Blackbaud University Day at bbcon
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And we're off and running! There is a sense of joy in Baltimore as people from all across the Blackbaud universe are coming together for bbcon, and specifically for the first ever University Day.
Brain sparks are popping as class presentations bring insight, clarity, and the ever-delightful "aha" moments. On-site classes are wonderful opportunities to have immediate interaction and response from Blackbaud instructors and super classmates.
My first session was with Tony Lazzeroni on "Optimizing Grouping with Flexible Queries." A key takeaway was learning how to build queries using ASK operators. This saves you from creating specific queries for every possible need by creating a basic "shell" that you tweak for each purpose.
Do you currently customize your queries in Excel? There is no need to take data out of Raiser's Edge, manipulate it in Excel and stick it back into RE. The wonder tool of Query List keeps all your information in Raiser's Edge and lets you add or subtract individual records or groups. Query list also automatically suppresses duplicates. How exciting is that!
We learned how to harness an existing report -- for example, the LYBUNT report -- and create an output query that will let you see who gave to a particular campaign last year but has not given yet this year. Super quick way to identify people you want to connect with!
This is the class that keeps on giving. Are you pulling your hair out trying to find that one query that you need to do that one thing? No problem! Tony shared several thoughts on how to do this -- as did some of our classmates. Those cool category headers that you may have set up for your addressees/salutations? Works in the query department too! Another solution is to create well named folders, and drag & drop queries into them so that the queries live in the folders you would expect them to be in, rather than splattered all over the place. If your queries use an ASK operator, tag your query name with ASK.
My next class is on Pivot Reports. I can't wait to take some of the fear out of those pesky things!
What a great start to #bbcon!
My first session was with Tony Lazzeroni on "Optimizing Grouping with Flexible Queries." A key takeaway was learning how to build queries using ASK operators. This saves you from creating specific queries for every possible need by creating a basic "shell" that you tweak for each purpose.
Do you currently customize your queries in Excel? There is no need to take data out of Raiser's Edge, manipulate it in Excel and stick it back into RE. The wonder tool of Query List keeps all your information in Raiser's Edge and lets you add or subtract individual records or groups. Query list also automatically suppresses duplicates. How exciting is that!
We learned how to harness an existing report -- for example, the LYBUNT report -- and create an output query that will let you see who gave to a particular campaign last year but has not given yet this year. Super quick way to identify people you want to connect with!
This is the class that keeps on giving. Are you pulling your hair out trying to find that one query that you need to do that one thing? No problem! Tony shared several thoughts on how to do this -- as did some of our classmates. Those cool category headers that you may have set up for your addressees/salutations? Works in the query department too! Another solution is to create well named folders, and drag & drop queries into them so that the queries live in the folders you would expect them to be in, rather than splattered all over the place. If your queries use an ASK operator, tag your query name with ASK.
My next class is on Pivot Reports. I can't wait to take some of the fear out of those pesky things!
What a great start to #bbcon!
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10/16/2017 5:21pm EDT
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