We are planning implementation of Membership Scanning at our front desk. One of the things that our Development department would like to be able to do is checking for people who hand their cards over the fence to their friends to get them in without paying. They would love to see an alert if the same card has already been scanned within certain time period (any time today, in the last hour, I don't know how they want to define this). I am wondering if anyone has the same problem, and if so, how do you deal with it? I can't find any field in the membership details options for scanning that would say "card last scanned" or something like that...

I am also wondering what are others using as actions for membership scanning. We mainly want to track and analyze member attendance. I am thinking that a default action "Museum Visit" would work well, but would be very interested in other organization experience.

Thanks you!

Pavla

Hi Pavla- I used to work at the Detroit Zoo, we have been using scanning for years, and when we started with Raiser's Edge, we actually had to have them write a custom piece onto the Membership Scanning module so that we could do it quickly and it would dump the information automatically into Actions for us. We did track the visits in Actions, and the Action Type was Zoo Visit, we also broke down our visits by #adults, #children, which we tracked in Action Attributes. We did have trouble with the whole card thing, but the only way we ever addressed it was by video camera survellience or would run a query to see if someone had a remarkably large number of Zoo Visit actions in one day. We could have paid Blackbaud to incorporate this into our custom module, but never took the time/money to do it. If you would like me to answer any specific questions for you, I would be glad to. (248-642-4613) Renee A. Klish Systems Database Analyst Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit 248.642.4260 x388 [Email Removed]

Pavla, At my previous employer, we used the scanning module and asked that members also show a photo ID with their membership card to be sure cards weren't being passed around. Initially, it made some guests upset, but we did also stop a number of folks who were using their friends' cards fraudulently. Over time and with much communication, members came to learn that their ID was needed and that their memberships were not transferable. However, it does add to the transaction time, so something to consider modifying during peak visitation times. Another thing to keep in mind is how you set up adding the "Museum Visit" action within scanning. If it is set up to automatically add it to the record, the record will not actually open and thus any business rules or other triggers you might set up will not launch. You would have to have your front desk staff add the action manually in order for the record to actually open. We asked our desk staff to open the record and look at annotations if there were ever an issue with a members status, and used annotations to note important things for desk staff to know (such as VIP, nanny issues, or potential misuse.) But we were not so sophisticated as to be able to determine repeated use within a specified period of time. Good luck, Marla Strickland Marla Strickland Director of Development Operations Peabody Essex Museum Salem, MA [Email Removed]

I would think that the programming involved could be done but at what cost. If your sole purpuse is to prevent fraudulent use of your membership cards I would think that, unless you have an on-site programmer the cost to have BB or a consultant do it could be huge and likely much more than the loss of revenue you are having from fraudulent use of your cards. I would definitely suggest getting quotes but you would have to determine the cost/benefit of such a change. I think that the Photo ID is a much more economical way to accomplish the same thing - determine who is using cards fraudulently. Now... if your purpose is to track visits for other reasons (analysis of usage of membership benefits) then you have a whole other story on your hands and you would have to decide if the cost was acceptable for such a project. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

We do not have scanning capabilities here at the Air Zoo. We did, however, at the beginning of the year, start asking for photo id with the membership card. When the member walks up to the desk, there is a sign stating they will be asked for id. When I send my member cards out, in the letter it states that they will now be asked for id. Just last week, I added to the bottom of the membership card that id must be presented as well. We were surprised when we first started doing this as to how many people passed their membership card around. I don’t know that we have received many complaints by enforcing the picture id requirement. I hope that helps. Katie Kupiecki Membership Services & Development Support Air Zoo Portage, MI

We warn that additional identification maybe required on our member cards. On the front we also emphasize that membership benefits are non-transferable. Depending on the institution, these rules can be tough to enforce. Within the past two years our members now understand our policies but this doesn't mean abuse never occurs. We mail out ONE card to be used to the member or the member's spouse/domestic partner. The only exceptions are for cargivers/nannies with a note. The cardholder can visit with any combo of people (adult/child). I learned much from this forum about the scanning options and how it can be manipulated. It is of course quicker for the agent to run the card through vs looking up a person. We are going down the expensive road of membership scanning - I'll keep these points in mind - especially since we'll be hosting a very popular exhibit early 2008 - speedy entrance is key but my concerns would be with minimal abuse of the system. Regina M. Holten Membership Manager Maryland Science Center [Email Removed]

Pavla,

Would you share the experience you have had with tracking and analyzing member attendance via scanning?  Did you actually set up default actions? Our museum is also interested in starting to scan member cards upon entry at our Front Desk.  thanks!