Media Share 9/MEDIASHARE_09.ISO/business/theclub1.zip/THECLUB.DOC

Text File | 1992-08-18 | 8KB | 177 lines

The Club - Club Secretary Mailing List Program v 1.01
Copyright (c) 1992, BFM Computing, All Rights Reserved.

[Revision History]
v 1.0     -   July 15 1992  - First Release
v 1.01    -   August 18, 1992 - Second Release
              A structure in one of the main data files was in-correctly
              labelled, causing the program to return an error under
              certain conditions.


[Introduction]

This program is distributed under the "HONOR SYSTEM", that is, you
are not obligated to pay for it "up front" but only AFTER you try it,
test it, use it, etc. It is NOT FREE!!!!! - Please see the LICENSE.DOC
file included in this package.


[User Guide]
What is THE CLUB?  The Club is a mail list manager for club (or other
group) secretaries. It is written in FoxPro 2.0 and is capable of being
used in a MULTIUSER environment.

The Club recognizes two main catagories of list:
        Members   &     Clubs

      --  but it is designed in such a way that it can handle members that
do NOT have a club affiliation as well as members that have MORE than one
club affiliation. This makes it possible to have ONE mailing list that
encompasses the whole scope of your organization(s).

For example, let's say that you are the organization secretary for a medium
size church. You establish a mail list for a) Regular Members, and b) Youth
Camp. If there are changes you need only to maintain the ONE list. "TheClub"
will allow you to print out mailing labels for either orgainzation (or both)
or for those persons in your list that are no longer in ANY group (i.e. those
whose membership has lapsed for whom you might wish to make a "we miss you"
mailing").

TheClub can print reports of members for checking and verifying as well as
the standard mailing labels for which it was designed. All lists (and labels)
are in BOTH alphabetical and ZIP code sort order (for bulk mailing!)

TheClub also has "proximate searches" for data records so that complete
spelling is NOT required for checking entries. It also allows recall of the
previous entry line so that multiple entries of similar records can be
quickly and accurately performed.

TheClub supports standard xBase files for easy exporting of data
from the data records to some other program.

Finally, TheClub was written to utilize a mouse (and works a bit easier if you
happen to have one.)

        Although BFM Computing has the correct license to send this version
        of TheClub with the EXTERNAL Fox Software Run Time package, our
        beta team felt that it would be easier to distribute if we compiled
        the program into an .EXE file.

        Both an EXTENDED Memory (i.e. 386) and a LAN version are available
        to registered users at no additional charge. The LAN version has been
        tested under Novell 2.2 and Novell 3.11.




OPERATION:

        To operate THE CLUB, unarc the contents of the distribution package
        into a single subdirectory. Now, enter THECLUB at the command line.

        One of the first things that you will notice is that the menu system
        is VERY simple. There are FOUR basic function catagories to the
        program:

        MEMBERS
        CLUBS
        LABELS
        MAINTENANCE

        THE CLUB works using a very sophisticated design so that the program
        is EASY to use. BFM is paid to write programs, you - the end
        user - have better things to do with your time (we hope)!

        A brief (and perhaps enlightening) discussion of "The Rules" will
        help you master the use of THE CLUB:

        1. Everyone in the database is (or is NOT) a member of one (or MORE)
        "clubs" [the Boolian term for this is a "set"]

        2. Every club should be addressable as a single entity.

        3. Every member of every set should be addressable either as a member
        of the club, or as an individual member of the club.

        There you have it.

        Now, how do you use it?

        First, begin by entering the names of this persons on your list.

        [Note: when you finish an entry, you will be asked whether or not
        to SAVE the entry. The pop-up selection defaults to NO, and you
        must answer in the affirmative, either by keying with the mouse,
        pressing the "Y" key, or using the left arrow key to move the
        default bar to the "Yes" position, then pressing the enter key.]

        When the entry is completed, you will be prompted for the club
        that this entry should be associated with. All entries have an
        association, even if the association is the "club" of those who
        are not in a "listed" club. This is an important principle.

        If you have not already entered the data for the club, you will
        be allowed to do so at this time.

        When you are ready to print, you will be asked about the club
        to be mailed. Or, if you elect, you can select a ZIP code as
        the "set" to be selected.

        Remember, you can be as creative as you like with "clubs" so
        that you can produce any number of customized lists. For
        example, if you were the Sec'ty for the Youth International
        Party, (a currently inactive political party that some of us may
        remember) you might use the following "clubs" with your list:
                YIP - Set of All Current Members
                YIP2 - Set of All Members under age 30
                YIP3 - Set of All Members over age 30
                YUP - Set of All Members who voted for Reagan
                YIPF - Set of All Members that read the Feminist Manifesto
                   etc.

                Having set up these "clubs" we are now prepared to begin
        to create customized mailings. If, for example, Jane Fonda was
        on our mailing list, she would be in the following clubs: YIP,
        YIP3, YUP, and YIPF. A targeted mailing to ANY of these groups
        would get to her.

        [Note: The author would like to acknowledge the influence of
        Kurt Vonnegut in the creation of paradigm used for this program.]

        NOTES:  Although this program does everything that those who
        suggested it asked for, it is not "mature" -- since its creation
        several suggestions for improvements have been offered and some
        of them may turn up in a future version. This will depend on three
        things - 1) User Response. i.e. If no one is using the program, why
        should I bother to revise it?  2) User Support. i.e. Anyone who
        thinks that it is easy to write software and therefore it need not
        be paid for should be required to design, write, test, debug and
        document a program (or programs) of complexity equal to those that
        they use without payment. Payment can be in the form of $$$.$$ (to
        pay the rent, etc.) or a "gee, that is a swell program you wrote"
        (programmer's do not live by bread alone), but the programmer(s)
        have used the only NON-RENEWABLE NON-RECYCLABLE resource they have,
        (their time) to provide a useful tool, and they (the set of SHAREWARE
        AUTHORS) deserve either compensation or recognition for their efforts,
        preferably BOTH! 3) Time. i.e. If using this program is not worth
        your time or effort to contribute to factors #1 and #2 above, why
        should I (or any one else for that matter) spend additional time
        trying to solve a problem that is unimportant to the end-user.

        As the philosopher Ben Grimm often said, "'Nuff said..."

        Ryugen C. Fisher
        BFM Computing
        701 Washington
        Rhinelander, WI 54501 USA

        Voice 715-362-3371
        Fax   [phone]
        BBS   715-362-3895  -or- 7:440/1@Alternet
        CIS   74106,26


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