We are starting to be a victim of our own success! I will explain. First we have over 27,000 names on our site. When someone updates their information I then type it into an Access Database. We use this to send mail to all. We send 15,000 pieces of mail now two to three times a year. We have "Address Correction Requested" on all of our mail. Usually after sending 15,000 I would get back a few hundred that need updated and a few hundred that were no longer valid. The Post Office has now changed a few things in the last couple of years. Now we send our list to a Mailing Company who updates the address and sends them back to me. This last mailing I received over 1,200 change of address. I can no longer manually keep up with this task. I have to do something to get into the new age.

I am a little hesitant to use CC as our only data base. First we only have 5,000 profiles on there but also because I see many people who sign on that we have their address but they do not put their address on the site. I do understand this.

I have searched the internet for a database that would be easier to use and maybe one that all of our committee could help us update as needed. What I found is that they are way to expensive.

I just do not know what to do about this anymore. It has become unmanageable.

The second problem is the Yearbook photo's. I recently uploaded my year 1974 to our site. This really took a lot of time and effort. First cutting and pasting each page and then creating each photo. The hardest part was uploading each individual picture to the site. Since we have maybe 26,000 to go is there or will there be an easier way to do this?

Hi Ray,

I wish I had some good news for you, but we simply don't have solutions to the problems you're encountering. We have discussed adding a bulk upload feature for yearbook photos, but we have other things that are higher priority. As for the maintenance of your school's class lists as a full database, all I can say is that the features of our database are specific to the uses for which we created it and it is not well suited as a general purpose database, and never will be. That simply isn't the nature of the service we have built. If you're looking for an off-the-shelf product, you're going to have to choose between feature-limited, or very expensive. If you want to create your own database, then the likeliest tools for you are Access or FileMaker Pro. Since you've already got an Access Dataabse, maybe the best thing is to find someone on the list of 27,000 names who is a database developer and who might either donate or give you a break on some custom development.

Eric,

I like the "Donate" part! I try to tell the committee that CC does not do the database part but they do not understand. Come to think of it what would be ideal is if our database would somehow sync with CC. Add that to the list?????
The reason I am putting this out there is because it seems like whenever I do my problems get solved somehow. For example, our committee decided to create a web site with a bunch of different features. Right before we signed the contract to spend the money I found CC. Since CC was free and I uploaded the names in about 10 minutes we were in business! Not only that we have you guys who are looking for new features and fixes without us doing anything! That is the best. I really believe that if we had created our own site we would not be having as much success as we are right now. So that solved that problem.

I understand that the uploader is down the road a ways. However, if I keep asking -like every other day- would that help?

Now to solve my next problem of the database. I like the idea of getting someone who actually knows how to use Access to have a shot at it.

OK I will get to it. If anyone knows of anything that might help I would appreciate the ideaers.