Seattle CiviCRM User Training by CivicActions
CivicActions is offering training for the open source constituent relationship management system CiviCRM.
We have been deploying CiviCRM for our clients since 2005 and have extensive experience with the application. Over the last four years we have offered customized training to our clients. In 2010 are happy to offer group trainings. Gregory Heller has conducted two trainings in 2010, one in conjunction with David Greenberg of CiviCRM at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta, and the other at DrupalCon in San Francisco.
CiviCRM User Training
I'll be conducting this full day hands-on training session is aimed at non-profit staff and consultants who want to learn how to configure, administer and use CiviCRM.
The training program is equally applicable to people who are already using CiviCRM and want to become "power users", as well as people who are interested in evaluating CiviCRM for their organization or clients.
The agenda will be finalized based on participant mix. Topics may include:
- Introduction to CiviCRM - what does it do and how can it help you?
- CiviMember, CiviEvent, CiviReport, CiviMail
- Installation Overview
- Configuring CiviCRM - site preferences, dedupe rules, mapping
- reCAPTCHA, payment processors
- Using the Contribution, Event and Membership modules
- Collecting and exposing data to constituents (custom data, profiles)
- Advanced features - price sets for events, CiviMail and message templates
- Customizing CiviCRM - custom data, custom templates
- Integrating CiviCRM with Drupal, including user/contact synchronization, Profiles, Organic Groups, Views2
- Debugging - tips and tricks
- Participating in the CiviCRM Community
Requirements:
- Participants should bring a laptop
- Participants are STRONGLY encouraged to have a working installation of CiviCRM locally on their laptop
- If not locally, than on a webhost, though internet speeds at the training location will not support all participants working on their own
remote installation simultaneously. - There will be an opportunity in the week prior to the training to get assistance installing CiviCRM locally on Linux or Mac OS X
machines. CiviCRM installs in a similar fashion to other Drupal Modules, though at CivicActions we do recommend installing CiviCRM into a separate database from your Drupal Installation.
Space is limited to a maximum of 20 people in order to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to ask questions.
How much is it?
I'm not sure I need the training but I'm going to implement a HUGE Drupal site and will use CiviCRM.
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
These trainings already took
These trainings already took place, and we do not currently have any trainings scheduled. If you have never implemented CiviCRM before and you are planning for a big project that includes CiviCRM, I strongly recommend that you seek training, or collaborate with a developer/implementer that has CiviCRM experience. My company has been engaged to "clean up" many CiviCRM implementations that were started by developers who had little or no CiviCRM experience.
http://www.CivicActions.com
http://www.GregoryHeller.com
You make it sound hopeless
I'm totally depressed by your comment. Are you just trying to sell one-on-one training? We have no budget for that. These people hardly even have a budget for ME. What kinds of horrible things do people do wrong with this horrible, awful, dreadful CiviCRM? You're definitely not selling the product LOL. Do you actually think that it's so difficult to implement that only seasoned experts can even attempt it? You've kind of ruined my day. I mean, otherwise, I have to build an even registration system from SCRATCH. You think THAT would actually be better, and less work? Maybe you've just met a lot of really dumb people.
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
It is not for the faint of
It is not for the faint of heart. CiviCRM is a very robust CRM. It is not like Drupal, even though it works in drupal. I've seen many deployments that were either hacked in bad ways, or misconfigured because the implementor did not take the time to understand the software.
CiviCRM is an excellent piece of software, you just need to know what you are doing because there are some, nearly-irrevocable decisions you can make when configuring custom fields especially that will cause problems down the line if you do them wrong.
My company provides custom training and occasional group trainings. There are also now 2 books available about civicrm, one is free and available as a PDF download from the civicrm website, and the other was just released by Packt publishing.
Frankly, I have no capacity to do any trainings or any civicrm work until late july at the earliest. I recommend you get one of the books, do some reading, install civicrm on a sandbox, and test it out before you install and deploy it for a client. This is for your sake, and for theirs. I am not saying that only a seasoned expert can implement it, but it takes some planning and learning if you want to get it right and serve your client well.
If all you are doing is completely out of the box functionality so that you can use civievent, that's one thing, but rare is the civicrm project that I have worked on that wants just plain vanilla out of the box civicrm.
http://www.CivicActions.com
http://www.GregoryHeller.com
I would certainly agree with
I would certainly agree with Gregory's well-phrased and quite tactful response.
I would add, however, that I have dealt with a number of sites that did not require anything beyond simple "out of the box" features, so there is a place for that. But anything beyond that can indeed easily become messy if not done correctly. I have had to clean up botched CiviCRM sites.
