Addresses

Addresses are tied to the family, not the individual. There are several different types of addresses defined in Rock, and you can add more if you’d like. The ones that are available out-of-the-box include:

• Home
• Work
• Previous

Campus

If you’re a part of a multi-site organization, the campus is also tied to the family. Interestingly, if a person is a member of two families that attend separate campuses, the individual will be tied to two different campuses as well. This is a powerful pattern for blended families to use.

If you’re not a multi-site organization then the campus is still tied to the family, but it’s done behind the scenes. This is needed just in case a new campus is ever added.

What Makes a Person

Before we start diving into the features, let's look at what makes up a person in Rock.

There are two main sources of data when looking at a person's record. First are the common data elements that are "hard-coded" into the system. These include basic fields like First Name, Last Name, Email, etc. These fields are common to all organizations, so they have been provided from the beginning of Rock and can't be removed.

Second, since every organization is different, Rock also allows you to add new data items to a person. We call these Person Attributes. You can add as many as you like, selecting a data type for each one. Common data types include:

• Text
• Date
• Number
• Dropdown of provided values (think of an attribute of T-Shirt Size with the values of S, M, L, XL)
• Boolean (aka, True/False)
• Document

While there are quite a few other data types you can use, those are the common ones.

Over time, your list of added attributes can become quite large. To help with this, we've provided the ability to group them into categories. You'll see these attribute categories later when we look at the Person Profile page.

Adding a Person

As you’re getting started, one of the first things you’ll want to do is add someone (perhaps yourself) to the database. While it might be intuitive to look for a menu item labeled "Add Person", you won’t find one. Because people are members of families, you must start with adding a family. You’ll find that under:
People > New Family.

Deleting a Person

While it might seem like a natural thing to do, deleting a person is not allowed in Rock. Why? The history of a person must be maintained for historical records to be accurate. Think about giving and check-in. If a person was deleted, you would lose their contributions and attendance information. Instead of deleting people, you can inactivate them in the database (more on how to do this later).

Let's look at some common situations where you might want to delete a record, and how to handle them in Rock.

Scenario: John Doe no longer attends and has asked to be removed from the database.

In Rock: You can consider John removed when he has been marked inactive. This should remove him from all future email.

Scenario: You added a duplicate record and want to delete the new one.

In Rock: Instead of deleting the record you'll need to merge it with the existing record. See the Duplicates section below on how to do this.

Scenario: You added a test record and now want to delete it.

In Rock: It would be best not to add test records to your production environment. You might consider creating a test environment that you can treat as a sandbox. If you added a sample record to your database, you have two options. The first option is to inactivate it like it was a normal person. The second would be to merge the record with an existing record.

Searching By Name

To find someone in the database, start by using the Smart Search tool found at the top of every page. This tool can be used to search several different types of data, but it defaults to searching for individuals by name.

When searching by name, it's important to know some tricks to improve the quality of your search and to save time. Keep in mind that you don't need to type a person's full name to search. You can type fragments of the name. Say, for instance, we're looking for Ted Decker. Here are several suggested ways we can search for him:

t decker
te dec
decker

Notice that none of these suggestions included "Ted Decker." That would be a waste of key presses. (Useless fact: the average key on a keyboard has a life cycle of only five million presses.) Because you make fewer spelling mistakes if you press fewer keys, it's always a good idea to shorten searches.

Also, notice in our samples above that we never searched for just "Ted." If you provide only one name, Rock assumes you're searching by last name.

Once you submit your search, you'll see one of two possible screens. If only one person matches your search, you'll be taken straight to the Person Profile page for that person. However, if more than one person is returned, you'll see a list of individuals. Select the correct one, and you'll be taken to their Person Profile page.

Rock has a sophisticated algorithm that helps you find names even if you can't spel theem corectlly. You may often see other possible matches at the top of your search results.

Other Recommended Results

Searching by Phone

While not as common as searching by name, sometimes you may want to search for a person using a phone number. The Smart Search tool can also search by phone. Simply select the Phone option and type in the number.

Just like searching by name, you don't need to enter the full phone number to get results. You can enter any part of the phone number. (This is great for people who leave voicemails with rushed return numbers). If you were searching for the person with the phone number (623) 555-3322 (Ted Decker in our sample database), you could use any of the searches below to find him:

(623) 555-33
62355533
3322
555 3322

Searching by Email

Yep, you guessed it: Rock can search by email using the Smart Search tool, too. Partial searches are supported. We're sure you've got it by now, so we won't repeat the search details here.

Searching by Address

The address search is also similar to the other search types. Keep in mind, though, that it only operates on the street address portion (first line) of the address. Sample searches for Ted Decker would be:

11624 N 31st Dr
11624
31st Dr

Searching by Birthdate

You can also search for a person by birthdate. For this option to be available, it must first be enabled and configured in Admin Tools > System Settings > Search Services.

Searching by Group Name

Much like searching by name, you can also search by Group Name using the Smart Search tool. You can type a specific name to locate a particular group (i.e., "Alisha Marble's Small Group"), or use a general term, such as "student", to display a list of all groups with that term in the name.

Searching by Business

You can search by business name using the Smart Search tool as well. Partial searches are supported.

Universal Search

The Smart Search capability in Rock is quite powerful, but sometimes you may need more. That's where Universal Search comes in. Universal Search allows you to search multiple types of data at once in a full-text manner. In a sense, it's like Google for Rock. To learn the ins and outs of Universal Search, check out the Universal Search guide.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

The Smart Search and Universal Search features should meet your needs in almost every case. If you need to search with even finer detail you can write a quick Data View to find the person. See the Taking Off with Reporting guide to learn more.

Bio Bar

The Bio Bar gives you details and contact information about the individual. Here's a breakdown of this section.

1 Photo

If a photo is available, it's shown here. If no photo is available, a gender/age appropriate silhouette image is shown. Clicking the top left corner of the photo will add the individual to your following list.

2 Labels

Labels are a quick way of categorizing a person's involvement. After installation, the following labels will be active on the page, but you can add custom

• Connection Status: Member, Attendee, Visitor, Participant, Pending.
• Campus: Which campus the member's family attends. This label isn't shown if you only have one campus.
• Record Status: This label is only shown if the record is Inactive (e.g. they are no longer attending).

3 Tags

Tags are a handy tool for creating simple groups of people. Tags are so useful that they have their own chapter.

4 Demographic Information

This includes age, gender and marital status.

5 Contact Information

This section contains phone numbers and email addresses. Note that if the phone number has SMS enabled you'll see an icon made up of two speech balloons. Also, if this page is loaded on a mobile device, the phone numbers will appear as links to enable 'Click-To-Call'.

