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Identify Missing classmate status

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 01/25/10 02:56 PM Views: 2343 Replies: 15
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 2:56 PM

To assist our classmate location team, I am trying to find a way to make our list of missing indicate which people have already been contacted by the committee.

I am considering adding the following codes to our classmate's names, but I don't want to do so, without checking here first. I couldn't find anything listed in the forums to help with the task, but I could have missed it. Is there an easier way to accomplish what I am trying to do?

Here are my codes:

Classmates listed with NI (Not Interested) means that the classmate has been contacted by a reunion committee member, and has told us they are not interested in joining our group at all.

Classmates with the letters "IA" (Information Available) have been contacted by a reunion committee member, expressed an interest, but for some reason have not yet joined the site. We have their contact information available.

Classmates listed with NOL listed next to their name means they are Not OnLine. These will be found on the active class list (via the "not missing" email option), as they DO want to participate in class activities. They are the only classmates who will receive mailings from us.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

btw: I have added examples to my class list on the following classmates: Larry Adams, Alice Adcock and Ron Allen. I would explain the IA code in the "Start-here" instructions, for new members and on the "Missing list", but I don't think there is a way to explain the NOL in a visible location, as there is no room for comments on the classmate list.

Ruth

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Edited 01/25/10 3:04 PM
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 4:38 PM - Response #1

Are you using the EXPORT CLASSLIST option? (Manage Classmates/Download Classmates)

If you are, you can put ADMIN ONLY data in the DETAILS PAGE of the classmate - NI, NO, etc. OR EVEN the full words (Not Interested, etc.). These comments are exported with the data to the Excel spreadsheet.

The ADMIN ONLY comments is only viewable to admins - it will never be seen by classmates who don't have access to Manage Classmates or Export Classmates functionality.

I use it to keep track of Bounced E-mail addresses, how I have tried to contact classmates, etc.

This is what I would recommend.


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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:36 PM - Response #2

Kyle, this would work, except our "find a classmate" committee does not have access to the admin section of our site; I just don't want them to have that much access!

I'm also trying to get classmates to look over the list, and contact any friend that the committee has been unable to find. Any other ideas?

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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 9:13 PM - Response #3

Maybe maintain your own "Missing List" complete with these codes? There is no native function to do that in the system as you've pointd out. One thing I'd add is that our "Admin Rights" module is coming later this year, which will allow you to create Admins with ONLY the rights you want, thus you won't always have to give full control to other Admins. This won't help you for now, but will later this year.


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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 9:31 PM - Response #4

So, do you see any problems with setting it up the way I have it? I'd rather not go through adding another list, and this way I can add my codes, along with any notes all at the same time. The only problem I can come up with is that a new classmate may wonder why the letters are there...I may have to explain a few times.

Good news about the admin change. That's the great part about Class Creator...all the new additions to the site, that come throughout the year...like an unexpected gifts! Thank you Brad! You and the rest of the team are the best! Very Happy

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Edited 01/25/10 9:36 PM
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 10:04 PM - Response #5

Thanks Ruth. Smile

I've added this to the list of possible items to incorporate into an Advanced Featuers set. I.E. stuff you can turn on after you and your Classmates are already familiar with the system. For brand new Admins my concern would be this along with all of the otehr icons, etc. may get a little confussing. But I can easily see it being something important especially when people are already comfortable using the site.

Suggestion: Click on your Preferences link, and in your automated Classmate Welcome email add a description of these codes. That way everybody will have the description immediately without you having to do anything manually. If/when we add this concept to an Advanced Features set then obviously we would incorporate the codes directly into the key at the top of the page.


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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 10:24 PM - Response #6

Terrific!! I love it! Thanks Brad!

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Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:06 PM - Response #7

Ruth we did ours by adding "contacted" after their married name for those that we have been in contact with. We don't mark those that want no part of the class because some times they change their minds. We put "no email" so everyone knows that they don't have internet service. And I put N/A after their names to let people know I need some more information on them. I also put a milk carton on the home page and listed those I really have no information on. That way you don't have to explain to anyone what the codes mean, it's obvious. I wouldn't draw attention to those not interested. Just my thoughts..

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Edited 01/25/10 11:06 PM
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 12:11 AM - Response #8

Thank you Ann! Leaving the identities of those who who are not interested off, is an excellent idea! I love your milk carton too. It certainly makes the explanation much easier to find! Thanks!!!! Very Happy

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 10:07 AM - Response #9

Your welcome Ruth. Once we got down to about 20 missing classmates that we couldn't find anything on I picked one that I would put their picture on the milk carton and leave it on the home page for several weeks. I got a lot of good leads that way. Then once I had only a few left I changed the picture to a picture of the class mascot and listed their names as they are on our home page now. Hopefully someone will see them and give me a lead on them.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 11:16 AM - Response #10

I just put an asterisk (*) before the name of anyone in which the committee has contacted via email or phone. This way we know they have been contacted and it is up to them to join the site. I also note on the Missing Classmates page that anyone with an asterisk before the name has been contacted. This is out temporary fix to know who knows about the web site.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 2:02 PM - Response #11

I was a little nervous using the asterisk, since two after their name, means they passed away. I do like the way yours looks though; nice and neat.

I've decided to use /c for contacted, and /n for not online. I dropped the NI after Ann suggested it might be better not to use it.

I was using groups of letters until I realized that "nol" might be mistaken for part of their title, or a last name. I'm hoping I don't come up with a reason to dislike the single letters..I've changed this 3 times now! Laughing

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Edited 01/26/10 2:03 PM
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 2:24 PM - Response #12

The only thing we have to keep in mind is .. unless I am wrong if we print out labels from the site our codes will be on their address label. CC am I correct?

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 4:34 PM - Response #13

Ann Wise wrote:

The only thing we have to keep in mind is .. unless I am wrong if we print out labels from the site our codes will be on their address label. CC am I correct?

How will you print your labels? I assume you'll download the classmate list on a spreadsheet or one of the supported formats and then use something like a mailmerge function, to print your labels?

What *I* would do if I was using some kind of "code" in the name field, is to choose codes so they could be stripped out quickly and easily with a global search & replace, *before* I proceeded to print the labels.

i.e. if you surrounded the code with asterisks (*) or tildes (~) or some other unique character that normally wouldn't appear in a name, and are consistent, you could quickly remove those codes without disturbing the rest of the name field. If only a handful of codes are used, it only takes a few search & replaces to get rid of them. On the other hand, if they do have unique characters around them, anyone reading the labels should be able to discern that they aren't part of the addressee's name too.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 12:47 AM - Response #14

We use Microsoft Office Live
[sorry Brad & Kyle - don't want to take anything away from you, but - - - - ]

One person set up the 'account.'
He uploaded out class list [an Excel document], which has much more information than can be stored here at classcreator.
He then has control as to who [what email address] can have access to the document.
We each have our own password to get into it.
Access can be removed by the originator at any time.
When someone goes in and makes a change, all of those who have access are automatically emailed [I believe] that a change has been made.
If more than a few changes have been made during a week, I go to the document, and download it, with todays date at the end.
[I am an admited pack-rat I do this for those 'just-in-case' situations.]
This allows our committee to have 'helpers' out there, even in different parts of the country, have access to the clas list, without having to worry about too many people being admin's at our classcreator site.

I say it often - Brad and company have done a great service to the public by having classcreator, don't you think?

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 12:52 AM - Response #15

That's very cool.


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