Database management

[Hollis Brown]

The VAREI president (who tends to manage data) recently noticed that about 50 VAREI members had disappeared from the database.

I know that you and I had discussed having Members X years in arrears converted to Guests. I don't recall whether we ever implemented this. Perhaps this is what just happened to VAREI. Is that possible or is the poltergeist back?

[Daniel Abrams]

Have to checked the database to see if they are now in the GUESTS database table? Were they in arrears?

[Hollis Brown]

Database search function doesn't work.

I don't know all the particulars but the president is looking for answers. He has the list as a CSV.

Last time I used the uploader it didn't do what I expected it to do.

[Hollis Brown]

It appears that Members who hadn't paid since 2019 are now Guests. No one is claiming responsibility for doing this so I assume it was automatic.

We can communicate with them, but how do we renew the ones who want to rejoin? They can rejoin one by one or we can upload the file (that we do have). I don't imagine there is a way to convert them easily back from the Guest to Member.

[Daniel Abrams]

I don't know if we ever developed a way to converting Guests back to Members.

[Hollis Brown]

This is backfiring on us. VAREI members often go years at a time without renewing.

We need to rethink this.

[Daniel Abrams]

This is backfiring on us. VAREI members often go years at a time without renewing.

We need to rethink this.

Frankly, I never liked it. I think we should keep it the way it was where they do not convert to Guests.

[Hollis Brown]

Then your members list is cluttered with a lot of professionals that you still want to be in touch with. Perhaps it should be a longer time. I frequently get admins questioning this, telling me that they are going to delete members who are in arrears.

All that data then disappear.

[Daniel Abrams]

This is turning into something huge until we complete what we were doing?

[Hollis Brown]

We are not changing anything here right now. We are just acknowledging a situation that we will address in the future.

[Daniel Abrams]

Gotcha