Addressee and Salutation fields - major clean up required

We did an overhaul where we changed some of our addressees when we updated our standards. I did an export that included the last name of the individual and the spouse, as well as gender and titles for each, then created an attribute to identify which standard the person would be getting (Mr. John Doe who was married to Mrs. Jane Doe would get Mr. and Mrs. John Doe; Mr. John Doe married to Ms. Jane Smith would get Mr. John Doe and Mrs. Jane Smith, etc.) and imported the attribute, then used global change to add the appropriate addressees and salutations based on a query for each type of attribute. I then deleted the attribute.

Carolyn Moatz:

We did an overhaul where we changed some of our addressees when we updated our standards. I did an export that included the last name of the individual and the spouse, as well as gender and titles for each, then created an attribute to identify which standard the person would be getting (Mr. John Doe who was married to Mrs. Jane Doe would get Mr. and Mrs. John Doe; Mr. John Doe married to Ms. Jane Smith would get Mr. John Doe and Mrs. Jane Smith, etc.) and imported the attribute, then used global change to add the appropriate addressees and salutations based on a query for each type of attribute. I then deleted the attribute.

After using RE for a couple of years I felt need to get all our add/sal standarized.  I admit I put it off thinking it would be much more difficult that it was.  Biggest thing to me was determining the default set of add/sal that we wanted on every record.  Once that list was decided (single formal, single informal, joint formal, joint informal, salutations to go with each, last name/first name single, and last name/first name joint) there were added. We have spouse records in our db so if I remember correctly we had 4 groups: standard records-male HOH, records with female HOH, records with spouse having different last name, and those who we do not have gender/title data on.  I believe we did by global function.  We did not do a separate format/default set for single individuals as using smart function in add/sal the joint add/sal will show as John Brown and then if a spouse is added to record, that add/sal will auto update and we don't have to go add another.  Yes, it just means there are two add/sal that appear to be the same at initial glance at the record but are actually not.  Don't know what issue would be for only adding to active records.  I would do them all-just my opinion. Also, if you've unchecked the spouse link box when you marked a record as deceased, you shouldn't have to worry about add/sal pulling in names from deceased spouses.  



As add/sal doesn't have ability to use first name when there is no nickname, the one thing I wish I had done was to populate nickname field with first names so that I would be able to use that field more effectively.  Oh, well.  Someday maybe I'll tackle that. 



We use informal add/sal for 99.9% of our work.



There have been a number of post about how to use the add/sal table and set it up.

Susan Maida-Church:

Hi Eleonore,



Are you looking at all records, or all active records? 



I might suggest first breaking down the task by only looking at the active records.  From there, I might suggest looking at some of my best donors (high givers, frequent givers, etc.) and determine how I want the addressee and salutation fields to look (ie spouse, no spouse) and address those inconsistencies that you reference in your post. I would then make a plan and set up the addressee/salutation table so the addressees/salutations that you want to now use are listed.



Once you have a documented plan on how you want the records to read, you can start to divide them in groups using query.  For example, you could run a query for all records that contain a non-deceased spouse and make them a group.  Make a second group of individuals with no spouse, etc.  You can make as many queries as you want to divide your donors.



From there you can use these queries in Admin to globally replace the exitsting Addressee/Salutation with your new chosen formula.  You could look at each query again after you apply your global changes and see if there are any individual records that need to be tailored.



After finishing your cleanup, I would suggest revisiting those best donor records and make sure their addressee/saluations are correct.  I'm always extra cautious with those 



It's not perfect - but I think it's "directionally correct".  We did something similar here a few years ago and were met with success.  I hope all of this makes sense - please let me know if it does not.



Thanks,

Susan