Membership Database/Processing

This task is currently handled by BrettWuth. It is my intention to eventually redesign this process so it can be done by anyone.

Each month the database is processed to accomplish

 * creates the Call Out List
 * creates the First Call List, and distributes it via e-mail
 * updates the e-mailing lists (members, board, various committees)
 * creates the personnel records for members whose information has changed: Personnel Record Printing
 * e-mails the membership list to SAR Alberta
 * e-mails the above documents to the Membership Coordinator for printing and distribution
 * sends the First Call List to STARS and the RCMP
 * update access to the website
 * upload lists to Rapid Notify, the automated call-out system

When requested, the database can be processed to

 * create mailing labels
 * print participation dates

How To Do It
How To Process Membership Database

Future Things To Do

 * Add  for solo activities, in-line with 
 * Print lines in blank personnel record to be written on.* Reorder fields in printed personnel record
 * see mail/pcsar -> 13 DF Bob Costa Oct23 Brett Wuth personnel record
 * difference between work phone number for emergency contact and for administrative contact
 * Produce a report of whose first aid certification is about to expire

New Things to Ask For
If you're searching the database by hand for the same information over and over again, it's worthwhile to have a script written (by BrettWuth) to produce a report. As a rule of thumb if you're about to do exactly the same report a second time, give BrettWuth a call and let him scope out how difficult it would be to write a report for you.

If on the other hand you're doing a lot of different queries, all only once, then it would be a good idea to export the data to general purpose database that has a good GUI (graphical) query front-end.

As an aside, I already have and use a simple script that extracts just the current members from the database.