Con. Code using from and to date

Mitchell We

Hello. 

I am trying to find out how we can use the from and to date from Con. code to really figure out when the parents or students or staff or faculty came and left and also use them as the base line for the report. How do you make sure we use it and not leave the dates out?

JoAnn Strommen

I'm guessing you'll get some replies from users at schools as the whole parent/student/alumni/alumni parent/former student/etc  constituent coding can get pretty involved.  Some orgs just use from and to dates, some change code to former parent also.  



For us, most codes get the From date when the record goes into RE or code is added to the record.  The To field is entered for staff who leave, board members when term done.  Most codes do not have a To date as that's their current status.  



Have you looked at the knowledgebase for info on the fields? Here are a couple of the solutions:



What are Date To and Date From fields on a constituency code?

https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/38326



What are constituent codes and how best to use them?

https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/37425



As to making sure it gets entered it's part of staff training and competence.  Can also be added to regular data audit - query on records of certain type with blank fields.



Using the field tends to be more important for schools than it is for me as they often are looking for  % of alumni, parents donating.  If To date for parent code is 6/1/15 and they make a gift 6/25 what code will the gift get?  Gift will not pull when looking for gifts from parent made in June as their code was not active when gift made.  

Gina Gerhard

I'm just going to throw this question out there - how can you manage parent statuses via constituency code if those parents have more than one child that has attended the institution?  Wouldn't you need to indicate which child the parent data relates for a specific timeframe?



Has anyone ever done something like this?

• Set up org records for each alumni year (ex: Alumni Year 2000, Alumni Year 2001, etc.) and then create a unique constituency code for these 'year' records.
• You could then create relationships for students and parents to this alumni year record, including from/to dates and other info.
• Through query, you could then create very specific groupings of which students and parents 'belong' to that specific alumni year.
  • You could very easily then pull the specific alumni years you want.
  • If you want 'all' you can also utilize the unique constituency code:
    • ex: give me all relationships (of whatever type) that are related to orgs that have constituency code of 'unique constituency code'. This way you don't have to specify each alumni year separately.

So if you have the parents linked to another alumni year due to another child in their family, this would be a clean way to record this?  I think the only downside is that it's not 'instantly viewable' like a constituency code would be.  

Brian Davies

Hi Mitchell,



As JoAnn said, we have a very detailed system for constituent codes including: student, Parent, Parent of Alumni, Parent of Graduate, Grand Parent, Grandparent of Alumni, Grandparent of Graduate... The “date from” and “date to” is based on enrollment dates. When a student enrolls they get a "date from" of 9/20**. When they leave or graduate their student code gets a "date to" of 6/20** at which point they get a new constituent code showing that they left or graduated with a "date from" of 7/20**. This works the same for parents. If a parent has a child that is a current student and one that is a graduate the parent gets both a "parent" code and "parent of graduate" code we order the codes in a hierarchy to help keep things straight. Here is a screenshot of a more complicated parent who is also a graduate and his children that are graduates.







Here is the filtering from a querry that we use to issolate parents of new students from 2015







I hope this helps...



 

Christine Cooke 2

Okay -- 4 schools under my belt that are either k-8 or 9-12.

If you are a school and managing Constit Codes.  That info also needs to be considered and managed under Relationships.

A Current Student becomes an Alumna/Alumnus when they either graduate or transfer out.  All the school I have been in have also had a separate code for those that left, shall we say, under durress (because they will no longer want any contact with the school but you need to keep their record).

I have found it works best to have Current Parents and Parents of Alums -- when the Current Parent no longer has any children at the school their code changes.  If they have no kids at the school and are an Alum Parent and then a few/several years go by and they is another child, the codes changes back for the duration of the child's attendance.



As for the From and To dates.  Specifically regarding the Students/Alum and Parents the From Date is when a student first enrolled in the school and the To date is never used because once an Alum always an alum.  Though -- if you wanted, you could put the grad or transfer date as the end date.  Something you have to consider if you are going to depend heavily on the From/To is that if there is more than one student are you going to give the parent(s) the same Constit Code multiple times with different dates?  or are you going to try and make the dates all inclusive for multiple children?  And whichever you choose, what is going to be the fallout when reporting.  Personally, I have found having duplicate Constit Codes on a record to be messy and confusing, making it look like you have duplicates when you really don't.



I have found for pulling lists and reports the Constit Code and the Relationships are the things that are important, not the From and To that is attached to the Constit Code.  All kids must be linked the the parent records.  All kids must have their Primary Alum Info linked to their records.  I have found it very helpful to have a Constit Attribute with the class year of each student on the parent record -- it comes in handy for queries and reports when you just want to pull a list quickly or have the info available for other parts of the system.  My specific example:  I have had to report on giving by grade/class year.  When you are in Gift Batching entering gifts, I want to see what grade(s)/year(s) the students are in so that it can be recorded as a Gift Attribute for reporting purposes.  Because you can see Const Attributes on the right hand screen of the Batch Entry window, you can easily add the Gift Attribute when entering gifts, instead of having to click into the record and drill down to find the student years.



Board Members do have a From/To date, and the To date is added when their status is changed to Former Board. 

Staff/Faculty same as the Board.  Though I have also made a point of making their Primary Business Info a relationship to the School and the from/to dates in that record are recorded.  So -- if you are keeping the dates there, they should be consistent with the ones tied to Constit Code.

It all really depends on what your goal for the From/To date would be and how closely they will be monitored/maintained.   And if you are using the dates, is there also somewhere else on the record that dates are recorded. 



