Melinda,

Here's the deal.  Why do you want to create an identical record in the
Actions file to what's in the Payments file.  If it is for reporting on
response analysis, the payments report would give you similar info (%
response in particular) as the Actions report.  The only difference
would be if someone gave $ twice for the event (let's say paid a ticket
price AND gave a donation, both of which are coded to the same source
code), then the stats wouldn't necessarily match.  

Bear in mind that if you track payments as actions as well, your
database will grow quickly in size.

If, instead, you're interested in contacting those individuals again,
you'd have to do the same thing whether you "found" those people in the
Payments or Actions file.  That is, you'd have to create your found set
in one of those files and then transfer that set to the Names file where
contacts are handled.  The procedure for doing this is the same for
either file.  That is, you would identify the appropriate source code
(which is attached to the contact record for those who you notified) and
then query for that code on the Payments or Actions screen.  This would
give you the "found" set for anyone who took that action.   

This approach only works if you create a unique source code for each
"event" or contact you want to track.  It becomes the flag that someone
heard about and/or acted on a request you made of them.  If you have an
event and send out invitations, you'd create a source code for those
invitations that identifies that group of people in the Contacts file. 
Then, when you're finished with the event, you'd enter that source code
"attached" to each payment from the event.  That source code then
becomes the mechanism to find groups of people in your database, either
the full set of people who were invited or those who attended and/or
paid.  It's powerful if used right.  

The only place I see there being an advantage in batch actions records
is for actions that don't involve payments.  That is, for activist
tracking. But again, I don't see an easy way to create a batch found set
in that case, because you have to manually "find" each person in order
to flag them as having attended.

Hope this helps.  I'm listening in case I'm missing something.

As to your last question, I'd guess it would take someone familiar with
ebase a half day or so to do (but I haven't tried it yet, so...).

Carl
  


melinda conness wrote:
> 
> OK, the client was monitoring this discussion with great enthusiasm
> hoping for a solution. You are correct, the group of records that needs
> an Action will indeed be different every time.
> 
> For example: they are event attendees who have made a payment on a
> certain day. Let's say 100 people came to an event on 11/1/2001. I can
> generate a group from Payments, now I want to give them all an Action
> that they attended Event X, so in the future we can look people up by
> their event attendance (or whatever other Action) and not guess from
> their Payments records. I really do want to do the same exact thing for
> Actions as is available for Contacts. How difficult would it be to copy
> and modify the script? Thank you!
> 
> Melinda Conness
> Minnesota NARAL
> 550 Rice Street
> Saint Paul, MN 55103
> (651) 602-7655
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barry Madore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 2:02 PM
> To: TechRocks Support
> Subject: [support] Re: Batch Actions data entry
> 
> Good point, Carl.  I will need to ask the client how they do this
> currently
> (create/query the found set for batch entry).  You are correct, I
> believe,
> in the assumption that it will not be the same group each time.  In my
> haste
> to think about the script alteration process, I did not think to inquire
> about this part of the equation. Perhaps they are monitoring this
> discussion
> and can weigh in on this.
> 
> -barry
> --
> Barry Madore
> Technology & Web Development Specialist
> MAP for Nonprofits
> Direct:  651/632-7235
> MAP:  651/647-1216
> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> MAP web:  http://www.mapnp.org
> 
> > From: Carl Paulsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Organization: New Hampshire Rivers Council
> > Reply-To: "TechRocks Support" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 12:37:57 -0500
> > To: "TechRocks Support" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Subject: [support] Re: Batch Actions data entry
> >
> > Although I haven't done this, you could use the batch process scripts
> > for a similar process for entering Actions.  This process isn't real
> > tricky.  It would take some work to do this but at least you'd have a
> > model for one way to do it.  In my view, the real trick would be to
> find
> > a way to quickly and easily create the found set you want to batch
> > process.  I presume your batch will never be the same set of records
> or
> > that you'll never be able to anticipate (with some kind of record
> flag)
> > who will need to be processed this way.  How do you query for a set of
> > records whose only commonality may be that they are a subset of the
> > original contact?
> >
> > Carl
> 
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-- 
Carl Paulsen
New Hampshire Rivers Council
54 Portsmouth Street
Concord, NH  03301
603-228-6472
603-228-0423 Fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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