Membership Plus 6

Rating:
Summary: RUN LIKE THE WIND!
Review: I don't claim to be a computer expert, but I just completed a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, and am experienced with numerous software packages: engineering tools, word processors (Word, WordPerfect), typesetting languages (LaTeX), spreadsheets (Excel, QuattroPro), database managers, multimedia tools (Director, Photoshop, etc.), programming languages (BASIC, FORTRAN, C++),..., as well as several operating systems (Linux, Windows, UNIX, SunOS, Mac OS). I say all of this to emphasize that, in all of my years of using computers and computer software, I don't remember anything more FRUSTRATING to work with! The only reason it received 1 star from me is because 0 stars is not an option!

As I understand things, Membership Plus is basically a database program with a built-in graphical interface (It apparently stores information in separate databases called "Modules", a "Membership Module", "Prospects Module", "Visits Module", etc. ... more on this later). The problems (in brief) are that the interface isn't always intuitive, the interface severely limits the functionality of the database, and the data isn't always compatible with other programs.

As an example, my church recently purchased this software to help keep track of members addresses, visitors, and the like. One of the hopes with using it was that, if someone were to visit the church, we could print mailing labels for a thank-you letter, or print out a card with their name, address, etc. so that someone from the church could return their visit. I attempted to do this by entering the data in MP, exporting as a database file, and merging them with a Microsoft Word document.

Here are a few of the problems I encountered:

1) Some of the data fields are stored as formatted text (RTF) instead of character strings; when you merge them with the word document, the formatting information is displayed along with the text (i.e., {\rtf.... text here ... })

2) You can get around 1) by using the included "Quick Letter" word processor (Quick Letter is to WordPad as WordPad is to Word), but note that if you adjust the page size on the Page Setup, the margins aren't corrected on the displayed page (you have to see this one for yourself)

3) The "Prospects Module" (in our case, people who have visited our church) and "Visits Module" (people who we have visited) are kept separate. This isn't necessarily bad, but when you export the Visits/Prospects data, if someone is in the Prospects Module (has visited our church) but doesn't have an entry in the Visits Module (we haven't contacted yet), they are NOT INCLUDED in the exported data; if you have made multiple visits to one person, an entry is included for each visit.

4) Although filters are available to help you select only the data you want (for instance, to correct the previous problem by exporting only the most recent visit to an individual), you do not have the option of using data from the "Prospects" or "Visits" module for these filters (WHY? )

5) On top of all this, MP doesn't come with a printed manual, and technical support is $25/hour after the first few weeks, which wouldn't be so bad if on-line help were more useful.

It may be possible to complete our objective using Membership Plus, but after several days of trying, we have abandoned it in favor of a pure database approach (MS Access, etc.) I don't see that the advantages (if any) of using Membership Plus outweigh the time and frustration involved with customizing it to our needs.

In short, if all you want to do is just keep track of members names, addresses, phone numbers, etc., this software might be sufficient. If you want to try anything more involved than this, you will probably grow very frustrated very quickly. I would recommend investing in a standard database program so that you can customize the information for your own purposes.