Veteran Constituents

Kathryn Stanhagen

We recently received a file from Banner containing veteran codes for our alumni. I am curious how others code veterans in their database. We plan on using a constituent attribute to indicate if they are a veteran and, if they are active duty, and what branch they served in. We would like to be able to query on and export this information. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

 

JoAnn Strommen

Constituent attribute is probably the best option. I would use tables for your field data. Will make query so much easier. 


Last week we added a place to record veteran data. As we have so many attributes already and may want to capture more data than comment field would allow, we chose to create Notepad type of "Military Affiliation-Service Details." We will put branch in description field and then can record rank, years of service, location and any other details in notes field. 


We're an engineering university so do have quite a number of veterans and those serving but we've not captured this data before and are still developing plans for how we will use it. 

Dariel Dixon 2

I'm going to ask for a "What JoAnn Strommen‍ Said" button.

JoAnn Strommen

Too funny Dariel Dixon‍.  Made me laugh!

 

Only if I can get an "I agree with Dariel" button!

Elaine Tucker

If they are active duty, then that is their primary Business; if they are retired or not on active duty that would be a previous "primary business" I would put all of this information under organizational relationship on their record, using the "is employee" and "primary business" for active duty members.  That way it's easy to see how many veterans are in each branch. You can use the to and from dates to see how long they served.

JoAnn Strommen

Great option Elaine Tucker‍. If one has relevant info, even better place to record. Do you record military service this way? If so, do you record National Guard the same way? We're hoping to capture this info as well. 


We overlooked this option for those not on active duty probably because as we have little to no info on position, dates of service or any detail. Org relationship data is in need of major clean up and standardization but not near the top of the clean up task list yet. May have to discuss if this would be a better option before we enter much data. 

Christine Cooke 2

I agree on the not that many and very vague info part of the discussion.  And being near the bottom of the clean up list.  But in the clean up I have done I have also put this info as Primary Biz or Org relationship.  If they are retired then the relation and reciprocal says "former" and if we know their duty/specialty it goes in position field - if they are retired, then "retired" is the first word in the position field before the description.  


Each branch has their own constituent record and these individuals are linked to the Org record.  

It just kind of corrals service peeps altogether.

Dariel Dixon 2

I think this is also a good option iff you can keep up with this data.  I had some issue with using the primary employee information for a variety of reasons, but it is probably the best way to keep up with the information on branches other than another attribute/custom field.  That said, I like the idea of the attribute, as it won't need to be changed if or when the constituent retired or leaves the service.

Elaine Tucker

JoAnn Strommen‍ yes, we record military service this way, and we have an organizational record for each branch - Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, National Guard & Navy. All orgs start with the Initials U.S. and then their applicable branch. 

Christine Cooke bCREPro‍ exaxctly how we do it - when known we put in start and stop dates, if we just know the stop date we put that in. 

JoAnn Strommen

Thanks Elaine Tucker‍.  Linking to org record would provide clean data.


Records linked to appropriate org records is one of my goals here. Been here almost 10 months and still haven't figured out why it's not done. Only thing I've come up with is so many engineers working for various branches of the same company and each branch/address does not have an org record. But there has to be a better way than 8-10 different variations of org names entered that are all employed by same parent company. Has been a challenge to query employee lists when requested. Have learned to use multiple wildcards. 


Thanks for the posts! We're going to adjust our plan to use notes as primary place for veteran info and only use it only for extra info. Will list branch of service as a former org relationship assuming we can get dates as part of our info. Much better idea. I must have been half asleep when working that day.