Define ‘active member’ before you celebrate growth
Why login windows and paying seats must be separated before a membership app chart goes to the board.
Boards love an upward “active members” line. In community membership apps, that line often mixes three different people: someone who paid this month, someone who paid last year but still opens the app, and someone with an honorary seat who never renews.
Before you celebrate growth, write the definition you will defend aloud. Prefer: paying members whose renewal date has not passed. Keep a separate count for members with at least one meaningful engagement event in the last thirty days. When those two diverge, you have a story — not a crisis by default.
Page Nestcore audits spend early hours on this naming work because every later cohort chart inherits the first mistake. If your export cannot separate honorary seats, fix the export before the narrative.