What module or set up should I use?

[walnut]

Hello ,

We are a small but growing non-profit. We recently installed CiviCRM and would like to use it to record data about a specific group of people that are in a "Wellness Group" over time (They will meet for 4 sessions total). I would like to know how to set this up for this group so that the Wellness Group coordinator can use to record data.

This is what she will need:

-have customizable data she can enter about each specific person (This would be a standard questionnaire with the same questions for everyone, but different from our "new individuals" in our general contact system.

-the ability to use "checkboxes" (does this exist?)

-the ability to put referrals (any recommendations?)

-the ability to put user control access so that only the coordinator & admin can view. (I know how to do this)

-the ability to view and record event attendance (I know how to register people in events and view that information in the contacts record)

So, my thought is that I should make a "sub" Individual profile and then create the specific profile and create new fields to match the needs of the "Wellness Group."

However, would the "Membership" module work better? I have yet to use this.

In the future, we will offer more and more classes and will want to track individuals and communicate with them over time.

Does anyone have any suggestions for our needs? Please let me know if I can provide more information. Thank you all.

[JonGold]

Hi Walnut,

I think you've got the right general approach - contact subtype of an Individual record for these folks, then a set of custom fields specific to that subtype, plus profiles that include those custom fields.

My questions/comments are:
* Are the questions specific to the class, or will everyone taking any class fill out the same fields?  You may want to consider whether the custom fields are better on the contact subtype or on the participant record - especially if the same person takes multiple classes.
* Checkboxes are an option!
* I think we'd need more info about what a referral means to you in order to comment appropriately - but if I had to guess, you should add "Referral" as a new Activity Type, and use that to track them.
* I don't think "Membership" is applicable to you based on what you've said, though I'm not 100% sure.  You might want to skim the chapter on Memberships in the book (http://book.civicrm.org) to decide.

Welcome to CiviCRM, and good luck!
Jon

[Coleman Watts]

Membership might be helpful to you if any of these features are important to you:
- Integration with Drupal roles to make a "members only" section of your website.
- Users would pay to become members for a specific time-frame, after which they would be sent automatic reminders to renew their membership

On the other hand, use events if it's important that you:
- Track attendance of each event
- Have a public page with event date/time/place listed
- Have a public sign-up form for your event (memberships have a public sign-up form too, just not so driven by a single date)

One more tip: for customizing your workflows check out the Webform-CiviCRM Integration module - it can allow you to create forms for your staff and/or participants that are finely tailored to their needs.

[walnut]

Thanks for your replies. I am testing out the sub-individual option:

-I created a sub-individual called "Wellness Class."

-I set up a tab (a custom data set) with sample questions that the class needs. These are questions that only this class will need from my understanding. This way it is on their "participant record" as opposed to just under their individual profile. (to answer your question JonGold)

-I found that I can create a new "activity type" called "referral" and use that to schedule referrals (this is basically a way for the coordinator to follow up with the student).

-Coleman-I think eventually we will want people to be "members" as our classes grow. However, the event system we currently use is integrated into our website calendar and seems to work out ok. Except that I noticed at some of our events, there seems to always be duplicates of people in the system that registered.

The drawback I think with only using "events" is that once they sign up for a class, and they want to sign up for a different event or class, they have to re-enter their info all over again correct? (basically a duplicate of them is created in our database)

I will circle back once I learn more and figure out the membership module better and maybe it will help someone in the future.

Thank you both for your help.

[Coleman Watts]

-I set up a tab (a custom data set) with sample questions that the class needs. These are questions that only this class will need from my understanding. This way it is on their "participant record" as opposed to just under their individual profile. (to answer your question JonGold)

No, it sounds to me like you've set up this as "Contact" custom fields, not "Participant" custom fields. Otherwise it would not be a tab on the contact screen. If the questions only pertain to the one event then participant custom data would be a better choice.

The drawback I think with only using "events" is that once they sign up for a class, and they want to sign up for a different event or class, they have to re-enter their info all over again correct? (basically a duplicate of them is created in our database)

Webform Integration can solve this problem. These instructions might not make sense if you've never used it before, but once you've played with it a bit they will:

Recipe: Allow users to easily re-register for events without having a drupal login.

• Set up a webform to let anonymous users register for 1 or more events.
• Include the hidden "cid" and "checksum" fields for contact 1. Edit the checksum field and set the expiration to more than 7 days. 365 might be good.
• In the "emails" webform tab, compose a boilerplate message that says "Thank you for registering, bla bla bla... and by the way if you'd ever like to register for another event in the future you can skip filling out the form again. Just hang on to this email, and when you're ready to register for the next event click here."  Use your "cid" and "checksum" tokens to make a hashed link back to the form.
• Viola! You've got a craigslist-style "no need to log in" email link that's good for a year. When the user clicks on it they'll see the form filled out with all their details. And you won't have so many duplicates in your database.