6 Email Address

Clicking the email address will launch a new communication to the individual. You may also see icons next to the address noting the individual's email preferences. If they have asked to not receive bulk emails you'll see a . If they have asked not to receive any emails the address will not be a link and the icon will be displayed.

7 Actions

The action list allows you to launch workflows for the individual. See the Blasting Off With Workflows manual for details on creating custom actions for your organization. More details on the Photo Request action can be found in the Photo Request section below. This list is also where you can download a person's vCard, or virtual business card, to store on another device, such as the contacts on your cell phone. Rock automatically generates a person's vCard based on the contact information provided on their profile.

8 Edit Link

The edit button allows you the edit the person's personal and contact information, as well as gives you the advanced option of combining their giving with another person's.

9 Social Media Icons

The icons of any social media accounts that have been configured in the person attributes and completed for the individual will appear below the photo. For more information about configuring and editing a person's social media information, see the Extended Attributes Tab section below.

Badge Bar

The next section is what we call the Badge Bar, with icons (i.e. badges) indicating a person's activity. While Rock comes preconfigured with several badges, you can add more. For more information on badges, including how to create new ones, see the Badges chapter below.

1 Attending Duration

The Attending Duration badge shows you how long the individual has been a part of the organization.

2 16 Week Attendance

The 16 Week Attendance badge will show how many times the family has attended (e.g. checked in children, serving team participation) over the past 16 weeks.

3 Family Attendance

This chart gives you a wider picture of the attendance patterns over the last 24 months. Each bar represents one month. The taller the bar, the more often the family attended that month.

4 Assessments

If the person has completed any assessments the results can be seen here. For more information, see the Assessments guide.

5 Baptism Badge

The Baptism Badge shows if the individual has been baptized.

6 Serving Badge

The Serving Badge shows if the person is a member of a serving team.

Family Bar

The next section outlines the individual's family or families. The Family Bar lists each family member's name, age and Person Profile page link, along with an address and editing link for each family.

The address section of the family bar has a couple of interesting features. Clicking on the to the left of the address will bring up an interactive map. Also, when you roll-over the address a will appear to the right. This icon will standardize and geocode the address when clicked.

Tabs Bar

The lower area of the page is devoted to subsections, with tabs that are visible according to your security level. We'll talk about each one below.

Person Profile Tab

The first tab is the Person Profile, with notes and key attributes. Let's break each of these areas down.

Extended Attributes Tab

The next subsection of the Person Profile page contains all the added attributes, grouped by category. Only attributes with values are displayed. To add or edit the value of an attribute, just click the button in the category header.

1 Category

Attributes are grouped into categories to help order and manage them.

2 Category Header

Each category has a header with a name and optional icon.

3 Reorder Button

Those with 'Administrate' access to the attribute block can re-order attributes by clicking the button, then dragging the attributes into the desired order.

4 Edit Button

To edit the values of the attributes in a category click the button in the header.

As you create new groups of person attributes, you'll want to be sure you keep this page updated. See your administrator for help.

Steps Tab

The Steps subsection lets you view and manage steps for the person. For full details on Steps, check out our Engagement guide.

Groups Tab

The Groups subsection displays a timeline of the person's history with groups, as well as a grid view of all the groups the person is involved with. The grid lists important facts like the type of group, the individual's role in the group and the date they were added to the group.

Schedule Toolbox

The schedule toolbox displays three tabs that intertwine with the group scheduler. Each person will have their confirmed and requested schedule, their preferences and a sign-up tab.

My Schedule shows the person's confirmed and requested schedule. This same information can also be seen if that person is signed-in on the external site under My account > Schedule Toolbox.

An internal staff member can set a person’s schedule preferences, or the person can set their own preferences and sign-up for events using the sign-up tab from the external website.

Learn more about the group schedule toolbox and group scheduling in the Rock Your Groups guide.

Contributions Tab

This subsection shows the contributions made by the individual (or family, if combined as a family) and any repeating giving profiles that they have. Staff members can be granted access to create new recurring giving profiles or edit existing ones from this page.

Benevolence Tab

Those with access to view benevolence information will see a Benevolence tab on the Person Profile page. The requests shown here are summarized for the entire family.

For additional details related to benevolence, see the Rock Solid Finances guide.

Security Tab

Rock takes security very seriously and offers several ways to protect both information and people. The Security tab is one location where you can view and access Rock's security settings and data.

History Tab

The History tab includes such things as:

• Communication History - A list of all the communications that have been sent to the individual.
• Attendance History - A list of all the events and services the person has attended.
• Person History - A list of all the changes that have been made on the individual record. This screen is helpful identifying what was changed and who made the changes.
• Assessment History - A history of assessments that have been taken and/or requested.
• Documents - A list of all the signature documents associated with the person.

Family Members

First, add the individuals to the family. Completing this section should be fairly easy, but remember these points:

• Only use these fields to add individuals to the family who are not already in the database. If you know that one or more of the individuals are already in the system, just add those who are not. After the family is saved, you can then edit the family and add the existing members.
• Note the marital status selection at the top of the list of family members. This allows you to set the marital relationship of the adults in the family. These options are Defined Values so you can rename them or add additional options. You can read more about editing Defined Values in the Admin Hero Guide.
• The Grade field will only be shown when you're adding a child.
• Additional addresses (work, previous) can be added after saving the family.

Campus and Address

The final step in adding a family is to select their campus and add their home address. Additional addresses can be added to the family after it has been saved.

Add Family Block Settings

You can customize which options you want to display in the Add Family block by customizing the block settings.

1 Name

Enter the name you want to give the block. The default is 'Add Family'.

2 Group Type

Select the group type to display groups for. The default is 'Family'.

3 Parent Group

Select the parent group to add the new group to. The default is 'None'.

4 Show Title

Select 'Yes' to display a dropdown menu of titles.

5 Show Nick Name

Select 'Yes' to show an edit box for Nick Name.

6 Show Middle Name

Select 'Yes' to display an edit box for Middle Name.

7 Enable Common Last Name

Select 'Yes" to autofill the last name field when adding a new group member with the last name of the first group member.

8 Default Connection Status

Select the default connection status. If this is not set, the new family member will inherit the same status as the family member who is adding them.

9 Show Suffix

Select 'Yes' to display the person suffix field.

10 Gender

Select whether gender should be required for each person added.

11 Birth Date

Select whether a birth date should be required for each person added.

12 Child Birthdate

Select whether a birth date should be required for each child added.

13 Grade

Select whether a grade should be required for each child added when the group type is Family.

14 Show Inactive Campuses

Select whether inactive campuses should be shown.

15 Require Campus

Select 'Yes' to make a campus required.

16 Marital Status Confirmation

Select whether a confirmation message should be displayed when saving an adult without a marital status and the group type is Family.

