easy-Test - Toastmaster automation! :: easy-Test - Toastmaster automation! :: Importing Member details from a spreadsheet
Author malw Date 03 Jun 07, 07:51 Views 3872
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Description How to import Member names, user-id, telephone numbers etc from a spreadsheet
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easy-Speak information

Importing Member details from a spreadsheet 

You may make a mass import of your membership details by using the Import Tools available in the Club Control Panel.
Only one or two members in each club should have access to the Control Panel. Please refer here for more detail:
http://d71.org/kb.php?mode=article&k=15

Give careful consideration to any members of your club that are already members (or visitors, ex-members etc) of another club using easy-Speak.
It is very important that a person has ONLY ONE user identity in easy-Speak which contains all the information about that person.
This makes it easy for them - one login to remember - and it also makes it easy for you to pick up the member's past speeches and share information on current achievements.
If you have members who already have an easy-Speak user-id, ask them for that id (or search the on-line membership list for the other club to find their user-id) and add them to your club using the 'Usergroups' screen. Do NOT create a new user-id for them.

Create a spreadsheet for each group of members that you wish to import. One spreadsheet for full members, one for visitors, one for the mailing list of prospective members etc.

The spreadsheet must have the following columns:
Column A - Username. Create a username for each of your members that will be easy for them to remember.
Column B - First name. For example, 'Ann',
Column C - Family or Surname. For example, 'Brown',
Column D - E-mail address. for example, 'ann.brown@domain.tld',
Column E - Password. Give all your members a password. They may change it later from their profile screen.
Column F - Evening Phone. Enter their home phone number (*),
Column G - Daytime Phone. Enter their work phone number (*),
Column H - Mobile Phone. Enter their mobile phone number (*),
Column I - Date they joined your club. This is used to print reports for WHQ.
The date must be formatted dd-mm-yyyy (eg 23-JAN-2007) to be processed correctly.
If you do not know when each member joined your club, just enter a '1' if the member should be included as a new member for the current year.
Column J - Their Toastmaster International Member Number (*). This data is used to print annual returns to WHQ
Column K - A code to represent the members achievement on the Communications track (*). For example 1 for CC,
Column L - A code to represent the members achievement on the Leadership track (*). For example 1 for CL,
Column M - Street Address (*). All in one cell, use '>' character to indicate where you want new line,
Column N - Post Code (*).

Data in columns marked (*) are optional but all the columns must be there and must be in this order.
The codes for CC and CL etc are listed when you run the import program. At the time of writing they are:
CC - 1, ACB - 2, ACS - 3, ACG - 4, DTM 5.
CL - 1, AL - 2, ALB - 3, ALS - 4

Note: Excel will get confused about any number starting with a zero - it will try to be helpful and hide the zero for you!
Either enter phone numbers with a quotation mark or blank space at the beginning or use a space to separate groups of numbers.
You may also have difficulties with Excel trying to reformat your dates - prevent this by placing a single quote in front of the date e.g. '25-DEC-2007


Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file. In Excel - File> Save As> Save as type: CSV (MS-DOS).

Sample Spreadsheet

Log on to easy-Speak.
Access the Club Control Panel and select the utility - Import Tools, Members.
Use the 'browse' button to select the membership file from your PC.
Use the pull-downs to select the correct member status, country and timezone to use for the members included in this file.
The 'import rate' sets the number of lines in your file that will be processed in each pass. For example if you have 106 members in the file and use an import rate of 25 the file will be processed in four batches of 25 and a final batch of 6.
You may change the import rate but I suggest leaving it at 25 or lower - particularly if you are on a dial-up line.
If you use 'European' number formats on your PC (e.g. 123.456,56) Excel will change the character used to separate fields when it creates the CSV file. Use the radio button to indicate that the information in your file is in this format.

The file will be processed when you press the 'Start Import' button.

At the end of processing you will be presented with a summary of users that were accepted and another summary showing users that were not accepted along with reasons why. Each user is shown with a line number from the file so that you can correct the error, delete the lines that have been accepted and re-submit the file.

When you create membership records by importing a spreadsheet the members are NOT advised that they have been added to the system or told the password that you assigned to them. You will need to give them this information as part of your system implementation and training

I strongly suggest that you first try the import routine with a very small file of say two users, check that everything worked the way that you expected by looking at the membership list and the user/club data for these users before you get busy with a mass upload of the full membership.