People is the one list of everyone your organization knows. A member, somebody who registered for an event and somebody who signed up for your newsletter are not three lists; they are people, and each one has a single record that shows everything. This note covers finding somebody, adding one person, bringing in a whole spreadsheet, the fields you keep, and putting two records together when they turn out to be the same person. If you have not opened the tool before, How to make edits on an Avistra website shows the sign-in.
Everything here shows people's names and addresses, so it needs your passkey. Signed in with only the emailed code, People asks you to set up a passkey or use it first. How to set up a passkey on an Avistra website walks through it.
Finding somebody
Choose Dashboard in the bar in the lower right, then People on the left. It opens on Recent: members, and anyone who has registered, given or applied in the last two years. That keeps the list to the people you are likely to be looking for. The chips along the top change what you see:
- Members: Active and Renewal due. A member whose renewal date has just passed is still a member.
- Renewal due: past their renewal date, inside the grace period. This is the list to work through in renewal season.
- Inactive: had a membership that ended.
- Applied: waiting on you to approve them.
- Registrants: anyone who has registered for an event, member or not.
- Subscribers: people who asked for your emails.
- Everyone: everyone the organization has ever known, including people from years ago.
The search box at the top finds somebody by name, email, phone or organization.
Adding one person
Add people, at the top right, asks how. One person is the default: first name, last name, email address, phone and organization. The email address matters most, because it is how they sign in. Leave it blank for somebody who has none.
- The duplicate warning. As you type, the tool checks the list. If somebody with that address is already here, it says so and will not add them twice. If the match is only a name and a phone, it says who it might be and lets you open them or add a new person anyway.
- Make them a member. Tick it to put them on a level at the same time: the level, when it starts, and how it was paid. The button then reads Add and make a member.
- How they asked to hear from you. Newsletter and event announcements are off until you say how the person asked: in person, by phone, by email or on a paper form, and when. Being on your list is not the same as asking, and nobody can be ticked on without that answer.
Importing a spreadsheet
A spreadsheet, in Add people, brings in a list you already keep. Nothing is added until the third step.
- Choose the file. A CSV file, with the column names in the first row. In Excel or Google Sheets, choose File, then Save as or Download, and pick CSV. A Wild Apricot contacts export works as it is: the tool recognizes one and matches its columns for you.
- Match the columns. Each column in your file is matched to where it goes: first name, email, level, renewal date, or one of your own fields. The tool matches by the column name and by what is in the column, so a column of addresses headed "Contact" still lands in Email. Anything it could not match is listed first, so nothing is dropped without you seeing it. For a column that belongs nowhere yet, choose Make a new field.
- Levels and statuses. Each value in your level column is matched to one of your levels. Status values become Active, Inactive, Applied or No membership; Wild Apricot's "Lapsed" becomes Inactive.
- Email columns need consent. A newsletter or announcements column is only used if you tick that these people agreed to receive it from you, and write where they agreed, such as "Paper form at the spring show". That note is kept on each person. Without the tick, the column is left out and the next step says so.
- People already here. Choose Fill in blanks only to keep the details you already have, or Update people with the spreadsheet's values.
- Check. How many people are new, how many are already here and will be updated, and any problems in plain words, with the row they are on: a date that is not a date, an address that is not an address. Choose Import when it reads right.
- Done. How many were added and updated, and Undo this import.
Undoing an import
An import can be undone once, for 30 days, from Done or later from People, then Imports. The people it added are removed and the people it updated go back to what they had, with two exceptions, both said in the confirmation before anything happens. Anybody who has paid, registered, signed in or been given a membership since is kept, because they are real now. Anybody whose details were changed since keeps today's details.
Fields
A field is anything you keep about a person beyond the built-in details: a chapter, a birthday, a dietary need, a waiver. People, then Fields lists them, and New field adds one: a label, a kind (text, a date, a dropdown, a yes or no, a file and more), and whether it is required.
- Who can see it: Admins only (the default, and never sent to anyone else's browser), The person and admins, or Members, in the directory.
- The person can change it, for a field they see in their account.
- Which levels use it, and whether it is asked on the application to join.
A field that people already have values in cannot change its kind; make a new field instead.
Duplicates
The tool looks for two records that are probably one person: the same email, the same name and phone, or addresses a letter apart with the same last name. A shared name alone is never enough. People, then Duplicates lists what it found, and a record carries a note when it is one of a pair.
Compare puts the two side by side. Choose what to keep where they differ, then Merge into one person. Registrations, payments, notes and history from both move onto the one record, and blanks are filled in. Undo the merge is on the record's Activity, and under Merged recently in Duplicates, for 30 days. If they are two different people, choose Not the same person and the pair is not suggested again.
One person's record
Press a row and the record opens: their name, status and level, and tabs for Details, Membership, Events, Payments, Emails, Notes and Activity. A note under Notes is seen only by admins. Activity lists what they did and what admins changed.
Delete this person is for full admins only, at the end of the record's menu. It removes their details, membership history, registrations and notes for good. Payment records stay with the name taken off, so your totals do not change. You type DELETE to confirm.
Who sees what
Full admins and Membership admins can add, import, merge and change fields. Deleting a person and downloading the list are for full admins only. An Events admin reaches a person only through a registration for their event, and sees less of the record.
If you get stuck
Send it to us. Choose Support request in the bar and say what you need: a spreadsheet that will not match, two records that should be one, a question about any of it. How to submit a support request on an Avistra website shows how.