17 Adult Marital Status

Select the default marital status for adults when the group type is Family.

18 Child Marital Status

Select the default marital status for children when the group type is Family.

19 Address

Select whether to require an address for the family.

20 Location Type

Select the type of location that should be used for the address.

21 Show Cell Phone Number First

Select whether the cell phone number should be listed first before the home phone number.

22 Phone Number

Select whether a phone number should be required for at least one person in the family.

23 Adult Phone Number

Select whether a phone number should be required for each adult added.

24 SMS

Select whether SMS should be enabled for cell phone numbers by default.

25 Attribute Categories

Select the Person Attribute Categories to display attributes from.

26 Workflows

Which workflows to launch when family added.

27 Person Detail Page

Select the page to navigate to after the family has been added. {GroupId} and {PersonId} can be included in the route. Leave blank to go to the default page of ~/Person/{PersonId}.

28 Enable Alternate Identifier

If set to "Yes" you can manually enter a custom identifier for each person when adding the family.

29 Generate Alternate Identifier

When this is set to "Yes" an alternate identifier will be generated automatically for each person.

30 Detect Groups already at the Address

If there is already a family (i.e. group) at the address provided, then you can have the system detect it and alert you. You will then be able to use an existing group instead of creating a new one.

31 Max Groups at Address to Detect

Use this feature to reduce the number of existing groups you'll be presented with when adding a new family to an address in use by other groups.

Select which options and default settings you want to display and click Save.

Want Even More Info?

For many, the family entry screen will be just what the doctor ordered. Some organizations, however, may want to capture additional information about the family. The good news is you can have both!

The block settings of the Family Entry block include a setting for configuring attribute categories. When you pick one or more categories, the Finish button at the bottom of the page changes to Next. After filling out the family information and selecting Next, you'll see an entry form for the first attribute category you selected. Completing this form and pressing Next takes you to the next attribute category. This will continue until you've entered information for each attribute category. On the last screen, you’ll see the Finish button.

The following example shows this process with the Education and Visitor Information attribute categories set.

1Next

With the additional attribute categories added, the Finish button is renamed to Next. Clicking Next will bring you to the phone number and email page. Clicking Next again will take you to the first attribute you’ve added to the block settings.

2First Category

After clicking Next from the phone number/email page, the first attribute category, Education, is displayed.

3Next or Previous

Navigation buttons are present to step either forward or backward.

4More Information

The remaining attribute category, Visitor Information, is displayed next.

5Finish

Since this is the final attribute category, the Finish button is back.

Duplicates Happen

To help reduce the number of duplicate records, Rock will display a listing of possible duplicates for individuals added to the family.

1 Possible Duplicates

You'll see a warning message indicating that you may be adding a duplicate record into the system. This page is skipped if no duplicates are detected.

2 New Record

The "New Record" is listed to the left, for comparison against existing records on the right.

3 Possible Duplicate Records

Existing records that may be duplicates of what you're trying to add are listed here. This allows you to view details related to the existing record, to determine whether you should proceed.

4 Do Not Add Individual

Click this button if you've determined that the record you're trying to add already exists and should not be added.

5 Continue With Add

If you've determined the record you're adding is not a duplicate and should be added to the system, then you can proceed by clicking this button.

For more information about duplicates in general, check out the Duplicates chapter below.

Overview Section

The top section of the page allows you to edit the family's name, campus and record status. The family name is used as a title for the family.

Since a person is tied to a campus through the family unit, this is where you would change the campus for all members of a family. If you only have one campus then the Campus field won't be visible.

While the Record Status is typically set on a specific person, we know you’ll sometimes need to change it for a whole family at once. When you mark the family Inactive, you’ll be asked to provide a reason. Like inactivating an individual, this helps the organization understand why groups of people are leaving and helps the next person who looks at this specific record understand why this change was made.

Keep in mind that marking the family Inactive will also inactivate each member of the family. The individuals in the family will also be made Inactive in any groups to which they belong.

Family Members Section

The next section allows you to manage the members of the family. To add a new person to the family, click the Add Person button in the header. This will allow you to either select a person who's already in the database (say you're building a blended family) or add a new person (common if you're adding a new baby).

You can also move a family member to a new family. This is commonly done by some organizations when a child turns 18. We’ll discuss this more in the Recommendations for Life Events section.

When you add an existing person to a family, you’re given the option of removing them from other families. If this is a blended family situation with joint custody, you’ll probably want to keep them in their current families. But, if the child is transitioning families, you’ll most likely want to remove them from the first one.

When an existing person is a member of more than one family a small delete button will appear, which allows you to remove them from the family.

Addresses Section

This final section lists all the current and past addresses for a family. Several different address types can be attached to a family. Ask your administrator for help with adding new address types if needed.

When a family moves, it may be tempting to simply change the home address and save the record. Instead, you should click the Family Moved button. This will automatically move the home address to a previous address and start a new home address for you. Having a previous address is very helpful. When someone moves there’s a period of transition when both addresses could be floating around (online form submissions, checks, etc.) Having both addresses in the system helps staff understand the transition. This also helps reduce the chance that someone would change the new address back to the old. Trust us, it happens!

Age

Rock calculates an individual’s age by comparing their birthdate to the current date. Why make things more complicated than they need to be?

Age Classifications

In Rock, an Adult is anyone over the age of 18 or marked as an adult in one or more families. A Child is anyone less than 18 or a child in all families. If either of those conditions aren't met, the individual is marked as Unknown.

Rock calculates age each time a person is saved and re-calculates it every time the Rock Cleanup job is run. The value is then saved in the Age Classification property on the Person model, where it's made available to use in Data Views, Reports and other filtering operations.

Grade

Rock calculates grade based on an individual’s graduation year and the global attribute Grade Transition Date. When an individual’s graduation year is entered into their Person Profile, Rock compares that year to the Grade Transition Date to determine the individual’s grade. You can configure the Grade Transition Date in the Global Attributes screen, located at Admin Tools > General Settings > Global Attributes.

Primary Family

Individuals belonging to more than one family will be assigned a primary family. This is recorded behind the scenes as the Primary Family ID and is initially associated with the family that was entered into Rock first.

Because it’s stored behind the scenes, you typically won’t see the Primary Family ID. However, on the Person Profile page, the primary family will be whichever family is at the top of the list for the individual. So, you can change the primary family by clicking and dragging the icon for the desired family to the top of the list. While the Primary Family ID isn’t visible, behind the scenes it will be updated in real time according to your changes on the Person Profile.

Where Duplicates Come From

Duplicate records happen - period. It’s important that your organization understands why they occur and has a process to eliminate them by merging duplicate records.