Confused or clarified? 

 

Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO

Christine, If a child enters the school in PreK and leaves before first grade, do you still code them as Alumni? I'm new to education after using RE in a healthcare environment for 15 years so this is all "Greek to me."  This is what my school has done, I just thought it was a little strange to call someone who was only here a year an alum. My thought is to use Former Student if they leave in the early years and Alumni if they have spent enough time at the school to feel an attachment.  I am open to thougts and suggestions.

Geoffrey Goodfellow

Thanks for sharing your insight.



On a related note, we were able to consolidate down some of our constituent codes by making better use of the "To" and "From" date fields.  For example, we used to have "Current Parent" and "Past Parent".  However, we consolidated them into a single "Parent" constituent code.  If the "To" date is blank, then the parent is a current parent.  Once the parent no longer has any students at our school, we fill in the "To" date to show that they are now a past parent.  It is easy in queries to filter on the "To" date to distinguish the two.  We've done the same with "Current Board Member" and "Past Board Member" as well as a dozen others.

Gina Gerhard

I think the ability to utilize the to/from constituency code dates depends on your type of business -- if you always have dates available to use and they are known, then this works well.  If you don't necessarily always have dates to use, then this can be problematic.

• For example, if you have older board member data and no exact dates, you might decide to stick with the -Current and -Former designations on your constituency codes. 
• You could use a 'dummy' date but how do you distinguish between a real and a dummy date?  I think this is even more confusing by entering a date that isn't really 'correct'.

Elaine Tucker

Christine Cooke:

Okay -- 4 schools under my belt that are either k-8 or 9-12.

If you are a school and managing Constit Codes.  That info also needs to be considered and managed under Relationships.

A Current Student becomes an Alumna/Alumnus when they either graduate or transfer out.  All the school I have been in have also had a separate code for those that left, shall we say, under durress (because they will no longer want any contact with the school but you need to keep their record).

I have found it works best to have Current Parents and Parents of Alums -- when the Current Parent no longer has any children at the school their code changes.  If they have no kids at the school and are an Alum Parent and then a few/several years go by and they is another child, the codes changes back for the duration of the child's attendance.



As for the From and To dates.  Specifically regarding the Students/Alum and Parents the From Date is when a student first enrolled in the school and the To date is never used because once an Alum always an alum.  Though -- if you wanted, you could put the grad or transfer date as the end date.  Something you have to consider if you are going to depend heavily on the From/To is that if there is more than one student are you going to give the parent(s) the same Constit Code multiple times with different dates?  or are you going to try and make the dates all inclusive for multiple children?  And whichever you choose, what is going to be the fallout when reporting.  Personally, I have found having duplicate Constit Codes on a record to be messy and confusing, making it look like you have duplicates when you really don't.



I have found for pulling lists and reports the Constit Code and the Relationships are the things that are important, not the From and To that is attached to the Constit Code.  All kids must be linked the the parent records.  All kids must have their Primary Alum Info linked to their records.  I have found it very helpful to have a Constit Attribute with the class year of each student on the parent record -- it comes in handy for queries and reports when you just want to pull a list quickly or have the info available for other parts of the system.  My specific example:  I have had to report on giving by grade/class year.  When you are in Gift Batching entering gifts, I want to see what grade(s)/year(s) the students are in so that it can be recorded as a Gift Attribute for reporting purposes.  Because you can see Const Attributes on the right hand screen of the Batch Entry window, you can easily add the Gift Attribute when entering gifts, instead of having to click into the record and drill down to find the student years.



Board Members do have a From/To date, and the To date is added when their status is changed to Former Board. 

Staff/Faculty same as the Board.  Though I have also made a point of making their Primary Business Info a relationship to the School and the from/to dates in that record are recorded.  So -- if you are keeping the dates there, they should be consistent with the ones tied to Constit Code.

It all really depends on what your goal for the From/To date would be and how closely they will be monitored/maintained.   And if you are using the dates, is there also somewhere else on the record that dates are recorded. 



Confused or clarified? 

 

Also, when reporting to CASE, having the class year of the student as an attribute on the parent record makes the CASE report "somewhat" easier.  When I was at the University and then a 1-12 school, we used the alumni module, and did the relationships like you said above.  Also, the ID's in RE started with the Class Year, so if a parent has a class year eg 1994-4113 as their cons code, we knew right away that they were an alum.  Also, non Alum parents ID' started with 9###-####

Elizabeth Rich

I have found that if an end date it used, the constituent does not show up on some reports.

Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO

Elizabeth, I have the same problem.

Elizabeth Rich

Only for the primary cons code, though.

 

JoAnn Strommen

I haven't had a problem - but then we don't have a "to date" entered on any primary constituency codes except deceased records.  

Beth Green

Patti Hommes:

Christine, If a child enters the school in PreK and leaves before first grade, do you still code them as Alumni? I'm new to education after using RE in a healthcare environment for 15 years so this is all "Greek to me."  This is what my school has done, I just thought it was a little strange to call someone who was only here a year an alum. My thought is to use Former Student if they leave in the early years and Alumni if they have spent enough time at the school to feel an attachment.  I am open to thougts and suggestions.

This is long past your initial question, but in our case (Prek-12 private school), whether or not a student is considered an Alumna is determined by the Alumnae Bylaws.  So any student who attended at least one year, regardless of grade level, is considered an Alum when their graduating class ends 12th grade.  If they attend less than a year, their constituency at the time they would have graduated is NonAlum.