CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi All,

I am just getting into CiviCRM and need some advice.  I've done some searching and am just getting a little more confused, so your help would be appreciated.

I am a teacher who is the webmaster of a local teaching union.  The union contains 150 members.  We would like to create a board where the union can communicate with its members in a protected way -- away from administrators and parents eyes.  There isn't anything nefarious going on... just we want to have open communication between 4 buildings.

The goal is to use Drupal's blogging features for union officers to communicate information to members, allow members to communicate among themselves in a forum, and have some sort of way to manage members personal information (address, etc.) and membership based on their dues, etc.  We also want event management (so members can RSVP to general meetings) and a way to email all members when the need comes up.

I thought that CiviCRM is the way to go.  I have been able to successfully import my member database into CiviCRM (minus setting up the membership -- manually for each person).  The part that I don't understand is how to get the members from CiviMember into users without a convoluted import/export instruction.  Is there anyway around this?  If there isn't, how would I get the membership chair to update both?  Would I have to do the export/import every time a new member is created in CiviMember?

Should I start with a clean database and import users into the Drupal side first?  If so, how do I get their information to come with it that CiviMember needs?  Would Organic Groups help?

There just is a huge learning curve with all the terminology.  I truly am trying to learn... just need a little direction.

I am currently using Drupal 6.9 and CiviCRM 2.2 beta.

Thanks.

To import drupal users under 6.9... which module would I use?

Is this the same as the CiviMember Sync Roles for Drupal?  Im having trouble importing my Drupal users into CiviMember also.

Please bear with me and let me see if I understand this correctly.  CiviMember Sync Role module takes users from CiviCRM and maeks it a drupal user, correct?

I am in need of taking my drupal users, and making them civicrm users so I can use the mailing list, the event, and to make mailing lists and to send out mass emails.

I have about 50 drupal users, but I have no civicrm users.  I want them to be both drupal users and civicrm users.  I understand this is possible and it makes sense, but I dont know how to get my drupal users to become civimembers without making them sign up with civicrm and drupal also.  What module do I use to take my drupal users and automatically or import them to civimembers?

After reading for several hours on the Drupal and CiviCRM syncing there appears to be others with the same problem.  It goes through the motions but it doesnt work.  I did manage to gte about 6 of them working somehow but instead of a name that they used in Drupal they have an email address.

I think that civiCRM is a good program for what it is supposed to do.  However it is not a platform for an end user.  The documentaion is poorly written and hard to follow unless you spend massive amounts of time reading and rereading it.

The syncing simply says to go to the sync contacts.  This simply didnt work.  I ahve seen reports elsewhere on the net that htis is a bug?  I really wish that it worked properly but I cant get it to work.

I am trying to install this for a local club free, and I cannot spend money on a "consultant" from civiCRM.  Normally when I find software that I like I donate money to it.  IM sure that a "donation" amount will be dwarfed by consultation fees.

I wish everyone the best of luck and I think that a shoebox full of paper slips would be easier to implement.  I wish that he documentation was better.  Before any of you flame me for being critical of such great software that is free, you get what you pay for, thats true.  I only wish that I could have gottne it to work properly.