Seasonal Address Processing

Melanie Lachcik

Good morning all, I am looking for help on seasonal addresses.  We have quite a few people who have seasonal addresses and I am looking for the right way to record it and then scrub out seasonal addresses using the Mail functionality.  After I run our list though Mail, I export the query to send to a mail house.  When recorded seasonal on a record are the seasonal dates the ones that the person is residing in that residence?  How do I get the system to pull a different address if there are two valid addresses on the record?  How do I get the correct address to pull in an export?  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you! 

Aaron Rothberg

Hi Melanie-


You are correct about the start and end dates. Use a month/date format. If the constituent goes to their seasonal address on December 5 and returns to their home address on March 4, your start date is 12/5 and your end date is 3/4. To leverage the address dates, when you run your letters look to Tab 6 and prioritize seasonal addresses over other addresses. If today's date (Step 1) is between the seasonal address start date and end date, the seasonal address will print on the letter.




You can accomplish this same goal in Export using the Address Processing node.



 

Melanie Lachcik

Thank you so much Aaron!  The missing link was the order on tab 6.  This will help me tremendously!  What if you don't 2 addresses but you do know that one of them is seasonal.  Will it omit the seasonal address if it doesn't fall in the correct date range?  

Aaron Rothberg

"Will it omit the seasonal address if it doesn't fall in the correct date range?"


Correct! The start and stop dates on the seasonal address is what makes it work.

Melanie Lachcik

Great...Thank you so much Aaron! This is a big help:)

Aaron Rothberg

You're welcome and don't forget to check that Seasonal Address checkbox above the dates. ;D



 

Melanie Lachcik

Will do!  I also discovered that we aren't using a separate address called "seasonal".  We were only using the seasonal address check box.  Looks like I have some adjustments to make!

Cathleen Mai

I'm not sure you really need a separate address type for seasonal addresses, because they are already marked as seasonal via the check box.

  Also, I find it helpful to add the seasonal dates as a columns on the constituents address records.

  Just right click somewhere in the address tab/ Columns. Then move seasonal from/to over to the right

Melanie Lachcik

Cathleen, if you don't have a seasonal address but instead just use a generic heading like "home" or "primary" will it still scrub out seasonal addresses if it is not listed in the preferred order?   

Cathleen Mai

Yes, RE is pulling by the seasonal dates. Just try it out with one record. The Preferred address could also be seasonal at the same time, right?

 

Aaron Rothberg

I think there's one problem with that approach, Melanie. Let's say I only have one address on my record in the database and it's marked with seasonal dates with a start date of 8/24 and an end date of 8/25. If I run a report against my record today, the seasonal dates will fail the test, which means that address will not print, but because that record is also the Preferred Address (every constituent must have one Preferred Address) you'll still get that seasonal address printed on the letter because Export is printing the Preferred Address.

Dariel Dixon 2

Aaron Rothberg:

I think there's one problem with that approach, Melanie. Let's say I only have one address on my record in the database and it's marked with seasonal dates with a start date of 8/24 and an end date of 8/25. If I run a report against my record today, the seasonal dates will fail the test, which means that address will not print, but because that record is also the Preferred Address (every constituent must have one Preferred Address) you'll still get that seasonal address printed on the letter because Export is printing the Preferred Address.

Aaron Rothberg‍, I think there's a flaw in this example.  If there is only one address on a record, is it really seasonal?  I would think that the address is printing not because it fails the test, but due to lack of another option.  I do agree that seasonal addresses should have another address type, just for clarity.  I also think there should be a different address type for physical addresses if they are different than the mailing address as well, but that's a whole different discussion.

Melanie Lachcik

Great...thank you!