# Member directory

> A member directory is a list of a community's members with the details that help people find the right person, such as name, city, business, skills and what each member can help with. It can be visible only to organisers or searchable by members. A useful one is kept current by the members themselves and shows only what each member agreed to share.

Source: https://milvao.com/glossary/member-directory · Updated 2026-11-05

## Key takeaways

- Directories go stale fast unless members can update their own entry.
- Decide who sees each field before you collect it.
- Phone numbers are the field most worth protecting.

## What a member directory usually includes

- Name and city, and often the other cities a member serves.
- Business, role or organisation.
- Skills or services, ideally chosen from a fixed list so searches work.
- Community-specific fields, such as batch year, cohort or membership type.
- Contact details, shown carefully or not at all.

## Private and member-facing directories

An organiser-only directory lets the team find the right person for a request without exposing anyone. A member-facing directory lets members search for each other directly, which saves organisers time but needs clear consent for every visible field. Many communities start with a spreadsheet, which works until it has two versions and nobody knows which is current.

## Keeping a member directory current

- Let members edit their own entry from wherever they already are.
- Ask for updates when something changes, not in a yearly survey.
- Remove members who leave, along with their data.

## The member directory in Milvao

In Milvao, members build their own entry when they join through a link, in the WhatsApp chat or on a private form. Owners and operators see a [member directory](https://milvao.com/help/community/member-directory) they can search and filter by group, city, skill, profile status and whether a member can receive requests. Phone numbers are masked on screen for everyone on the team, and only the owner can export them, with a recorded reason. Members can also get their own [opt-in directory](https://milvao.com/features/member-portal-and-connections), listing only people who chose to be listed.

## Frequently asked questions

### What should a member directory include?

Name, city, business or role, and what each member can help with. Add community fields only if you will use them, and be careful with contact details.

### Should members see each other's phone numbers in a directory?

Only if each member has agreed. Many communities share numbers only when two people both want to be introduced.

### Is a spreadsheet good enough as a member directory?

For a small group, at first. It becomes hard once several people edit it, members can't update their own details and nobody tracks who agreed to what.

## Related pages

- [The member directory (Help Center)](https://milvao.com/help/community/member-directory)
- [Community onboarding questions](https://milvao.com/templates/member-profile-questions)
- [Member matching](https://milvao.com/glossary/member-matching)
- [Operator dashboard](https://milvao.com/operator-dashboard)