Hello,
What I am looking to do is to have a bar code that would reflect the constituent ID and print this on a subscriber ID card. We would like to scan the ID card for entry to free events and lectures. Then download the constituent IDs to a list that can be imported into a Tess activity or event. Someone at the discussion I attended on bar coding at the conference indicated that this is possible, but I can't find in my notes who said it. I am looking to implement this for the 2012-13 season. I would appreciate a bread crumb trail please. Thanks! Lucy
Hi Lucy,
I was at the discussion but I don’t remember talking about this specific task. You can print anything you want as a barcode; the program you use to print your subscriber ID cards just needs the barcode font to convert the number to the barcode. Scanning the IDs to record attendance, though, is more complicated. When you scan the ID code it will translate it back into the ID number. The question is, where do you put that number? You could scan numbers into a an Excel spreadsheet and then use that to import a list. You could probably also scan the IDs directly into the contents of a manual list in Tessitura (just open the list contents, click Add, then scan an ID into the constituent ID field); you could even get fancy and program the scanner to add a new row to the list after each scan if you wanted. I suppose it just depends on whether or not you have access to Tessitura at the event.
Kevin Sheehan
Senior Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist
Tessitura Network
+1 888 643 5778 x 329
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com
At SMM we do something similar to what Kevin mentioned to track usage of a parking discount. Members receive $5 parking in our ramp when they show their member card. The parking ramp attendant scans the card with a very simple barcode reader to record that they were here. At the end of each shift the barcode numbers are downloaded into Excel. Development then takes this information and puts it into a template that can be used by the Order Import utility. We build parking "performances" for each day that get used by this utility so that Development and Membership can track when and how often their patrons are using the ramp. It is a bit of manual work, but gets the information all into the constituent record in Tessitura where it is usable.
What you're asking about would probably be easier as you could put the ID's straight from Excel to a list without worrying about spreadsheet formatting, etc... We only go the extra step because tracking these uses as Performances gives us some extra information we'd lose only using Activities. If you have specific questions about our process let me know!