OT MySQL web app

[Ian Stephen]

Hi all

I'm looking for a solution for a volunteer organization's member data. 
The organization has no offices, work is carried out at volunteer's
homes.  Currently the data is in Excel, exported from a previous
volunteer's StarOffice.  It's having problems with data corruption. 
There's something really wrong I think because the file, with only
200-odd members, is 6 MB.  Excel isn't that bloated is it?

I think we should go to a web-based solution so all that has to change
hands when volunteer positions turn over is a password.

Can anyone recommend something that runs on a web-hosting company's
Linux/Apache server, works with MySQL, allows a geek-deficient user to
interact with it through their web browser and meets the following
requirements...


Ian

 
Functionality required for the membership list:
 

Basic requirements:

To meet the Society Act requirements:

A simple listing of membership name, address, start and end date of
membership.

Any software or word processing software with table capability would do.
No mathematical capability required.

 

Data Input:

Simple input to meet the Society act ? line level or input screen
functionality

Expanded input to capture additional information on the application
forms or renewal form ? line level input or input screen functionality.

 

Database

Simple flat file database such as Excel is workable.

Desirable - relational database that will keep each membership update
for a member as a separate record.

 

Archiving Capability

Must ? downloadable to a CD in format viewable by others through a
software package easily available and not reliant on the Internet being
accessible.  Data must be readily available over the years.

Capability to download data into various spreadsheet formats is
desirable.

 

Monthly reporting to the Board

Sort and countif functionality.

 

Current Membership List for the Urbane Cyclist circulation:

Sorting by criteria and extraction by membership expiry date.

 

Volunteer List and Membership List by Municipality:

Sorting by multiple criteria.

 


Market research

We expanded the data in the membership list to capture information on
the members for us to understand the nature of renewal of membership,
what communication methods are effective in soliciting memberships,
volunteer interest, donation patterns, etc.

Beyond name, addresses, payment information, type of membership, the
data input includes member preferences, preferred delivery means of the
newsletter, method of joining, interest in the organization, volunteer
interest, and special programs.

 

Sorting by criteria, countif, sum, condition statements are required. 
Some of the condition statements are complex. 

 

Extracting Data from the General Ledger

Desirable but not a must.



One of the trade-offs that we need to be sensitive to is the time to
enter data and to do the extractions and analysis.