapter Roles |
| View forum roles (read-only) | Members → Forum Roles |
| Search all available permissions | Members → Help (Permissions Reference) |
The permissions search lives in two places-the standalone help/permissions Reference tab (browse and search every permissions within it's scope), and the search box inside each role's permission picker (filter as you build a role).