There are two main ways duplicate records are added to the system. The first is by a staff person or volunteer using the internal site. Before you add someone to the database, it’s important that you make sure they haven’t already been added. Even if you’re certain the person or family is new, it’s always a good idea to double check.

The second way duplicates are added to the system is from activities (e.g. contributions, event registration, connection requests) on the external website. While Rock tries to limit the number of duplicates that are created, sometimes there isn’t enough data to know for sure.

At other times a duplicate is created for security reasons. Rock has to be very careful not to allow someone to "hijack" a record. This would allow a person to create an account as another person and gain visibility to their contact and contribution information. In these cases, Rock will create a duplicate record so that a staff person can double-check that the activity is normal before performing a merge.

Finally, it's important to understand that the amount of "friction" you decide to place on people using the public website can affect the number of duplicates generated. For example, you can attempt to limit the number of duplicates created by requiring individuals to log in for things like online giving and event registration. However, this means people will have that extra "friction" of needing to log in. On the flip side, you may choose to not require logins for these things on the web site (thus "low friction"), in which case Rock will attempt to match to an existing person based on Name and Email...but if Rock doesn't find such a match, a new (often duplicate) record will be created.

How Rock Avoids Duplicates

As people are added to Rock, the system will try to look for existing records that might be a match before creating a new record. This logic is used anywhere a person could be added, with very few exceptions. For instance, if you use the REST API, this scoring is not done because a developer may not wish to use it.

When an attempt is made to add a new record, existing records are evaluated and assigned a score based on the logic shown below. If a new record has the same first and last name as an existing record, with nothing else in common, then a score of 30 points (15 + 15) would be assigned.

• First Name or Nick Name = 15 points
• Last Name = 15 points
• Mobile Phone, Email or both = 15 points
• Last Name doesn’t match, Previous Name matches = 12 points
• Month and Day of birthdate = 10 points
• Suffix = 10 points
• Year of birthdate = 5 points
• Gender = 3 points

If an existing record scores higher than 35 points it’s considered a match (and possible duplicate) of the new incoming record. If multiple existing records score higher than 35 points, then the record with the highest score will be selected as the match. If there’s a tie, then the “first” record (typically the oldest) will be selected.

Merging Records

While Rock will continue to pioneer new ways to prevent duplication, it will continue to happen (though hopefully at a reduced rate). So, let’s learn how to merge duplicate records.

The first step in merging records is to search for the individual who has a duplicate record. Type the search criteria into the Smart Search field at the top of the page. When you get your results you can check the records that are duplicates and click the icon in the list's footer.

1 Select Records

First select the records you wish to merge.

2 Click Merge

Next, click the icon at the bottom of the grid.

On the merge screen you’ll see each record side by side, as pictured below. Near the top of the block you’ll see a person picker (under “Add Another Person”) that will allow you to add additional records that are also duplicates to the current record. This is necessary if you can’t select both duplicate records from a single search (perhaps one of the names is spelled wrong).

The first thing you'll want to do on this screen is pick the master record. This is the record that the others will be merged into. Then, look at each row and ensure that the correct value is selected. If a value isn’t correct on the master record you can chose to select the data from one of the other records.

If you don't have permission to view an attribute that has a conflicting value, you'll receive the warning message pictured in the screenshot above, near the bottom of the page. If staff members responsible for merges shouldn’t have access to attributes outside of a merge context, we recommend using the “View All Attributes” Security Verb as pictured below. Roles or individuals with this access will be able to view any attribute values associated with the records being merged, and can select the value to keep, but will not be able to view those attributes in other contexts (like the Person Profile) without additional security.

When you’re done, click the Merge Records button and you'll be taken to the Person Profile page of the merged master record.

If two records exist with the same name but different email addresses, Rock will display a hijack warning message near the bottom of the page. After the records are merged, the person will be required to confirm their email address the next time they log in. The Reset Login Confirmation option comes configured out of the box, but you can disable it in the block settings of the Merge People screen.

If you don’t have Edit access to the merge block you’ll see a message noting that your request to merge a person has been saved. This Merge Request will be listed under Tools > Data Integrity > Merge Requests. Out of the box Rock only allows the members of the RSR - Data Integrity Worker to complete merges.

Death of a Family Member

The death of a loved one is a very hard thing. It’s made even harder, though, when the remaining person is constantly reminded of their loss. When someone notifies your organization about a death, we suggest taking the following steps:

1. Mark the individual’s record as Inactive with the reason of Deceased.
2. Move the deceased individual to a new family by clicking the button from the Edit Family page.
3. Remove all contact information from the record.
4. Add a note to the deceased person marked as Alert with the text of "Deceased" and the date they died.
5. If married, create a Previous Spouse relationship back to the spouse. It's generally best to leave the surviving spouse as Married as a matter of respect unless they indicate otherwise.
6. Don’t forget to talk to your finance department about how to deal with regular contribution records. We recommend that the contributions assigned to the deceased person be moved to the surviving spouse. This can be done from the Person Profile page.

Divorce

Before making these changes, be sure to discreetly get as much information about the family situation as you can. This will ensure you get the information right and not create an awkward situation in the future.

1. From the Edit Family screen, click the icon for one of the adults to move them to a new family.
2. Depending on the custody status, you may want to ensure the children are in both families. To do this, find the new family and add any children to it, without removing them from their current family.
3. Create a Former Spouse relationship to both adults.
4. Update phone and address information.
5. Add any name changes on the Edit Individual screen (under Advanced Settings).
6. Update the Marital Status for both individuals.

Marriage

After the wedding, you'll want to complete the following steps.

1. Go to the primary record (usually the husband or person with the primary address).
2. From the Edit Family screen click the Add Person button and select the individual from the database, removing them from their current family.
3. Update the female’s title to "Mrs."
4. Update both adults’ marital status to "Married."
5. Add the anniversary date, if known.
6. Add the wife's maiden name as a previous name on the Edit Individual screen (under Advanced Settings).

Child Turns 18

When a child reaches adulthood it’s a good idea to move them to a new family, even if they are still living in their parents’ home.

1. From the Edit Family screen, click the icon.
2. Create Parent relationships back to the parents.
3. Update the individual’s status from Child to Adult.

You can use the notes to document the reasons for the changes. While it may seem obvious now, it won’t in a couple of weeks, especially for the next person who views the records.

Pre-configured Badge Types

Rock comes with several badge types pre-configured and ready for you to use. That said, be sure to see the Defining a New Badge section below to learn how to set the badges up and add them to a person's profile. While some of these badges are pre-installed and already visible for you when you first log into Rock, other badges exist as a badge type and will require you to configure and add them before they are visible.

