Contacts

A contact is the fundamental data object around which the whole system is based. Each contact in the system has a collection of related data objects which defines it. The contact data object consists of the following sections:

A unique identifier
Full contact details (name, address, phone and e-mail)
An link to an emergency contact (itself a full contact)
User-definable attributes/flags
Photo
User-definable fields
A free-text field allowing comprehensive notes to be kept

Contact Identification

Each contact has 2 unique fields which allow it to be accessed: The contact ID and the contact code

The Contact ID

The contact ID is a number which uniquely defines the contact record. Contacts can be accessed by simply entering this ID when prompted. It can also be seen in all the related reports. Contact IDs are normally automatically assigned by the system as sequential IDs starting from 1. However it is possible to use pre-assigned member IDs by turning the appropriate option in the admin tool, This is most useful when using the Club Membership System with a pre-existing database or set of pre-created membership cards with numbers for IDs.

The Contact Code

The contact code is an alphanumeric code which may be related to the member number or can be independent. In either case the member code will also be a unique identifier for a member. The system will automatically create a unique code for a member based on the member ID, but this field be changed by the user.

There can be many reasons for wanting to change the member code which could include:

Use of pre-created membership cards with alphanumeric scancodes which are unrelated to member IDs
Using membership cards which are regularly updated and replaced for security purposes