View: |
Membership Management Database By Steve Workings Let me give you the tools you need to manage your membership! Background I have been involved in membership organizations since 1974, often as an activist / volunteer, and often as a professional. From 1983 to 1988, I was senior staffer for, what was then, one of the nation's fastest-growing non-profit organizations. One of my duties was the oversight of the membership database. Since 1988 I have been Executive Director of a national political action committee with tens of thousands of members. When I asssumed responsibility of the political committee in 1988, personal computers and database software were maturing well enough that I decided to manage my own database and build the tools that I needed. I found some wonderful database software made by the Alpha Software Corp. (www.alphasoftware.com). Their Windows-based product is called Alpha Five. Not only do I run my political committee with Alpha Five, but I've created a very successful, and full-time job as a database consultant using Alpha Five. I've become one of the best-know developers in the nation, and have excellent relations with the company as well as other developers in nearly every state. My experience with organizations, along with my expertise with Alpha Five, have led me to the creation of an inexpensive, easy-to-use membership management database package. I've been doing this since 1988, self-employed and working from my home office. Combined with my Master's degree in Public Administration, which is basically an MBA that focuses on politics more than profit, I can help your organization with its membership database needs. Database Description We start with a basic package that consists of just a few tables. There are two primary tables:
Depending on your needs, a variety of supporting tables can be included. Most commonly, you'll want a zipcode lookup table (type in the zipcode and the city/state get filled in), and an editable source code table that helps you categorize (and therefore track) contributions by various categories. Standard reports include an acknowledgement letter, #10 envelope, and a source code report. I've found printed rosters to be mostly useless these days, but I can make one in about 5 or 10 minutes if you need it. Others reports are easily, and inexpensively, available. This is all built using Alpha Five. While the screens and routines are highly refined, the system itself is simple, open to you or other Alpha Five developers for later improvements and adjustments. And since Alpha Five and my system are so easy to understand, you're likely to find yourself building new reports and making other improvements sooner than you would imagine. Technical Stuff and Misc. Details The native format of Alpha Five is the .dbf format. This is good -- it's the world standard. If you currently have your data in some other program, such as Access, chances are we can get the data transferred to Alpha Five. The .dbf format allows you up to 2 billion records per table, which means you can have up to 2 billion members (yeah, sure!), 2 billion contributions (uh-huh) and, in general, more than enough capacity to do what you want. I recently used Alpha Five to work with a 7.1 million-record voter registration list. Computer requirements: A P-133 or better, running Windows 95 or later. Alpha Five and my custom work are network-ready. Support: See my contract for details. It's always good if you can provide remote access via pcAnywhere or a virtual private network. Otherwise, email exchanges do the job nicely. I can also usually provide the name and contact information of another Alpha Five developer near you in case my tractor flips on top of me, I fall off the barn roof, etc. There's also a wonderful user's message board at www.alphasoftware.com. Delivery time is usually within a couple of weeks after we sign a contract. My schedule is a bit variable, and you need to have a bit of time to spend with me to explain and discuss your custom needs. Price The base package is $1,000. You also need to buy an appropriate number of licenses from Alpha Software Corporation. The current price is about $129. You need one license for each concurrent user. If you have 5 people who might be using it, but only 3 at a time, you'll need 3 licenses. Finally, I charge $80 per hour for any additional services you may need, including data conversion, custom reports or other modifications. Generally you should figure 3 to 5 hours unless you have something that's unusually complicated. The $1,000 is payable at the time of contract signing. The remainder will be billed at delivery time, payable upon receipt. Questions? Ask me by writing steve@workings.com or calling me at 304-263-8894. If you don't see what you need here, chances are I can make it for you (or I forgot to mention it above). Thanks for considering my services! Last Revised: October 30, 2001 |