Alert Note Badge

This badge displays when a note for the person exists that's marked Is Alert. This is helpful when you want to highlight at the top of the page that an important note should be read below. This badge has the following settings:

• Note Types - Determines which note types to consider as alerts
• Badge Content - The HTML to display when an alert note exists

Assessments

This badge displays assessment information. The individual icons within the badge will be filled in with color if the assessment has been taken. You can hover over the badge to see a summary of results, from the following assessments:

• Conflict Theme
• EQ Self Aware
• Motivators
• DISC
• Spiritual Gifts

There's so much to know about assessments in Rock that we gave it its own book. Check out Assessments for all the details you'll need.

Attending Duration

Showing all states (new, in weeks, in months and years.)

The Attending Duration badge shows you how long the individual has been a part of the organization. Using the First Visit person attribute it calculates the time span that the person has been attending and then summarizes it by either weeks (if less than 8), months (if less than 24) or years. If the person has started attending in the last week it shows the value as New.

Person Signal Type

The Person Signal Type badge shows how many and what type of Person Signal Types are assigned to an individual. To learn more about Person Signal Types, see the Person Signal Types chapter below.

Personal Devices

The Personal Devices badge shows how many devices Wi-Fi Presence has detected for the individual. Clicking on the badge will take you to a screen where you can view all the devices linked to the individual. From there, you can select a specific device to view all the visits that device has made to your organization’s Wi-Fi network.

16 Week Attendance

It’s often useful to measure how often a family attends. This information will be displayed on the 16 Week Attendance badge. The top bold number is the number of times the family has engaged (e.g. checked in a child, served) in the last 16 weeks.

You'll find that the graph shifts a bit as you look at the various individuals in the family. On adult records the graph shows a summary of all the individuals in the family. A child's record shows just their check-in events.

Family Attendance

While the 16 Week Attendance badge gives you a concrete metric, the Family Attendance badge gives you a wider picture of the attendance patterns over the last 24 months. With this chart, each bar represents one month. The taller the bar, the more often the family attended a weekend service that month. This chart gives you an excellent picture of the attendance trend.

The bar graph on an adult will aggregate attendance for the whole family, while child records will only show attendance for the specific child.

Baptism Badge

Showing enabled and disabled state.

The Baptism Badge shows if the individual has been baptized, using the Baptism Date person attribute. If the person has been baptized, the water droplet will be bright and the rollover text will show the date of the baptism. If they haven’t been baptized yet, the droplet will be light.

Serving Badge

Showing enabled and disabled state.

Similar to the Baptism Badge, the Serving Badge shows if the person is a member of a serving team. If so, the clock is dark. Otherwise it's light.

eRA Badge

This badge shows the eRA status of the current person. See the Person And Family Analytics chapter for more information on this badge.

Labels

Label types on the Person Profile page.

Each label in the Bio Bar indicates a separate badge. These badges show:

• Connected Status: Shows the individual's connected status in green.
• Campus: Shows the individual’s campus in purple. This is hidden if only one campus exists.
• Record Status: This label only shows if the person is marked Inactive.

Last Visit On Site

The Last Visit on Site badge displays the number of days since a person's last visit to a selected site. If the person hasn't visited the site it won't be displayed. The badge can be configured to link to a page that displays the visitor's sessions and pages that they visited. Rock comes installed with this badge configured for the external site.

Defining a New Badge

You define new badges under Admin Tools > General Settings > Badges. Here you'll see a list of currently configured badges.

When you add a badge you’ll provide it with a name, description, entity type and badge type. You can choose to associate the badge with any entity, like a person or a group. The entity type you choose will affect the badge type options available to you. Some badge types require additional configuration.

Let’s look at each badge type and how it can be used.

Adding Badges to The Person Profile Page

Once you've defined a new badge the next step is to add it to the Person Profile page. From this page click the button in the Admin Toolbar. This will display a block properties button for each block on a page. Hover over the badge container block that you wish to add a badge to and select its button. Finally, check the badge you wish to add to the container and press Save.

Your Tags vs. Our Tags

There are two types of tags in Rock, personal tags and organizational tags. Personal tags are only seen by the creator, while organizational tags are viewable by everyone in your organization. When you create new tags, they are created as personal tags by default, so they can only be seen by you (and your system administrator). Your administrator can promote personal tags to organizational tags upon request. When they are promoted, they keep all the people tagged, so it’s a good idea to get started with a personal tag.

Viewing Tags

To view all the individuals in a specific tag, go to People > Tags.

The Tag List page displays all your tags with the option at the top to switch between personal and organizational tags. Clicking on a specific tag will display all the individuals in the selected tag. You can also manage the individuals within a specific tag by adding or removing them from the list here (as opposed to using the person profile for each person individually). If you want to filter tags even further, you can select a type from the Type dropdown menu near the top-right of the block.

Administrating Tags

Tags can be managed by an administrator under General Settings > Tags. The two most common reasons to administrate tags is to delete tags that no longer serve a purpose and to promote personal tags to organizational tags.

Administrators, or those with tagging rights, can also secure tags, limiting who can view them. Add security by clicking on the button in the tag's detail screen. This applies only to organizational tags, since personal tags are already limited to the tag creator and administrators by default. For more information about security settings, see the Securing Rock chapter of the Admin Hero Guide.

My Settings

Every person has a My Settings page on the internal site. This is a place where each person can manage their Rock settings. Pictured below is a listing of the settings available. Note that many plugins install new pages here, so your options may appear differently.

My Dashboard

My Dashboard is a central location for you to review all your assignments and open requests, as well as followed groups, items and suggestions.

1 My Tasks

This is a list of workflows that are active and currently assigned to you.

2 My Connection Requests

This is a list of connection requests that are active and assigned to you.

3 Following List

Click this button to view or manage the people you’re following.

4 Followed Groups

This is a list of the groups that you're currently following.

5 Followed Items

Rock allows you to follow several types of entities. Here you'll find a list of all the items you've chosen to follow.

6 My Open Requests

This is a list of open workflows that you've initiated.

My Profile

This is simply a quick link to go directly to your Person Profile page.

Connection Status

The Connection Status helps categorize a person’s relationship to your organization. While many organizations will want to modify these options, the following statuses are available immediately after installation.

It's up to your organization to determine the needed connection statuses. These statuses can be modified by an administrator under Admin Tools > General Settings > Defined Types > Connection Status.

Record Types

Record types help Rock add some capabilities to track certain types of entities within the database. There are four record types included after the install:

• Person: A person record
• Business: A business record
• RestUser: A Rest User (API)
• Nameless Person: An unknown person (see Nameless People)

For the most part, it won’t make sense to add additional types unless you’re adding new functionality by writing plugins.

