Anyone using MS Access for Church Management?
Would love some help with this.
Thanks
MS Access for Church Management??
Discussion in 'Computers & Technology Forum' started by Hardsheller, Feb 27, 2005.
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Nobody using MS Access? For Anything?
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exscentric Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
If you have questions/problems post them - others might have some ideas.
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I have basic understanding of relational databases. For example if I have a sales force spread out all over the USA and I want to break my sales reports down to see how each regional manager is doing and what his district is selling, I can do that because all my products have product ID's and all my salesmen have District ID's and Employee numbers.
What I'm having difficulty with is putting together the different pieces of a Church management database without assigning Member ID's to people. You know how people are about numbers...."I'm just another number to that church!"
At this point I'm stumped.......Any suggestion? -
Are people really that paranoid? The only reason you would need a number is to uniquely identify the person/family. All related information of people and their addresses should be in a single table.
MemberID:
FamilyID:
LastName:
FirstName:
MI:
Address1:
Address2:
City:
State:
ZipCode:
HomePhone:
CellPhone:
WorkPhone:
StatusCode:
Where StatusCode could be the following:
CM = Member
RA = Non-Member/Regular Attender
LV = Local Visitor
OV = Out of town visitor
etc
If people do not want to be known by just another number. Just personalize it some!
Use the following set of rules:
Take the first 5 characters of the LastName, followed by the first initial of the FirstName, followed by the first initial of the MiddleName, followed by a two or three digit number.
If the LastName is shorter than 5 characters, use all characters of the LastName, followed by the first ( 5 – number of character in the LastName), followed by the first initial of the MiddleName, followed by a two or three digit number.
FamilyID would be the MemberID of the most senior member of the Family living at the same address.
Examples:
Johnson Family:
Johnson, Michael D = JOHNSMD001 (Dad )
Johnson, Shelly = JOHNSOS001 ( mom with no middle initial )
Johnson, Rachel J = JOHNSRJ001 (Daughter)
Lee, David C = LEEDAVC001 ( foster child )
Each member would then have a Family ID of JOHNSMD01.
If there was another Johnson, Rachel J, she would have a MemberID of JOHNSRJ003, but her Family ID could be JOHNSRJ003.
This is only an idea. There are my problems with it. But it does get away from just another number mentality. -
Are people really that paranoid? The only reason you would need a number is to uniquely identify the person/family. All related information of people and their addresses should be in a single table.
MemberID:
FamilyID:
LastName:
FirstName:
MI:
Address1:
Address2:
City:
State:
ZipCode:
HomePhone:
CellPhone:
WorkPhone:
StatusCode:
Where StatusCode could be the following:
CM = Member
RA = Non-Member/Regular Attender
LV = Local Visitor
OV = Out of town visitor
etc
If people do not want to be known by just another number. Just personalize it some!
Use the following set of rules:
Take the first 5 characters of the LastName, followed by the first initial of the FirstName, followed by the first initial of the MiddleName, followed by a two or three digit number.
If the LastName is shorter than 5 characters, use all characters of the LastName, followed by the first ( 5 – number of character in the LastName), followed by the first initial of the MiddleName, followed by a two or three digit number.
FamilyID would be the MemberID of the most senior member of the Family living at the same address.
Examples:
Johnson Family:
Johnson, Michael D = JOHNSMD001 (Dad )
Johnson, Shelly = JOHNSOS001 ( mom with no middle initial )
Johnson, Rachel J = JOHNSRJ001 (Daughter)
Lee, David C = LEEDAVC001 ( foster child )
Each member would then have a Family ID of JOHNSMD01.
If there was another Johnson, Rachel J, she would have a MemberID of JOHNSRJ003, but her Family ID could be JOHNSRJ003.
This is only an idea. There are my problems with it. But it does get away from just another number mentality.