Getting Started with CiviCRM
I just installed CiviCRM 2.2 and taking it very slow. We have a small center and currently we use paper and spreadsheets to track projects, equipment and people. I'd like to try and set ourselves for working with the Open Media tools in the long run (Merci), but in the short run here are some of my plans. (Admittedly, I haven't looked too deeply into CiviCRM - so go easy on me) Does anyone have some experience on how to approach this? I am especially interested in tracking productions (or projects or programs or programmatic activities or whatever you call them) Hopefully this is not totally backwards.
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Track and enter different people related to the organization
student volunteers (tally volunteer hours, shows initiated, special productions)
adult volunteers
organizations & groups
general viewers (supporters)
staff
board
Track Productions
who made it
who volunteered
what equipment was used
what show is it related to (a series, a special)
when did it air
how many times did it play
do we have a dvd
is it online
server id #
Resources (Equipment List)
available equipment with details including sn#, date or purchase, make & model
make equipment reservations
OM Map to your questions
Jason,
A lot of what you are asking Civi to do is related to Open Media Modules... I'll try to map things below to add a little clarity.
Quick overview of different systems working together:
CiviCRM - in charge of people, payments, certification groupings, mailing groupings and events (including classes)
MERCI - stands for Manage Equipment Reservations Checkout and Inventory - This will be in charge of all your gear.
"Projects" - is a customization of Organic Groups. It's in charge of all your projects.
OM_Show - creates specific shows, or programs, that are submitted under a project.
OM_Timeslot - interacts with your playback server to create air dates etc.
OM_BroadcastSync - interacts with your playback server to maintain either one or two-way sync to keep drupal and your server on the same page with OM_Timeslot
You can read more about this on the documentation wiki: http://groups.drupal.org/node/20341
Track and enter different people related to the organization -- CiviCRM
student volunteers (tally volunteer hours, shows initiated, special productions) -- Volunteer Hours cannot be tracked easily in any system that I know of a this point. PCM is currently looking at ways to track volunteer hours on projects but don't have a solid solution yet. Shows initiated - "Project Module." I'm not quite sure what you mean by "special productions" yet.
adult volunteers -- Civi
organizations & groups -- Civi
general viewers (supporters) -- Civi/Drupal Core
staff -- Civi
board -- Civi
Track Productions -- This can be broken into Projects and Shows.
who made it -- This will be the Project Administrator.
who volunteered -- Again, this is something that PCM is looking at incorporating into the OM_Project module
what equipment was used -- MERCI requires users to reserve equipment as part of a project so you can see this under project.
what show is it related to (a series, a special) - These would be shows related to Projects.
when did it air -- OM Timeslot
how many times did it play -- OM Timeslot
do we have a dvd -- As far as I know there isn't a tracking system for this... let me look into the best way to do this.
is it online -- Online Shows are shown in the Project where the show lives. Is this what you'd be looking for?
server id # -- I believe this would be associated with the Show but I'm not sure at the moment.
Resources (Equipment List) -- MERCI
available equipment with details including sn#, date or purchase, make & model -- MERCI
make equipment reservations -- MERCI
I hope that this adds a little clarity Jason.
-pete