Record Status

The record status gives you an idea of the state of the relationship between your organization and the individual. Each option included by Rock is discussed below:

• Active: Denotes an individual who is actively participating in the activities or services of the organization.
• Inactive: Represents a person who is no longer participating in the activities or services of the organization.
• Pending: Is used by the system to mark a record that needs to be verified before becoming active. This state is often used when someone registers on-line to allow a staff person to confirm the new individual and check that it isn't a duplicate record.

You can add your own record statuses, but realize that some of the features of Rock assume that the values provided have a certain meaning. Consider using connection statuses rather than record statuses if you need to track a person’s status in a more detailed way.

Inactive Reasons

When someone is marked with the Record Status of "Inactive" it’s a good idea to determine the reason. The system comes configured with the following reasons.

• No Longer Attending
• No Activity
• Moved
• Deceased

It’s simple to add more, so by all means feel free to add your own.

Marital Status

You also have the option of adding additional martial statuses to Rock. The defaults are:

• Single
• Married
• Unknown

Hopefully these cover it, but if not, then adding them is easy.

Phone Types

We’ve chosen to release Rock with a limited number of phone type options, allowing you to add others that make sense to you. The default values are:

• Home
• Mobile
• Work

Titles

The following titles are available in Rock: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Dr., Rev. and Cpt. Feel free to add more to your liking.

Suffixes

The following suffixes are available: Jr., Sr., Ph.D., II, III, IV, V and VI. Should you have a VII or VIII, you can add them yourself.

When to Use Person Attributes

Person attributes should be used anytime you want to store the characteristics of an individual. There are a couple of situations when a person attribute may not be the best fit though. Ask yourself these questions before you add a new attribute:

• Is there already a common person element or person attribute that exists? You’d be surprised how many duplicate attributes get created.
• Is the attribute related to a specific group? If so, consider making it a group member attribute instead.
• Is this attribute really needed? While there are many interesting things you could track about an individual, you should ask yourself if the data item is helpful to your mission. You don’t want to get overwhelmed with the number of attributes you create.
• Will I be able to keep this attribute accurate going forward? If the value of the attribute changes over time you should ask yourself if you’ll be able to keep it up. Inaccurate data is often worse than no data at all. For instance, tracking a child’s height might be interesting but impossible to keep accurate. Even if it’s accurate, there’s no way for a person to verify it.

Managing Person Attributes

Person attributes are managed from Admin Tools > General Settings > Person Attributes. Each element of the person attribute is discussed in detail below.

Securing Person Attributes

The list of person attributes on the screen above also gives you the ability to secure person attributes so only a limited number of people can view and/or edit them.

Displaying Person Attributes

Person attributes can be viewed and edited from any tab on the Person Profile page. This is done by adding the Attribute Values block to a zone and setting it to display a specific category of person attributes. This is very flexible because a person attribute can belong to more than one category.

To add a new block to a zone use the Admin Toolbar at the bottom of the page. There you'll use the to bring up the Zone Editor which will allow you to add a new block. For more information on the content management features of Rock be sure to see the Designing and Building Websites Using Rock.

Public Person Attributes

While it’s useful for your staff to see and edit person attributes from the Person Profile page, sometimes you may want to let people update their own attributes. For example, if you need to ask questions of people who are interested in serving, you can create person attributes for these questions and then use the Person Attribute Forms block on your external Rock site to prompt people for the answers to those questions. This block can be used to display any combination of person attributes and allows the person who’s logged in to fill out their own values. See the Adding Content to Rock section in the Designing and Building Websites Using Rock book for more details on that process.

Basic Usage

Once you’ve added the Person Attribute Forms block to a page, you can configure the forms and fields for it to display. Think of forms as pages that a person will navigate between using Next and Previous buttons. The fields are the person attributes to display on each form. Open the blocks edit page to create the forms and select the fields. You can give each form a title to be displayed, and optionally add any header or footer HTML content to each form.

1 Display Progress Bar

If you are going to configure this block with multiple forms, you can optionally have a progress bar displayed at the top of each page that gives a visual indication to the individual on how far along they are in filling out the forms.

2 Save Values

This determines when the values for each field are saved. They can either be saved after each page (when the person clicks Next) or at the end of all the forms (when the person clicks Finish).

3 Workflow

You can configure the block to automatically launch a workflow after the individual has filled out all the forms. For example, you may want to launch a workflow that sends a notification to a staff member, and/or perhaps sends a thank you email to the person who filled out the form.

4 Done Page

In addition to sending a workflow, you can also pick another page on your website that people should be sent to after they have filled out all the forms. This could be a page that has an HTML block with a thank you message.

5 Forms

One form is added by default, but you can add additional forms by clicking the Add Form button at the bottom. To add Fields to a form, click the button. This will display the Form Field dialog.

When adding a field to a form, there are several options for each field that can be set.

1 Person Attribute

This one’s obvious. Select the person attribute that you’d like to display on the form.

2 Use Current Value

Check this box for the individual to be able to see what their current value is for this attribute. If you don’t check this box, the person won't see the current value, and if they don’t enter anything, it will get updated with a blank value.

3 Required

Check this box for the individual to be required to fill out a value for this person attribute.

4 Pre-Text/Post-Text

You can optionally enter any text or HTML to be displayed before or after the field. This is useful if you want to highlight certain fields or group them in a special way. This may take some HTML knowledge to pull off correctly, but it’s not required.

Viewing Family Attributes

Family attributes display on the Family Bar of the Person Profile page. You'll note that attributes that are marked Show in Grid will always be displayed. Attributes not marked in this way will be displayed when the icon is clicked in the upper right of the family bar.

1 Attributes

Attributes marked Show in Grid will always be displayed.

2 Edit Family

You can update the family attributes (as well as other family information) by selecting the icon.

The icon will appear here only if there are family attributes with Show in Grid disabled. When present, the icon can be clicked to view those attributes.

Adding Family Attributes

Since families are simply a group type in Rock, you'll add family attributes in the Group Type editor under Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types.

eRA – Estimated Regular Attender

Wouldn’t you love to know each and every one of your regular attenders? Get a reminder every time a new one showed up and another when someone left? Well, without divine intervention, that’s just not possible today. With all the data in Rock, though, we can make a decent prediction of a regular attender. This is what we call eRA (no… not Earned Run Average… Estimated Regular Attender).

Viewing the Analytics

Person Profile Page

Most of the information will be viewed on the person's Profile Page, specifically the Extended Attributes tab. Let's take a look.

Security

By default all these values are viewable by the RSR - Staff Workers and RSR - Staff Like Workers. You can adjust the security of each of these attributes under Admin Tools > General Settings > Person Attributes.

eRA Badge

The state of the person's eRA can also be seen on the badge bar. The eRA badge has 3 states.

