Organization Hierarchy
Understand the four-tier organizational structure in CTSO Central.
Overview
CTSO Central organizes everything into a five-tier hierarchy. Each level contains the ones below it, forming a tree that flows from the broadest scope down to individual people.
The Five Tiers
National Organization
The top-level container. Examples include FBLA, DECA, and TSA. A National Organization defines the overall brand, rules, and competitive event catalog. Everything else in the system exists within a National Organization.
Association
The state or provincial level. An Association belongs to a single National Organization and represents a geographic area — for example, "California FBLA" or "Texas DECA." Associations manage the chapters within their boundaries and run state-level conferences.
Region
An optional level, built for large associations. Regions can be created based on geographic area or any custom characteristics. Chapters and conferences can also be assigned to regions, making administration easy by Regional or District coordinators/leaders.
Chapter
The school level. A Chapter belongs to a single Association and represents a school or local club — for example, "Lincoln High FBLA." Chapters manage their own members, register for conferences, and enter competitive events.
Member
An individual person within a Chapter. Members can be students, advisors, or officers. Each member belongs to one Chapter and has a member type that determines their role and participation eligibility.
How the Hierarchy Works
The hierarchy determines both data ownership and access control:
- A National Organization contains one or more Associations, one or more Conferences at the national level, and all members of child associations.
- An Association contains one or more Regions, one or more Chapters, and one or more Conferences
- (Optional) A Region contains one or more Chapters and one or more Conferences
- A Chapter contains one or more Members
When you view data in CTSO Central, the system automatically scopes what you see based on your position in this hierarchy. A Chapter Admin sees only their chapter's members. An Association Admin sees all chapters and members in their association. A National Admin sees everything across the entire national organization.
Who Manages What
| Role | Can Manage |
|---|---|
| National Admin | Everything within their national organization: all associations, regions, chapters, conferences, and members |
| Association Admin | Their association plus all regions, chapters, conferences, and members within it |
| Regional Admin | Their region plus all chapters and conferences within it |
| Chapter Admin | Their chapter and its members |
| Chapter Viewer | Read-only access to their chapter's data |
Permissions granted at a higher level automatically apply to everything below. A National Admin does not need separate permissions for each association or chapter — their national-level scope covers all of them.
Example
Consider this structure:
- FBLA (National Organization)
- California FBLA (Association)
- Lincoln High FBLA (Chapter)
- Jane Doe (Member — Student)
- Mr. Smith (Member — Advisor)
- Washington High FBLA (Chapter)
- John Doe (Member — Student)
- Jane Smith (Member — Advisor)
- Seattle High FBLA (Chapter)
- Jim Beam (Member — Student)
- Sally Johnson (Member — Advisor)
- Lincoln High FBLA (Chapter)
- Texas FBLA (Association)
- Texas FBLA Region 5 (Region)
- Austin High FBLA (Chapter)
- Texas FBLA Region 5 (Region)
- California FBLA (Association)
An Association Admin for California FBLA can manage Lincoln High FBLA and Washington High FBLA, but cannot see or manage Austin High FBLA (which belongs to Texas FBLA).
Learn More
- Access Management — how roles and scopes control permissions
- Chapters — managing chapters
- Members — managing members
- Associations — managing associations