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CiviHosting -- Drupal and CiviCRM Hosting Specialists -- 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Thank you Gregory and Hershel
I'm already trying to read the book from the CiviCRM site. The other book ("Using CiviCRM") looks good but I emailed and asked if they could get the book to me THIS week, if possible, and didn't get a reply. Plus the cost of that book would have to come out of my pocket. I'm trying not to order it if I don't need it yet, but it's kind of a Catch-22. The others haven't even decided to use CiviCRM, and I'm the one who introduced it as an option. I'd have to convince other people. With no support from a trainer like you for using CiviCRM, I'm left in a DAZE frankly. I never senses this level of danger. I feel like I personally will end up doing a LOT more work to come up with a substitute. I'm having trouble believing that something handmade is "safer" than this now-risky CiviCRM.
And yes it's true that there is probably a need for custom fields. Mostly the type of custom fields I'm seeing would be to allow entry of non-donors into the system and define them as "volunteers" and "coaches". I'm not seeing, immediately, andy need for custom fields in the financial areas, if that's what you mean.
Can either of you make even a quick comment on the exact or specific FORM these botches might take? How does a custom field lead to utter devastation? Is there one problem that you can state in a sentence that is the most crucial to avoid? I know you're both busy... I will deeply appreciate the possibility of specificity of the problem...
My biggest concern with CiviCRM has been trying to find a way to verify that we can take donations as securely as they are taken on the Blackbaud/Kintera site. That WAS my greatest concern. Now I have this worry about custom fields that i'm not even sure that I can predict.
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
You can make custom fields
You can make custom fields via the admin interface and that's fine. Problems come when MySQL is not configured correctly or people do weird things with the SQL by hand, or they customize core files or core template files. If you do things "by the book" you should be OK.
And the book from Packt will be with you instantly if you buy the PDF version. :)
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CiviHosting -- Drupal and CiviCRM Hosting Specialists -- 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Custom fields can be added to
Custom fields can be added to any civicrm object (contacts, donations, memberships, etc...) you need to be sure to add them to the right object.
Once you create a custom field, there are certain things you cannot change, like the field type, or what object it has been added to.
If you just need to flag someone as a volunteer, you do not need a custom field, you can use groups or tags.
No need really to flag someone as a donor, if they have a donation in the system, then you can make a smart group of anyone who has donated, viola! donors.
re security: you can set up civicrm with ssl and authorize.net (or other payment processors). civicrm does not store credit card information, but PCI compliance is a thorny issue because it has to do not only with code, bus also server environment.
oh, and you will probably get more support/help/advice if you post on the civicrm forums, as there are only a few people in seattle that work with civicrm. and FYI, i may plan a civicrm meetup for early april. stay tuned. check out the civicrm group on this site for more information.
http://www.CivicActions.com
http://www.GregoryHeller.com
Meetup- yes!
I definitely want to be part of that meetup, regardless. Sorry I'm not a good income source for you Gregory- I only work with non-profits, which doesn't help! LOL. But I appreciate your "knowledge philanthropy" because I do offer the same in my own areas of expertise.
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
Thanks Hershel. Do you have
Thanks Hershel. Do you have any experience with the contributions importer? Does it work cleanly, I wonder?
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
I'm not sure what "works
I'm not sure what "works cleanly" means but it is known to work, yes. :)
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CiviHosting -- Drupal and CiviCRM Hosting Specialists -- 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Awesome, thanks
I wasn't getting any email responses from the CiviCRM groups. I'll keep trying. You both actually are responding more quickly!
I also agree that with SSL and a trustworthy merchant account, it should be okay, right? I've been having trouble offering a recommendation of Moneris over Authorize.net. Authorize is more expensive- are they like L'O'réal? Are they worth it?
With regard to security, the server environment is my ONLY area of real confusion. I don't know how to verify that any specific web host is actually secure. Of course they will claim that. I wish there was a "test" of some sort. The security verification is something I might actually be able to get the SONC people to pay a little extra for- to really verify it. They are hoping for top dollar donors, and they have some. I don't know what "PCI Compliance" means so that's already a bad sign. :(
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com
check out
check out http://civihosting.com/, i've not used them, but they are clearly designed for civicrm hosting. you probably want to get a private vps rather than a shared host if you are concerned about server security. PCI compliance is basically a security standard, but it really hinges on getting your server environment certified, and that is not a small endeavor, and it is usually not required by most clients. you can read more via google, here is a link http://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/.
The civicrm group on g.d.o is not the most active place to find support. you are better off checking out the forums at forum.civicrm.org
http://www.CivicActions.com
http://www.GregoryHeller.com
Thanks again for the advice
Thanks again for the advice and help.
MIKO, Creative Technical Support and Developer
Miko's Support and Design Services, Seattle
http://mikosweb.com