• Is eRA: The person currently is an eRA
• Was Recently eRA: Was an eRA but exited the eRA criteria in the last 30 days.
• Is Not eRA: Does not meet the eRA criteria. This badge is simply blank.

eRA History

It's possible that a family can start and stop being an eRA multiple times. To help you see this type of activity we log each time a person enters and exits the eRA status on their history (Person Profile > History Tab).

eRA Workflows

Would it concern you if someone who has had regular activity in the past suddenly becomes irregular? Of course it would! You’d probably want to be notified or send them a communication, right? Well we’ve thought of that for you. The Family Analytics job can be configured to launch a new workflow (you’ll still need to create the workflow) anytime a family enters or exits from being an eRA. To help simplify your workflow, the job will pass in the following information:

A couple of things to think about as you configure your workflow:

• If the family doesn't have any adults configured, no workflow will be launched.
• Remember the "e" in eRA stands for Estimated. It's not perfect. If you have a communication as a part of your workflow, be sure not to make any assumptions. It's possible that they are still attending but are not giving or having kids check in. Try to make the tone of your communications more of a "Just checking in…" instead of "We miss you…"

See our Blasting Off With Workflows guide for more information on workflows.

Calculating the Analytics

All these measures rely on the Family Analytics job to be enabled and scheduled to run regularly. This job is available for you out of the box but isn’t automatically enabled. To enable it, simply go to Admin Tools > System Settings > Jobs Administration. From there you can select the Family Analytics job and activate it. You'll also want to consider when and how often it's set to run.

The job can also be configured to launch workflows when a family enters or exits the eRA status. See the eRA Workflows section for more information on these settings.

Let's look at all the settings of this job in detail.

1 eRA Entry/Exit Workflows

Use these fields to select which workflow should launch when someone enters and/or exits eRA.

2 Set Visit Dates

When enabled this will enter the first and second visit person attributes. The logic for this is fairly complex as it doesn't only look at attendance; the job also considers when the person record was created. This prevents the system from adding a date to a record that has been around for a while (the case of an adult who has been attending and then has a child which becomes the first attendance).

Creating A New Relationship Type

Known relationships actually use groups to store their values. Each person in the database has a hidden group that contains all of the individuals with whom the person has a relationship. When you configure known relationships, you’re really configuring the Known Relationship group type.

To add a new relationship type, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Group Types editor Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types and select the Known Relationships group type.
2. Open the Roles section and add the new relationship role.
3. Save the group type
4. Optional: If your relationship has an inverse relationship (grandparent <-> grandchild), you can automate the creation of the inverse relationship by editing the role you created and selecting the inverse relationship. In order to pick the inverse, you must first create the relationship roles and save the group type. Then you can go back and edit the inverse types.

When adding a new relationship you can decide if this type of relationship should allow an individual to check-in the other. For instance, you may decide that grandparents should be allowed to check in their grandchildren.

Photo Upload

When the individual clicks the upload link in their email, they'll be taken to the page below. This page is under External Homepage > Supporting Pages > Photo Upload but it isn't linked into the website.

The link they use to get to this page has an embedded security token that allows them to upload their photo without having to log in.

The block on this page has a couple of settings you can use to alter its behavior. These settings include:

• Allow Staff: This setting allows staff members to change their own photos. Some organizations may not want staff to update their photos as they have standard staff photos they'd like to keep consistent. The default value for this setting is false.


• Include Family Members: This setting will allow the individual to upload photos for their whole family from their link. The default value for this setting is true.

Bulk Requests

The easiest way to get a large number of photos into the system is to use the bulk photo request option. You can make these requests under Admin Tools > Communications > Send Photo Requests.

This screen allows you to send an email to a selected list of people asking them to provide a photo for the system.

1 Role

Indicate if requests should go out for adults, children or everyone.

2 Age

If you allow requests to be sent to children, you can provide a minimum age.

3 Status

Select the Connection Statuses you'd like to use as a filter. If none are selected, then the request will go to individuals with any status.

4 Exclude

It's not helpful to request a photo from someone who already has one in the system. This feature allows you to exclude those who have a photo newer than a set number of years.

5 Test

It's often a good idea to send yourself a test email to see what the recipients will be sent.

6 Send

When you're ready, click Send.

After clicking Send, the individuals will receive an emailed request to upload their photos. The contents of this email can be modified under:
Admin Tools > Communications > Communication Templates > Photo Request Template.

Individual Requests

Bulk requests can help you populate your database with a large number of photos, but sometimes a personal request is needed. From an individual's Person Profile page you can quickly request a photo under:
Actions > Photo Request.
This will launch a short workflow entry screen that allows you to type in a personal message to the recipient. Rock will add some instructions and links to your email to enable the upload process.

Verifying Photos

While it's highly unlikely, it's possible that someone could upload an inappropriate image. To help filter these out, Rock has a photo verification process. When a person uploads a photo, it's immediately available for viewing. At the same time, it's also added to a list to be manually verified. This list can be found under:
Tools > Data Integrity > Photo Requests > Verify Photos.

1 Show Verified Photos

By default this screen only shows photos that need to be verified. Checking this box will show all photos, even those that have already been verified.

2 Select All

Checking this box will select all the records visible on the list.

3 Photo Records

Photos that have been submitted are listed here, along with details of the person.

4 Status

You can check the current status of the photo.

5 Verify

After selecting photos to verify, you must click Verify.

Photo Opt-Out

When an individual asks to be opted out of receiving future requests for photos, they are sent to the opt-out page which is located under:
External Homepage > Supporting Pages > Photo Opt-Out

They are also added to an application group called Photo Request with a member status of Inactive. You can view and manage this list under:
Tools > Data Integrity > Photo Requests > Photo Request Application Group

To remove someone from the opt-out list, simply remove them from this group.

Following an Individual

The first step is to identify people you know. You can do this by clicking the Following link (star) in an individual's photo on their Person Profile page.

Bulk Following

Don't forget our friend, the bulk update tool. Bulk updates also allow you to add or remove a list of individuals from your following list.

Viewing Those You Follow

You can view a complete list of the people you follow under Login Status > My Settings> Following (the login status can be found in the top-right corner of the page). From this list you can manage the people you follow and remove any that may have been accidently added.

Engaging Following

OK, now that you’re following people, let's use this data to build better connections. Following a person means you have a special interest in that person; that you care about what's going on in their lives. So, wouldn't it make sense that you'd want to know when it's their birthday or wedding anniversary, when they're joining a group or better yet that they were recently baptized? Rock makes this a snap!

You can configure what types of notification events you're interested in under My Settings > Following Settings (found under the login status in the upper-right corner). Here you can see a list of all the events you can be notified of.

