I recently ran our year-end appeal and used quick letters, with the segment mail tab - with 3 queries setup in priority (Trustees, VIP, Donors/prospects), with output queries for each group, thus preventing duplicates.

However, I had chosen from tab 1 (General) to select Head of Household. But some of my trustees (first query) are not marked as head of household, so it skipped them and pulled their spouse, who were in lower ranking queries. Not cool.

After reviewing all the queries, output queries, data files (we're talking year-end appeal - no small task), I called support who told me there's a glitch in RE 7.5 with the head-of-household and Segment mail tab feature. However, it's fixed in 7.6 (of course).

So for those of you doing year end mailings, check all your output queries and files to make sure everything is processing correctly.

Regards,
Joe Meehan
Director of Database Administration
Saint John's Health Center Foundation
Santa Monica, Ca 90404
(310) 829-8895
[Email Removed]

Wouldn't it be nice if they notified all current users of a version when a "glitch" of this sort is realized so we are aware of it and can create a workaround. They leave it up to you to find the problem yourself - go to knowledgebase and find that someone else has already reported it. I am still miffed with the largest gift reporting incorrectly and no one telling us. I know they don't want to air their dirty laundry and let us know their list of issues with each release but my god this is our livelyhood and we need to know what does not work or else we are assuming that we are getting something we are not and not always do we have the time or staff to double check our mail outputs to be sure RE did it right! Anybody listening in SC...????? Melissa G. Melissa S. Graves Databse Administrator Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

I'm totally with you on that. I just found out a glitch using a gift query to export gifts to specific funds. It will pull the incorrect amount on split gifts and you have to use a constituent query (go figure--you'd think the gift query would work). I'm not aware of the largest gift not exporting--I haven't heard about that one. Is there a message thread on it?

I hear you, does BB. Denise Stengl All Saints Healthcare Foundation Racine, WI 262.687.2208 [Email Removed]

The problem with Largest Gift is in 7.6. The original message was in the old forum but I have the old message (pasted below) Just confirmed a bug in RE 7.6 with our Blackbaud conversion specialist. A query to return the largest gift amount for each constituent fails to return the largest gift amount. This query is a standard query that Blackbaud set up, not us, because Blackbaud provides their conversion clients with a standard set of queries to review their data and make sure it converted properly into RE (we converted from MS Access to RE 7.6). So the error is not in the design of the query, since Blackbaud set up the query. For example, a constituent record has gift records of $25, $60, and $150 (all the gift records converted are intact and correct). However, the result to the query to return the largest gift amount states that this constituent's largest gift amount was $25, not $150! This erroneous result occurred for at least 2 constituents. When Blackbaud first ran our data in 7.5, the largest gift query worked fine. However, once they ran our data in RE 7.6 they received the same erroneous query results we did! Apparently, we're the first client to report this error in 7.6. Those of you on RE 7.6 may want to check your results to queries that return the largest gift made by constituents to see if you get this problem. Melissa S. Graves Databse Administrator Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

This is a tad unfair. BB have been adverstising versions's know issues for years on their web site. Check http://www.blackbaud.com/support/otherdocs/re75issues.asp  for 7.5. They have been doing it for several versions (at least since 7.01). Those links are advertised in the User Edge issues on a regular basis, at least everytime they update it. I suggest you bookmark it for future reference.

It seems some people are saying that they have had certain problems and BB has responded that it is a problem in the program but it is not listed with the known issues. I do not know this for sure but perhaps they select and publish only the issues that they feel are major or ones that they have had multiple calls about. If this is the case, what they really should do is make known ALL issues, even if only one person has called about it. If it is a known problem in the software it should be listed. While I am sure it would be a huge task and I don't know how feasible it would be, it would be great to receive an email when a known defect in the progam is found, so you can keep it in mind before you have to find out on your own. Denise Stengl All Saints Healthcare Foundation Racine, WI 262.687.2208 [Email Removed]

I went to the known issues for 7.5 page and from it tried to find the know issues for 7.6 (my current version) and I am unable to locate it. Does anyone know how to navigate from Support to the list of known issues for each version? I am lost and I am not a novice at navigating web pages. It feels like it is a bit buried. Melissa G. Melissa S. Graves Databse Administrator Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

Melissa, I was just there. I went to Support then to Raisers Edge then to Raisers Edge 7 FAQ and there is the link for the known 7.6 issues. Denise Stengl All Saints Healthcare Foundation Racine, WI 262.687.2208 [Email Removed]

I can't fiqure out how to put a link in here but here is the address http://www.blackbaud.com/support/re7faqs.asp  Denise Stengl All Saints Healthcare Foundation Racine, WI 262.687.2208 [Email Removed]

While I agree - there is a spot on BB's website for Known issues, my posting was not to point fingers at Blackbaud - I'm a big fan of Blackbaud - their staff - and their customer service. Hey, I even go to their weekly website spot in hopes of trying to win a t-shirt. That said, I don't know that I actively search the website for known issues BEFORE doing anything major in RE - 97% of the time, things work fine. My issue that I mentioned occured when I did a complicated mailing, and while I thought I dotted all the I's and crossed all my T's - there the X factor - that there was a bug in the program which rendered an error. My posting was to alert others who might be doing any mailing (specifically a large year-end mailing), that there is this issue. I'm glad it's fixed in 7.6 - but that didn't do much to make my current situation any better. I had to explain to my boss (who will probably get a call from a trustee who receives the wrong appeal package) why this happened. My post was in hopes that YOU didn't have to do the same thing. Regards, Joe Meehan Director of Database Administration Saint John's Health Center Foundation Santa Monica, Ca 90404 (310) 829-8895 [Email Removed]