This is a lists question rather than reporting so I hope this is the correct forum.
We regularly build 'Lists of Lists', typically for VIP events such as exhibition openings and gala dinners. Various departments around the museum build their list of constituents they want to invite, and then the event coordinator will build a list to pull all the constituents in those individual lists into one single invitation list. This is then printed and reviewed by our CEO. She likes to see who invited who when reviewing the lists - eg Partnerships, Development, Communications etc. We currently use an attribute ''invited by'' to present this information in the list output, but its a bit clunky as I have to clean up and reapply attributes per list for each event.
My question is, is there a way we can pull a name of a source list into a list of lists? I can't find anything in the output elements and I wouldn't know where to even start to find that. Or any other thoughts to make this slightly easier and doesn't require the extra cleanup work every time we have an event?
Thanks in advance.
Tash Dawson,
As a matter of clarification, are you asking if you pull the name of the List into your combination List itself or to Output the name of the list as some output set element? If you are wanting the former, the answer is no. Lists, as far as the database are concerned, truly are just a collection of customer numbers. All criteria used to create that list of customer numbers has nothing to do with the list contents itself other than the fact that it was used to create them. The customer numbers after being generated and their eventual output is not really part of the criteria.
Regarding outputting the list names, I am sure it is possible. That said, it would likely have to be a pretty general output set element with some highly targeted filters. At the very least, you would presumably need a list category filter, maybe a filter for who created the lists, but possibly also even a specific list filter basically setting the list to be equal to any of 1 - 10 different lists. That or some kind of grand concatenated output which would throw all the list names into one giant string. If your database is anything like ours, many patrons belong to many different lists (my own account appears to belong to 864 distinct active lists in our database).
Given your desired results, your solution sounds pretty reasonable, all things considered. If I were you, I would probably be doing things the same way. Though I can see how that might get annoying. Since making a custom report is a snap for me, my brain quickly then goes to the notion that creating a custom report to give you that output would be easy, but if you do not have that capability on staff, I just sound mean. I am not as familiar with Analytics and I wonder if there might be some possibilities there. Though again, I know Analytics and Lists can be tricky in general, plus there is the overnight load issue there, too.
This would likely only be a mild improvement on what you are currently doing, but there might be a way for you to have all the departments reusing the same lists each week, thus allowing you to create a dynamic master list of lists, that could then run against a scheduled report of the "Manage Attributes" utility which updates before another scheduled report of the "Execute an Output Set". I mean, this pretty much leaves everything you are already doing still in place, but at least would automate a decent chunk of it. Otherwise, my brain goes to a very complex set of list output set elements and parameters that gets quirky and difficult fast while very significantly likely to produce multiple rows per constituent in output.
Best of luck!
John A. Moskal II
Hi Tash,
A few questions:
For what it's worth, the selection criteria for every constituent does exist somewhere, because it's viewable in the interface:
This will give you the name of the selecting list. I spend a lot of time in the bowels of Tessitura and I'm not quite sure where it resides, but if you could find it, it would be an interesting target for an output set element.
The first place my mind goes to, though, is an extraction, with each department's list as a separate segment, and then review Segment Contents. That will also easily let you know who has been suppressed for various reasons, which a list will not.
You think the selection criteria exists PER CONSTITUENT somewhere? If so, that would be VERY interesting to reference. I certainly have not yet come across it myself.
I just always assumed that the results of clicking there was an "on the fly" calculation based on the original list criteria as applied to the constituent in question.
Ah. That seems like an extremely cumbersome and backwards way of doing things, so I'm pretty certain you're right. I suppose if you could find the function in question you could then use it to generate a (gruesomely slow) Output Set element. Or not; I don't think Output Set Elements have access to the list number in question.
And I guess I have to admit for anything but a list choosing a specific criterion would be fundamentally problematic, e.g. Season = X, Perf Dates between Y and Z, Price Type = Full etc.: none of those in particular chose the constituent, unlike an Extraction Segment, where it is clear.
Hey Tash,
If you want as an alternative, we (Peter Nelson @ Tessitura) developed a report for those VIP nights back in 2017 that pulls the person image, research short bio and the notes from Special Activities. You can run it on a tablet (or phone) on Tess-on-the-go and it's a good help for those people Schmoozing. The mini magic is attachedC22_TLCC2017_MM17-32_1_SS_3-16in_ULTRA.pdf