Every day, Rock will determine if anyone on your following list has the configured notification events and will send you a personalized email of the results.

Rock Administrators can even set up new types of events that will be displayed here. But more on that in a minute.

Configuring Following Events

Rock ships with several following events, but it's easy to set up additional ones yourself. You can manage these events under Admin Tools > System Settings > Following Events.

To add a new event, click the from the bottom of the grid.

1 Name

Provide the name of the event. This will also be used for the title on the email so it's best to use a plural form of the word like Birthdays.

2 Active

Indicate whether the event is currently active.

3 Description

Provide a brief description of the event.

4 Event Type

Indicate the type of event you're configuring. Choose from the following options:

• Person Anniversary
• Person Baptized
• Person Birthday
• Person First Attended Group Type
• Person First Joined Group Type
• Person History

Person History is an advanced tool that can be configured to provide powerful following recommendations. To learn more about this option, see the Person History Following Event section.

5 Notice Required

We’ve already seen how people can choose which events to receive notifications for by changing their Following Settings. The “Notice Required” option means that individuals will always receive notifications for this event, and cannot opt out from their Following Settings. Sometimes they should be given the option; other times you know what's best for them.

6 Send Weekend Notices on Friday

No one wants their birthday to be missed because it's the weekend. This setting allows you to send notifications for events that will occur over the weekend on the Friday before.

7 Notification Format

This is the Lava that will be merged into the email for each event. You'll probably want to copy/paste this from one of the standard events but feel free to modify it to meet your needs.

Person History Following Event

The Person History following event is an advanced setting that gives you the option of being notified when there are changes to a person's history, such as a change in their membership or marital status. As with other following event types, you can configure any number of specific events which people can subscribe to and receive notifications for. Let's look at how to set up the Person History following event option.

1 Name

Provide the name of the event. This will also be used for the title on the email so it’s best to use a plural form of the word (e.g. Birthdays instead of Birthday).

2 Description

Provide a brief description of the event.

3 Event Type

Indicate the type of event you're configuring. In this case, Person History.

4 Notice Required

This setting defines whether the follower gets to choose if they will receive this event. Sometimes they should be given the option; other times you know what's best for them.

5 Send Weekend Notices on Friday

No one wants their birthday to be missed because it's the weekend. This setting allows you to notify events that will occur over the weekend on the Friday before.

6 Active

Indicate whether the event is currently active.

7 Fields

This is where you specify which fields in the history data to monitor. Separate multiple items by a comma. Keep in mind that when viewing the fields in a person's history data, status changes are formatted as: 'Modified FIELD value from OLD to NEW'.

8 Max Days Back

Indicate the maximum number of days back to look at a person's history.

9 Negate Person

Use this setting when you want to trigger events only when it is NOT the specified person making the change. This sets the Changed By person match to NOT a person.

10 Person

This allows you to filter by the person who changed the value. This is always an AND condition with the two value changes. If the Negate Changed By option is also set, this becomes an AND NOT condition.

11 Matches Both

If enabled, requires a match on both the Old Value and the New Value. This equates to an AND comparison, otherwise it equates to an OR comparison on the values.

12 Old Value

This is the value to be matched as the old value, or leave blank to match any old value.

13 New Value

This is the value to be matched as the new value, or leave blank to match any new value.

14 Notification Format

This is the Lava that will be merged into the email for each event. You'll probably want to copy/paste this from one of the standard events, but feel free to modify it to meet your needs.

Let's look at an example of why and how you might use the Person History following event option.

Say you have a care ministry that helps people who are recently widowed. You can use the Person History following event to make sure those working in that care ministry are alerted when a person's marital status changes from 'Married' to 'Widowed'.

To track this change, you would create a new Following Event set with the basic information: Name, Description, Event Type (Person History) and Notification Format. Then you'd set the following options to capture the change in marital status:

• Fields = Marital Status
• Match Both = Yes
• Old Value = (blank)
• New Value = Widowed

These settings will cause a notification to be sent whenever a person's Marital Status field changes from any value to 'Widowed'.

This is just one of many uses for the Person History following event. You can see what a powerful and useful tool it can be.

Following Suggestions

Knowing who to follow can turn into a fulltime job if you let it. But why? Rock can do the work for you. Administrators can set up suggestion criteria under Admin Tools > System Settings > Following Suggestions.

Rock ships with two suggestion types: In Group Together and In Followed Group. You can see how these types can be used in several different ways. You can even add your own suggestion types with a little bit of light development.

To add a new suggestion type, click the button at the bottom of the grid. This will bring up the page pictured below.

1 Name

This describes the suggestion and will be used as the title in the daily suggestion email that’s sent out.

2 Active

The suggestion must be Active in order to be used.

3 Description

A brief description of the suggestion can help clarify its purpose or intent.

4 Suggestion Type

Select the type of suggestion that’s being configured. As noted above, two suggestion types are shipped with Rock.

5 Reason Note

A brief message that's shown to the individual, describing why the person is being suggested to them.

6 Reminded Days

The number of days to wait before notifying the person of this suggestion again if they haven't followed the suggestion. Leave it blank if the person should never be reminded.

7 Auto-Follow

This setting will turn the following 'suggestion' into a ‘requirement’ for following. In other words, the person won’t be given the option to follow the individual, it will automatically follow when a new person is added to the group.

8 Suggestion Type Settings

Note that each suggestion type will have its own setup options. The sample pictured above shows the In Group Together settings. The next section below is a guide to what these settings mean.

9 Notification Format

This is the Lava that will be merged into the email for each person being suggested. You'll probably want to copy/paste this from one of the standard suggestions but feel free to modify it to meet your needs.

Dual Family Approach

When parents have dual custody and both parents are involved with your organization, you may wish to use the dual family approach. In our example below Ben and Sarah Jones divorced a couple of years ago. Both have joint custody of their son Brian. Sarah went on to marry Jim Simmons. This is one way to set up these two families.

In this example Brian, the child, is in both families. He is still one record in the database, but he is a member of both families. This approach has some details you should know about.

• In reporting, Brian will be listed as a single record. However, if your reports list families, this pattern will add two families to the results.
• Brian can be checked in using either family’s contact information.
• Mailings will be sent to both home addresses.
• A report showing the parents of Brian will list out Ben Jones as well as Jim and Sarah Simmons. Each family will be listed as separate rows on the report.

Single Family with Relationships Approach

In the single-family approach the children of blended families are only connected to a single family and relationships are used to link them to other individuals (e.g. for check-in).

This approach may be preferable in cases where one parent has sole custody or if the other family doesn't participate in your organization. In this approach, reporting and most other features act just like a typical family. Check-in can be allowed by other individuals using the relationship of Can Check-in.