CYAF User Manual & Handbook

The CYAF Sierra Leone Directory is the official national membership roll, administrative management portal, digital credentialing system, and financial tracking platform for the Catholic Young Adult Fellowship.

The platform comprises public information pages, an eight-step membership registration flow, an authenticated member portal (/portal), an executive review desk (/review) for unit, diocesan, and national officers, a presidential oversight HUD (/oversight), dedicated finance desks (/finance), and a super-admin console (/admin) with a tamper-proof activity audit log.

Anyone can browse the public pages, access this user manual, verify digital credentials at /verify/[token], and review the binding Master Terms of Service (/terms) and Comprehensive Privacy Policy (/privacy). Registering requires an account. Reviewing applications requires an executive office appointment. Super-admin features are restricted to the National Super Administrator.

Home — mission, vision, rotating scripture, live membership telemetry, and overview of the official Fellowship Houses.

About Us — fellowship pillars, the four diocesan councils (ADEC Freetown, MADEC Makeni, BODEC Bo, KENDEC Kenema), and the three-tier sequential approval path.

Contact — national secretariat and diocesan contact points.

Credential Verification (/verify/[token]) — public verification endpoint allowing event coordinators, parish chaplains, or church authorities to scan the QR code on a member's CR80 ID pass and immediately confirm authenticity, photo likeness, parish unit, council, and active status without exposing sensitive personal data.

Terms & Privacy (/terms, /privacy) — complete unabridged legal regulations, constitutional clauses, and data protection disclosures under Sierra Leone and ECOWAS law.

Access the Member Login page (/auth) to sign in or create a new account using either your mobile telephone number (primary) or an email address, along with a secure password.

During account sign-up, applicants select their Council (Diocese), Deanery, and Parish Unit. Before submission, users explicitly agree to the CYAF Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Ordinary members can immediately sign in upon account registration, complete their 8-step registration dossier, and track their application progress in real time.

Executive accounts (unit, diocesan, or national officers) require authorization and assignment of office chairs by the Super Administrator before administrative desks unlock.

Step 1: Personal Information — Full legal name, date of birth, gender, and marital status. The system validates age (minimum 15 years).

Step 2: Contact Information — Primary phone number, optional alternate phone, email address, residential address, town/city, and Sierra Leone administrative district.

Step 3: Church Information — Council (diocese), parish unit, mandatory Catholic baptism certification, confirmation status, and Fellowship House selection. The four official houses are: St. Aloysius Gonzaga (Blue), Edmund Rice (Yellow), Ann-Marie Javouhey (Green), and Joseph Henry Ganda (Red). Note: Candidates entering under probation status cannot self-select a house; their allocation is assigned upon formal admission.

Step 4: Professional Information — Occupation, employer/business name, and highest education level attained.

Step 5: Skills & Ministries — Spiritual talents, vocational competencies, parish society affiliations, and fellowship ministry commitments.

Step 6: Emergency Contacts — Primary emergency contact (name, relationship, phone, address) and an optional secondary contact.

Step 7: Photo Capture — Live frontal camera snapshot (with instant review/retake) or verified photo upload. Images are compressed client-side and saved into secure encrypted cloud storage for official CR80 badge issuance.

Step 8: Declaration & Consent — Candidate attests to the truthfulness of submitted information, agrees to abide by the CYAF Constitution and Terms of Service, consents to photo usage for smart ID passes and public QR verification, acknowledges category review and the Age-45 Passive Lock, and grants explicit consent for personal and sacramental data processing under the Privacy Policy.

Officer On-Behalf Registration: When an authorized Parish Unit Secretary registers a candidate on their behalf (/register?onBehalf=true), the officer must provide an explicit Officer Certification confirming verbal/physical consent before submission.

Sequential 3-Tier Approval Pipeline: Submitted → Unit Verified (Parish Unit Secretary) → Council Verified (Diocesan Secretary) → National Approved & Issued (National Executive / Super Admin).

Membership Categories:

• Active Member — Young adults aged 18 to 44 who participate in fellowship activities and contribute required fraternal dues.

• Passive Member — Members who maintain financial contributions and communion but have stepped back from active youth administration.

• Dormant Member — Registered members currently inactive in both participation and financial contribution.

• Probation Candidate — New candidates undergoing discernment and formation prior to full unit admission.

Age 45+ Passive Lock: In accordance with the CYAF National Constitution, active voting and office-holding status is strictly limited to ages 18–44. Upon reaching age 45, a member's status is automatically transitioned to Passive Member. Passive members retain fellowship communion, alumni standing, and verified pass status, but cannot hold youth executive chairs or vote in executive youth elections.

