How to record deaths/date of death in RE NXT?

Luisa Rampin

Hi

We are in the process of transitioning from database view to NXT, and I would like to ask how other organisations record deaths? In database view we use the deceased flag in bio 1, and leave the date field blank until we informed of the date of death, which is usually when the legacy process has begun.

We already record deceased as a mailstop in attributes/custom field, and we also have attributes/custom field of legator notification/date of death/[date range], could anyone advise if they have a simpler way of doing this? Because this currently feels as though we are recording the same basic information in three separate places, does anyone know if NXT has a better way of recording the fact and date of death?

Sorry if this is a silly or over-complicated way of asking this question, and thanks.

Luisa

Austen Brown

@Luisa Rampin - Welcome to BB Community! I recommend marking the constituent as ‘deceased’ as soon as you know. Then searching online for an obituary - use that to determine the ‘death date’ and update RE. At past orgs, I've even put a copy of the obituary text in a Constituent Note, so that if any other users are curious about what was mentioned or where the data came from, they would easily have access to it.

I do agree that your current process seems like the multiple tracking fields over-lap. I recommend streamlining this a bit - focus on the fields native to RE that exist to hold this information.

Christine Robertson

@Luisa Rampin To echo @Austen Brown, I really haven't ever seen a reason why there is a need to do more than check the box for deceased, add the date (if known) and store a copy of an obituary as a Constituent Note. Unless there is a strong use case that is specific to your institution, you should be able to streamline your process.

Linda Miller

@Luisa Rampin Hi! We mark as deceased in NXT - you can enter the date and add a link to the obituary online. This will automatically update the mailing address to ‘do not mail’, and will automatically display the link to the obituary in Attachments segment of the constituent file. No need to add it in notes.

JoAnn Strommen

@Luisa Rampin When you are dealing with legacy/estate issues there may be more to record. We are still updating records as deceased in db view probably until we have to move.

Our automated processes using business rules in db view include date to entered for constituent codes (but we edit to actual death date), uncheck send mail, memorial created, changes to spouse relationship.

Beyond that we may need to update or create spouse record, update solicitor assignments, update business relationships, update a code indicating both are alums, check for notes regarding an endowment and/or outstanding pledges, add obit to as note (pulls into our alumni directory from Notes), and add attribute for listing in memoriam of next magazine publication.
This is all so much easier to do in db view than having to open all these tabs in web view.

Donella Robb

Related to this, does anyone know if recording a date of death in RENXT excludes that record from duplicate searches in RENXT web view (Data Health)? Our dba is saying that marking as inactive isn't needed, as being deceased automatically flags the record as inactive, which may be the case in database view?

Looking at potential duplicates, I am seeing that constituents marked as deceased, and where the “inactive” box is unchecked, ARE showing up as potential matches in RENXT web view, which is causing inflation in duplicate numbers. Do records now also need to have the “inactive” box checked to exclude?

I was looking through the Help & KB files and couldn't see any clarification on this.

JoAnn Strommen

@Donella Robb Interesting question.
Marking as deceased does not mark record as inactive unless you created an automation to do so as far as I know.

I don't know that marking as inactive prevents a record from being flagged as a potential duplicate. I would hope that it does not. I would want to know if an ‘inactive’ record is now engaged. Wouldn't expect them to be a match to a deceased record.

Luisa Rampin

Hi everybody

Thanks for the feedback, hopefully as we move over to NXT we can build cleaner, simpler processes. But your comments will be getting passed on to the legacy people to help them plan how NXT will work out for them.

Luisa