When a member wants XCF to monitor its activity, it identifies a status user routine on the IXCJOIN macro (STATEXIT parameter). The member also identifies a status field for XCF to monitor (STATFLD parameter, which must be in fixed or disabled reference (DREF) common storage) and a status-checking interval (INTERVAL parameter). When the member does not update its status field within the status-checking interval, or resumes updating after a confirmed failure, XCF schedules the status user routine. The status user routine determines whether a problem exists, and takes the appropriate action.