Official CR80 Identity Card: High-definition digital membership pass formatted to ISO/IEC 7810 CR80 standards. Features dark luxury gradients, gold foil accents, national crest, guilloche security background, security microprint, canonical member ID, and cryptographic token.

Member Portal Pass: Members can view their flippable digital ID card in the Member Portal (/portal) to inspect front and back details.

Tamper-Proof QR Verification: The back of each card displays a high-contrast QR code resolving to /verify/[token] (or /v/[token]). Anyone scanning the code sees an authenticated digital certificate showing photo likeness, full name, parish, diocese, category, active/suspended standing, and card expiry date.

Security Shielding: Sensitive personal data (telephone number, home address, email, emergency contacts, financial dues history, and exact date of birth) is strictly shielded and never revealed on the public verification page.

Official Card Batch Printing: The downloading, exporting, and physical batch printing of CR80 identity cards is an exclusive statutory privilege reserved for authorized National Secretariat officers and the Super Administrator desk in the Admin console.

Executive Review Desk (/review): Parish Unit Secretaries verify physical church attendance and sacramental standing of local candidates and advance them to the Diocesan Desk. Diocesan Secretaries review and advance candidates to the National Desk. The National Secretariat or Super Administrator executes final ratification and issues the digital Smart ID pass.

Review Actions: Approve advances the dossier to the next tier or triggers card issuance. Return sends the application back to the candidate with a mandatory explanatory note for correction.

Unit Member Management: Unit Secretaries can access 'My Unit Members' to view all enrolled parishioners, update bio details, manage membership categories, or enact disciplinary suspensions with a mandatory recorded reason.

Presidential Oversight HUD (/oversight): National, Diocesan, and Unit Presidents (and the Super Administrator) have access to a supervisory console displaying real-time jurisdiction telemetry, membership distributions, dues card sales, quarterly subscriptions, and cash balances.

Disciplinary Jurisdiction: Authorized Presidents and Secretaries have statutory authority to suspend members for constitutional violations. Suspensions instantly flag the member's account, display the mandatory justification on their portal gate, and reflect a 'Suspended / Inactive' banner upon QR verification.

Strict Scope Boundaries: Financial Secretaries (Unit, Council, and National) maintain financial books and are strictly partitioned by Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC). Finance officers CANNOT access secretariat review queues, member registration modification, or disciplinary suspension desks.

Four Modular Ledgers:

• Quarterly Subscriptions — Inter-council statutory payments sent by Diocesan Councils to the National Office. Council finance officers submit payments with transaction reference numbers; the National Financial Secretary reviews and accepts or returns for rectification.

• Income & Expenses — Independent double-entry accounting ledgers for each jurisdiction tier (Unit book, Diocesan book, National book). Supports categorization, transaction references, and real-time cash balance calculation.

• Monthly Dues — Fraternal contributions collected from local unit members, linked to individual member records and tracked in the unit cash balance.

• Dues Cards — Physical dues card sales records tracking inventory, unit pricing, total amounts, and purchasing unit credits.

Super-Admin Console (/admin): Accessible exclusively to the National Super Administrator, offering full oversight of users, members, ecclesiastical structures, and system security.

User Management: Appoint officers to specific ecclesiastical roles (Presidents, Secretaries, Financial Secretaries at Unit, Council, or National levels) with instant permission scoping.

Councils & Units: Manage diocesan councils, deaneries, and parish units across Sierra Leone.

Append-Only Activity Audit Trail: Comprehensive log recording all administrative actions, logins, approvals, returns, suspensions, photo uploads, and role assignments. Filterable by actor, action type, or date range, with CSV export functionality.

Three-Gate Danger Zone: Destructive operations (member purging, unit deletion, or full dataset reset) are protected by a triple-layer safeguard: exact target name entry (Gate 1), explicit risk confirmation (Gate 2), and a time-limited 6-digit one-time authorization code (Gate 3).

The CYAF Directory Platform operates under the ecclesiastical authority of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone and the CYAF National Constitution.

Master Terms of Service (/terms): Governs membership admission, age limits, digital credential ownership, disciplinary procedures, financial dues non-refundability, and conciliation workflows.

Comprehensive Privacy Policy (/privacy): Details compliance with the Sierra Leone Right to Access Information Act (2013), the Cyber Security and Crime Act (2021), and the ECOWAS Supplementary Act on Personal Data Protection. Defines data collection categories, public verification disclosures, encrypted storage, and member data subject rights.

Direct Links: You can inspect the complete legal framework at any time via the Governance & Legal links in the site footer.