When FMAATC Membership Updater (Updater) is started there are two windows displayed.

1 – “Business Date Window” (bottom of screen) with the tab stop at the Switchboard button.

If renewals and/or new members are not being processed, pressing enter goes to the “Switchboard Window”.

Otherwise, tab to the date field and enter the business date to be worked on. Then tab to the Switchboard button and press enter.

This window remains open until Updater is closed.

2 – “Switchboard Window” with the tab stop above the buttons. Tab to the button desired and press enter. The window selected opens and the Switchboard window closes.

The “Add Window” is opened by clicking the Add button on the Switchboard, Update, or Report windows. It is used to enter new member information (including their truck information).

The business Date (entered in the Business Date Window) is propagated into the Start-Date and Renewal-Date fields. Before entering any information, verify this date is correct as the first action. If wrong, then return to the Business Date Window and correct the Business Date.

If there is a donation for the new member, then the Donation-Date must be the same as the Start-Date.

Clicking the “? ID Format” label provides a pop-up defining format information for the ID field.

The “Truck-Desc” button (lower left) provides a pop-up list of names which have been used for a given truck class. This aids in entering the Truck Description column when adding a new truck.

Enter the class (like “e”) in the Truck-Class field. Then tab and press enter to produce the list.

After the new member information is entered, the Finish Add Block is used. The member must be saved (ctrl+s), the ID is copied to the clip board, and the Update button is clicked. If all fields are valid, the Add window is closed and the Update window is opened to finish sending the member an email. The copied ID must be used to find the new member in the Update Window.

When the Update or Switchboard button is clicked, the required fields of the new member being added are verified for containing information. For any required field which is blank, error message dialog boxes are displayed which must be resolved. Click to open a PDF of an Example-Error dialog box screenshots.

Help-Link button – links to this page on d.fmaatc.org. The page opens in a new tab. The Updater remains open with the current window displayed.

Switchboard button – closes the Add window and opens the Switchboard window. If any member information had been entered, all fields are validated. Consequently, error dialogs may be displayed.

The Update window is opened by clicking the Update button on the Switchboard, Add, or Report windows. This window is used to change any member’s information (including their truck information).

When the Update window opens, the focus is on the last name field and the “Find and Replace” dialog box opens with the current last name in the “Find What” field. Use this dialog box to find a club members. This dialog box can be opened anytime by keying ctrl+f (see reminder in upper-left of the Update window).

The member ID is to be updated when the State, City, and/or last name is changed. Clicking the “? Change ID” label provides pop-up information. The ID makeup details are found under the Add Window.

FYI – After tabbing/leaving a changed ID, the member’s AA Trucks table is changed to blank. Saving the member’s changes (ctrl+s) re-populates the AA Trucks table with the new ID.

Clicking the “? Expire – Retainer” label provides pop-up information related to retaining an expired member.

Right of the Renewal-Date field is the Bus. Date (propagated from the “Business Date” window). Tabbing goes to the Bus. Date (to be copied). Tabbing then goes to the Renewal-Date so that the date can be pasted. This prevents keying errors to make balancing $’s to membership easier.

The Truck-Descriptions button (lower left) provides a report list of names which have been used for trucks. The report list is based on the truck-class entered in the field to the right of the button. This aids in entering the Truck Description column when adding a new truck. Click the “Close Preview” option on the Report window ribbon to return to the Update window.

The green “Email Block” (upper-right) is used after entering member renewal information, new member information, or other information changes. Actions are as follows:

1 – Insure Thunderbird folder fmaatc.org@gmail.com > Inbox is selected (the “Copy message to:” field is correct when any Write email is created (this saves work).
2 – Tab-to and press Enter (or double-click) the desired write email button. There are five buttons. Each button runs VBA code which saves the member and uses Thunderbird as the mail client and creates a “Write: TE10 – …. – Thunderbird” window.
3 – Complete email (if needed) and send. Note that the General Email button will require adding text.

When the desired write email button is clicked (action 2), a “Write: TE10 – …. – Thunderbird” window is created with an attached “Snapshot.pdf” file. The write window has the following:

From = fmaatc.org@gmail.com (required). If not, the drop-down is used to select this email address.

To = member’s email address (as per VBA code)

Subject = TE10 – …. (as per VBA code)

Copy message to: = “Inbox on fmaatc.org@gmail.com” or use drop-down to select it. This field is because of Thunderbird extension “Copy message to”).

Body text = as per VBA code. This can be changed before sending if desired. Note – the signature is as per the Thunderbird account settings.

The email is sent (by clicking Send). A copy of the email is saved in the Thunderbird account folder fmaatc.org@gmail.com > Inbox > TE-payments > TE10-snapshot.

FYI – A filter puts the email copy in this folder based on the email subject containing “TE10”.

The blue “Navigation Block” has the following navigation buttons (right side of window):

Help-Link – links to this page/link (https://fmaatc.org/home/membership-updater-help/#uw). The page opens in a new browser tab. The FMAATC Membership Updater Window remains open.

Report – opens the Report window. The Update window is closed.

Add – opens the Add window. The Update window is closed.

Switchboard – closes the Update window and opens the Switchboard window.

The Report window is opened by clicking the Report button on the Switchboard, Add, or Update windows. It is used to run reports and queries.

The Report and Query Buttons are at the top-left-center of the window. All buttons require parameters to be entered. Each button can be single-clicked to see the parameter requirements shown in the status bar (at the bottom of the window).

Example, a single-clicking of the “Renewal – Inserts US-Donation-No” button results in a status bar of – “Create Renewal Inserts for US, AAerType-print, Ddate Is Null or <= Low-Date, Expire = Expire-Year.“

Parameter fields are in an orange Parameters box at the lower-left of the window. Each field has text regarding the input format and usage.

Once parameters are entered, the button is double clicked and the report or query is created. 

The blue “Navigation Block” has the following navigation buttons (right side of window):

Help-Link – links to this page (https://fmaatc.org/home/membership-updater-help/#uw). The page opens in a new browser tab. The FMAATC Membership Updater remains open with the current window displayed.

Update – opens the Update window. The Report window remains open.

Add – opens the Add window. The Report window remains open.

Switchboard – closes the Update window and opens the Switchboard window.

The Purge window is opened by clicking the Purge button on the Switchboard window. It allows dead-expires to be purged from the rnn-membership.aacdb file via the Dead-Expire button.

Dead-expires are members with an expire <= -7 years from the current date. The Purge-Date field is set to -7 years from the current date and cannot be changed.

The Switchboard window is opened at database startup and is also opened via the Switchboard button on the Business Date, Update, Report, Add, or Purge windows.

The Help Link button opens the d.fmaatc.org Membership Updater Help page (i.e. this page).

Switchboard allows navigating to all other windows of Updater. Switchboard closes when any window-button is clicked (or tab/enter is used).

Updater is closed via the Close button. Also, Updater is closed via the close icon (upper right X icon).