Generating a list of parents for a specific class

Chanda Swinney

Can anyone tell me how to produce an accurate list of parents for a specific class (e.g., class of 2016)? My query contains the following fields: constituency code one of (parent, alternate parent, etc.); constituency date to blank; individual relation relationship one of (daughter, son, etc.); and, relation education class of equals 2016. The results seemed accurate, until I discoverd that a parent appeared who had a child who would have been in the class of 2016, but the child was withdrawn in 2012. The parent still appeared because she is a parent of an alum with an open constituency date. Please help!


Thanks,

Chanda


Chanda R. Swinney

Manager of Advancement Services

Landmark Christian School

Tom Klimchak

This will largely depend upon how you've coded your parent and student data.  It sounds like you don't differentiate between parents of "students" and parents of "alumni" and that could make this sort of query trickier for you.


We use the following two parent constituency codes:


Current Parent (for parents of current students)

Past Parent (for parents of alumni and/or withdrawn students)


We implemented this several years ago and while it does take a little more work to maintain the data (we simply run some clean-up queries once every few months) it has made our Gift Officers much happier.  They used to see "Parent" and get excited until they saw that the constituent's child graduated 10 years ago.  Now they instantly know if the constituent is an actively engaged Current Parent or simply a parent from the past.


You might be able to make these changes to your database relatively easily with a few queries and Global Changes. 


Does that help?

Chanda Swinney:

Can anyone tell me how to produce an accurate list of parents for a specific class (e.g., class of 2016)? My query contains the following fields: constituency code one of (parent, alternate parent, etc.); constituency date to blank; individual relation relationship one of (daughter, son, etc.); and, relation education class of equals 2016. The results seemed accurate, until I discoverd that a parent appeared who had a child who would have been in the class of 2016, but the child was withdrawn in 2012. The parent still appeared because she is a parent of an alum with an open constituency date. Please help!


Thanks,

Chanda


Chanda R. Swinney

Manager of Advancement Services

Landmark Christian School

 

Carolyn Moatz

This depends on how you store your data. How do you indicate a student left vs. graduated on the student record? We uncheck primary education when someone leaves, which makes it easier. If you do that, you can just add relation education primary alumni information equals yes to your query. We also mark students who left as former students and students who graduated as alumni, you could control for that (Relation constituency code equals alumni). If you use date to in the education, you could control for that, either only including blank dates, or excluding dates before graduation.

Christine Cooke 2

Chanda Swinney:

Can anyone tell me how to produce an accurate list of parents for a specific class (e.g., class of 2016)? My query contains the following fields: constituency code one of (parent, alternate parent, etc.); constituency date to blank; individual relation relationship one of (daughter, son, etc.); and, relation education class of equals 2016. The results seemed accurate, until I discoverd that a parent appeared who had a child who would have been in the class of 2016, but the child was withdrawn in 2012. The parent still appeared because she is a parent of an alum with an open constituency date. Please help!


Thanks,

Chanda


Chanda R. Swinney

Manager of Advancement Services

Landmark Christian School

Being able to get accurate lists out depends very much on how you put your data in.  Your Constit Codes of Parent and Alternate Parent, what is that?  Every school I have been at has either Current Parent or Parent of Alum.  That Alternate Parent is the first sign to me that you could get some wonky results.


Secondly, every database I have been in with students and relations to adults/family has never had just daughter and son, there is always step-daughter and step-son and the relationship between a guardian and a ward or whatever you may describe that situation.  So you could be missing folks that way.


If you want JUST the class of, you would have to include other data in your query (which hopefully is there), like the Primary Education Date Left or Primary Education Date Graduated.  Or Relation Constit Code = Alum, or Primary Education Status if you all keep data that is graduated, withdrawn, transitioned, transferred etc. -- something else to indicate the graduates versus anyone who would have been Class of 2016 but did not finish.

Daniel Bayer

Chanda Swinney:

Can anyone tell me how to produce an accurate list of parents for a specific class (e.g., class of 2016)? My query contains the following fields: constituency code one of (parent, alternate parent, etc.); constituency date to blank; individual relation relationship one of (daughter, son, etc.); and, relation education class of equals 2016. The results seemed accurate, until I discoverd that a parent appeared who had a child who would have been in the class of 2016, but the child was withdrawn in 2012. The parent still appeared because she is a parent of an alum with an open constituency date. Please help!


Thanks,

Chanda


Chanda R. Swinney

Manager of Advancement Services

Landmark Christian School

It seems to me that the problem isn't with your query, rather with something else - I say this because the query factors you describe here seem to align with what I use, or rather used to use.


I have started to use export to filter these kinds of things, with great success. What I do is create a query of Current Parents, and use it for an Export. In the Export, I include the Individual Relationship's "Class of" field, and in the criteria screen, select only the class year that I want to see the parents of. Then, in the resulting spreadsheet, I sort by that field and delete everyone who doesn't have the value I want. It's worked really well so far, especially for parents who have had multiple students attend the school.


But I would also look into your practices for when students graduate or withdraw, which seems to be the bigger issue. Make sure that withdrawn students no longer have a graduation year in the Education screen, and make sure that Alums have a class year, a graduation date, AND a "Date From" in the constituency field. I've found that last bit of info to be more important that I ever would have thought, especially for historical reporting (e.g. needing to find an alumni giving percentage from five years ago).

Michelle Kolak

Chanda Swinney:

Can anyone tell me how to produce an accurate list of parents for a specific class (e.g., class of 2016)? My query contains the following fields: constituency code one of (parent, alternate parent, etc.); constituency date to blank; individual relation relationship one of (daughter, son, etc.); and, relation education class of equals 2016. The results seemed accurate, until I discoverd that a parent appeared who had a child who would have been in the class of 2016, but the child was withdrawn in 2012. The parent still appeared because she is a parent of an alum with an open constituency date. Please help!


Thanks,

Chanda


Chanda R. Swinney

Manager of Advancement Services

Landmark Christian School

We use the constituency codes for alumni and students, but we also have alums getting another degree.  We started using the status field on the education record - Graduated, Left - No Degree, Student - Currently Enrolled, Student - Not currently Enrolled.


We use the two student statuses because not all students formally withdraw.  They may be taking a semester off, be off for the summer, or waiting for their degree to be posted.  I update this field at the beginning of every semester. 

Karen Stuhlfeier

 We also use the education status of either Student, Graduate or Former Student. We also do not keep the constituent code of Current Parent on their record of they are no longer have students at our school. They become Parents of Alums or Parents of Withdrawn Students.