Best Practice for updating addresses

Andrea Nargan

What are your best practices for updating address changes in the RE?  Do you make a note or keep old addresses somewhere...?

 

Christine Adams

In the person's record we:

click on Constituent

click on copy preferred address to alternate. 

Click ok on this message:  The preferred address was copied to an alternate address. 

Go to the preferred address (with the old address still in it) - make appropriate changes.

Andrea Nargan

Thank you !  This is perfect! Thanks!


Andrea

Sunshine Reinken Watson

I do exactly what Christine does. That method ensures that spousal or contact records are also updated with the new address.

Alan French

I know in theory linked addresses are best practice, but if I'm importing a bunch of updated addresses then I usually import them as new addresses rather than trying to maintain any links - I have no way of knowing whether the spouses still live together or not, and I think it would be the lesser of two evils to continue to mail someone at an address they used to live at (it might still reach them if they're having their mail forwarded to their new address), rather than potentially start sending their mail to their ex-spouse's address that they've never lived at themselves, which actually happens to my parents and is not the most positive experience!

Brenda Anderson

Alan French:

I know in theory linked addresses are best practice, but if I'm importing a bunch of updated addresses then I usually import them as new addresses rather than trying to maintain any links - I have no way of knowing whether the spouses still live together or not, and I think it would be the lesser of two evils to continue to mail someone at an address they used to live at (it might still reach them if they're having their mail forwarded to their new address), rather than potentially start sending their mail to their ex-spouse's address that they've never lived at themselves, which actually happens to my parents and is not the most positive experience!

I change both addresses as I usually combine spouses with one piece of mail.  Even though divorce happens I would rather assume still married and just moved.  They will let me know if I have made a mistake.

Gina Gerhard

Andrea Nargan:

What are your best practices for updating address changes in the RE?  Do you make a note or keep old addresses somewhere...?

 

Your approach to this may also depend on how you maintain your data -- if you have a central database administrator who changes addresses or if you have many people in your organization changing addresses.  We are the later, and if the spousal addresses are unlinked it's a big problem because most users don't remember to check the spouse address and make the same change.  We opt for linking the spousal address to minimize this.

Christine Cooke 2

Andrea Nargan:

What are your best practices for updating address changes in the RE?  Do you make a note or keep old addresses somewhere...?

 

Keep the old address and mark as Former and add a To Date:, uncheck"Do Not Send Mail


Add the new address with the source, make it Preferred and Send Mail and add Date From:


You keep the old ones because you end up using them somewhere down the line as an identifier, and if you send your constits out to a service to find lost ones, the companies use the old address as an identifier/confirmation that it's the right person.